Akon sat down with DJ Vlad to discuss the incarcerated ATL artist.
Young Thug attends the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center, Singer Akon attends the 2016 BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Akon feels it’s over for Young Thug’s career if the rapper cooperates in his RICO case. On Sunday (Nov. 13), Akon sat down with DJ Vlad to discuss the Atlanta rapper’s future in Hip-Hop and what would happen if he played too friendly with federal officers to guarantee his safety.
“The question is [whether] he is willing to cooperate to save himself and his family,” Akon said bluntly. “Is he willing to take that mud in the face?”
“He has to decide whose life is more important — their life or the people he’s trying to impress. Being known to the world as a snitch is the biggest embarrassment in the world,” he continued.
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Later in the interview, the Konvict Muzik head honcho, who previously said that Thug’s music wasn’t a reflection of his character, articulated his sympathy for the Punk rapper.
Akon shared what he believed to be the best option for Thugger: to do whatever it takes to see his family again, even if that means he wouldn’t be a Hip-Hop artist anymore. The “I Wanna Love You” crooner then expressed that while rap fans wouldn’t rock with a snitch, genres dominated by white people wouldn’t care enough to stop listening to him.
“His career will be over. It will be over. If he does do music, it ain’t gon’ be Hip-Hop because Hip-Hop, they will cancel him,” the singer born Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam asserted. “The good thing about him is he’s so talented this ni**a could do pop music or country.”
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“Them white folks don’t know nothing about what’s going on in the streets. They don’t give a f**k. So he would have to switch genres altogether to even have a chance, but Hip-Hop? Forget it.”
As of Tuesday (Nov. 15), Young Thug, née Jeffery Lamar Williams, remains incarcerated after several of his bond attempts have been denied. Williams, 31, was arrested in May 2022 a part of a RICO case against his YSL collective, which has been charged with being a “criminal street gang.”
While the trial is expected to begin on Jan. 9, 2023, Fox 5 Atlanta reports that the trial could be delayed by two months. According to the outlet, the D.A. requested the delay because some of the men indicted still don’t have legal representation.
“A continuance to the final week in March would protect the speedy trial rights of those who have asserted those rights, while also ensuring that the additional eight defendants have properly prepared appointed counsel,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in her motion.
Watch Akon’s sitdown with DJ Vlad below.
