In this file photo taken on Feb. 10, 2019, US rapper Young Thug performs during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California. A sprawling gang conspiracy trial involving US rapper Young Thug is expected to begin on Jan. 9, 2023, with prosecutors alleging the Atlanta artist’s record label to be a front for a crime ring. ROBYN BECK / AFP

NEW YORK—A rap vanguard essential to the Atlanta scene that’s for years been the genre’s nerve center, Young Thug is one of contemporary hip hop’s most famous, most idiosyncratic figures.

The artist’s arrest last May on racketeering charges rattled the community the 31-year-old came up in, as he and 27 other alleged street gang members were swept up in a sprawling RICO indictment.

State prosecutors allege the chart-topping artist born Jeffery Williams is the founder and head of YSL, or Young Slime Life, an affiliate of the Bloods street gang.

But defense attorneys assert that YSL is nothing but a record label and family of artists known as Young Stoner Life—the same name of the label Young Thug founded in 2016 as an imprint of 300 Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.