State Champ Radio Atlanta
Page: 4
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty
The Young Stoner Life saga just got even more interesting. Another associate has taken a plea deal but says Young Thug paid him to get low after a murder.
As per XXL Magazine, the YSL court drama continues to escalate. On Wednesday, Dec. 29 Antonio Sledge, aka Mounk Tounk, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the RICO Act and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Prior to the plea District Attorney Adriane Love detailed all the criminal acts Sledge was accused of doing.
“Defendant has been a member and/or associate of YSL since 2012…While associated with YSL and to support and express loyalty to YSL, defendant and co-defendant Garlington and Zachary appeared in a video with another person where defendant brandished a weapon used in a drive-by shooting,” Love said. The attorney also added that Young Thug gave him and other associates money to keep a low profile after a murder was committed on behalf of YSL.
As part of his plea deal, prosecutors recommended he serve 15 years probation. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he will have to submit to random drug screenings, not be in possession of guns at any time and and commit no criminal acts. He also has to adhere to a strict curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. unless he is working, attending school or needs medical attention. Lastly, he is not to have any communication with his co-defendants. Two other defendants, Derontae Bebee and Tenquarius Mender, have rejected plea deals.
The YSL RICO trial is expected to commence in January.
Photo: Nikko Lamere
Rapper Lil Durk is no longer facing criminal charges in Georgia over a 2019 shooting in downtown Atlanta, after prosecutors said they were choosing not to pursue the case.
In a court filing reviewed by Billboard, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office told a state judge that it would exercise “prosecutorial discretion” to drop the charges against the Chicago rapper, whose real name is Durk Derrick Banks.
“The facts of this case have been reviewed and, although it appears that probable cause existed for the defendant’s arrest, the decision of the District Attorney at this time is not to prosecute,” the DA’s office wrote in the filing, made Oct. 17 in Fulton County Superior Court.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment from Billboard.
Durk, 30, surrendered to Fulton County authorities in May 2019 on charges that included attempted murder. Prosecutors said Durk and the late rapper King Von were involved in a shooting that February near the popular Atlanta restaurant The Varsity, which left a victim with a non-fatal gunshot wound to the thigh.
At the time, the Chicago rapper declared his innocence. “Once I heard, I immediately came back,” he told local outlet WSB-TV. “I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to run from.” Durk also released a track in an attempt to clear his name: “Look up at the judge, can’t look, stay makin’ up lies for sure/ I’m a innocent man for sure, it is what it is for sure/ Nobody gon’ ride, had a warrant so I can’t hide.”
Von (real name Dayvon Daquan Bennett) was later killed in a shooting at an Atlanta nightclub. He was 26 at the time.
Durk’s attorney, Manny Arora, did not return a request for comment from Billboard on Monday (Oct. 24), but in a statement told WSB-TV, “While it took three years for the State to make the right decision, in the end the right decision was made and Mr. Banks can finally put this event behind him.”
There’s a killer on the loose in this week’s episode of Atlanta.
Titled “Crank Dat Killer,” the season’s sixth episode revolves around Soulja Boy’s 2007 hit single and dance craze “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” That song, which earned the rapper his first and only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, is played at the very beginning of the episode — just before Young Thug’s “Tick Tock” is heard over the opening credits. Later, when Earn reveals that the eponymous Crank Dat Killer — a serial killer operating in the Atlanta area — preys on people who have previously recorded themselves dancing to the song, Al remembers that he, too, made a video to the hit and could be the killer’s next victim. He then calls Soulja Boy, whose cameo is backed by the rapper’s 2021 song “Whip It,” to ease his nerves.
Meanwhile, Earn and Darius try to buy a sold-out pair of sneakers from a local reseller who it turns out is not interested in taking their money. K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life” soundtracks that encounter, as the two men put aside their dignity for the shoes.
As Atlanta has evolved, music synchs have played a big role in the overall scene-setting of the show. Throughout the seasons, music supervisors Jen Malone and Fam Udeorji have chosen a variety of songs by old and new artists from various genres including OutKast, D4L, Gunna, Troye Sivan, Dua Lipa, Kodak Black, Jennifer Lopez and many more.
Atlanta airs on FX Thursday nights at 10 p.m. and is available to watch on Hulu the following day. Check out all of the songs used in season four so far below.
Episode Six, “Crank Dat Killer”
Soulja Boy, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”
Young Thug, “Tick Tock”
Soulja Boy, “Whip It”
K-Ci & JoJo, “All My Life”
Episode Five, “Work Ethic!”
Anita Baker, “Sweet Love”
Janelle Monae, “I Like That”
Little Simz feat. Obongjayar, “Point and Kill”
Coco & Clair Clair, “Wishy Washy”
Episode Four, “Light Skinned-ed”
Dorothy Norwood, “Somebody Prayed For Me”
Chicago Mass Choir, “God Is My Everything”
Yolanda Adams, “The Battle is the Lord’s”
8Ball & MJG, “Top of the World”
The Ebony’s, “I’ll Try”
The Chi Lites, “I Want to Pay You Back (For Loving Me)”
Fivio Foreign & Polo G, “Bop It”
Gil Scott-Heron, “Save the Children”
Episode Three, “Born to Die”
Megan thee Stallion, “Money Good”
Al Green, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”
Kodak Black, “Let Me Know”
Episode Two, “The Homeliest Horse”
Ciara, “Ooh Baby”
Japanese Breakfast, “Kokomo, IN”
Young Stoner Life, T-Shyne, Lil Keed feat. Big Sean, “Warrior”
PinkPantheress, “Attracted To You”
Rick James, “Cold Blooded”
Episode One, “The Most Atlanta”
Chief Keef, “B—h Where”
Deborah Cox, “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here“
Pell, “Tew Much”
Sly & The Family Stone, “Runnin’ Away”
iHeartMedia Atlanta president Drew Lauter has departed the radio giant after video surfaced of the executive using racial and misogynistic slurs. The national radio conglomerate confirmed to Billboard on Friday (Oct. 14) that Lauter was no longer with the company, stating, “allegations of this nature go against our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously.”
The videos – provided to the local news station WSB-TV Atlanta, which first reported the news – shows Lauter repeatedly telling the driver, a fellow iHeartMedia executive, to “run over n—os” and using other racist language in front of two other iHeart employees, one of whom filmed the incident. According to attorneys Jason Castle and Roosevelt Jean, who are representing the client who filmed the incidents, the videos were recorded in August 2021 after a charity event.
In two videos, Lauter can be heard repeatedly using racial and sexist slurs and groping a male coworker while stating, “you better give me that t-tty.” Castle and Jean’s client – who is a top-ranking Black iHeart executive in the Atlanta region – claims to have reported the incident to his immediate supervisor at the time. He informed his attorneys that this was not the first instance of Lauter using racially insensitive language in front of employees.
In a statement provided to Billboard, an iHeart spokesperson said, “As soon as [the videos] were brought to our attention we acted quickly, retaining an outside investigator to conduct a thorough review, and when we received the outside investigator’s findings we immediately took decisive action.”
“From our client’s perspective, this isn’t about our client,” Castle tells Billboard. “It’s that this particular video is a representation of the hostile work environment and the discriminatory and racially insensitive, as well as sexually harassing environment that existed in the iHeart Atlanta offices.”
iHeart employees were reportedly informed of Lauter’s departure on Thursday, the same day the WSB-TV investigative report aired.
Castle says his client has not filed any legal action against iHeart or Lauter.
