"What's Poppin', Slime?"
Lil Wayne continues to be a prominent topic of discussion in this trial.
Quick stats
Witnesses who have testified: 34 (of roughly 400 witness for the state), still
No. of days Trontavious “Tick” or “Slug” Stephens has testified: 5
No. of songs played in court: 2
“Pushin P” (for the defense to show Thug making a “P” with his hand to show that it’s different from a “B”)
“Lifestyle” (the judge did not allow the defense to play this song in front of jurors during Stephens’ testimony, but might revisit this being introduced to them at a later date since Birdman and Rich Homie Quan will potentially testify later in the trial.)
My assessment
While the prosecution failed to produce useful information from Stephens previously, this week’s testimony was much more useful to them.
Reminder: There’s no court during MLK week.
Witness Testimonies
Trontavious Stephens aka Tick/Slug
Relevancy: Stephens accepted a plea deal to one count of conspiracy to violate RICO in this case last year, during which he admitted that YSL is a gang that he co-founded.
Read notes about his testimony last week here.
Stephens continued to be evasive when asked certain questions. At one point, Love asked if everything members of YSL rap about is fictional. “They can rap about the amount of money that they have and I don’t know the amount of money they have,” he replied.
During cross-examinations by Brian Steel, Stephens said he had once been upset with Thug for lyrics that falsely suggested Stephens robbed women. Other times, Stephens said, Thug’s lyrics took credit for crimes that Stephens had done.
The witness said Thug might have rapped about ROC Crew, but it would’ve been early in his career. (During cross-examinations, Stephens also admitted he parted with ROC Crew because he was unhappy with leader Quinton “Big Boo” Porter, which seems to confirm what the state’s gang expert previously said about members being unhappy that Porter had spoken with police.)Referencing the convo last week where he said he was a founding member of YSL, the music label, but was not actually involved in the company’s business, Stephens said he doesn’t get paid by YSL enterprises.
When asked who in the courtroom was a member of YSL, the gang, Stephens said “All of them.” He then proceeded to confirm several members by name, including Miles Farley, Martinez Arnold, Derontae Bebee, Damekion Garlington, Kenneth Copeland, Antonio Sledge, Antonio Sumlin and Jimmy Winfrey. (Several of these people were in the initial indictment and have taken plea deals or are expected to testify later in the trial.)
While on the stand, Stephens confirmed that members of the gang refer to Thug as “King Slime” or “Spider.”
Young Thug’s clothing line, Spider, came up as the rapper sported a yellow sweater from the brand. The “i” in “spider” was replaced by a “5” on the clothing. Love asked Stephens if “5” had any relevance to Bloods and he said yes (after initially trying to attribute the number to slain rapper JuiceWRLD).
Stephens also said green and red were the primary colors of the gang.Stephens admitted to selling drugs at two locations on Cleveland Ave. “My approach was to make it known that YSL was selling drugs and willing to protect selling the drugs with the firearms,” he said.
During a cross examination by Brian Steel, Stephens once again discussed he and Thug being inspired by Lil Wayne. When asked whether or not Thug sounded like Lil Wayne, the witness said “[Thug] tried not to but, yeah.” At one point, Steel tried to reference the song “Look At Me Now” by Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes to showcase Lil Wayne’s use of the word “slime.” (Wayne raps “what’s poppin', slime” at one point during the song). Stephens said this was a “newer” song, though, and not the Lil Wayne song he got the phrase from.
Later, Steel showed a photo of a shirtless Lil Wayne to depict 5 five-point, red stars similar to the ones prosecutors accuse Thug of using to show a Blood affiliation.Stephens agreed that gang culture is a part of pop culture, but some of the specific references Steel tried to introduce weren’t successful. Stephens wasn’t able to recall Lebron James wiping his nose or using the word “slime,” nor Serena Williams crip walking at Wimbledon. (““I don’t watch tennis,” he said, eliciting chuckles.)
One of the more successful moments of Steel’s cross involved the reading of a Instagram group chat between Thug, Stephens and others. Namely, Thug and others were discussing the diamond Lil Uzi Vert had placed in his forehead just before and after the rapper sent the message “YSL rule the rule kid. 24m on a nigga head.” This suggests that Thug was talking about the diamond (which was rumored to be worth $24 million) and not an attempt to take a hit out on anyone.
In another instance, Thug jumps in and makes the comment “yall ain’t beat him up or shot em yet? Yall niggas getting soft” after one of the group chat’s members was being criticized for revealing that Stephens was unfaithful to his girlfriend. Of course, Steel has suggested that Thug’s statement was not literal in this context.
Steel showed a photo posted by the late Donovan Thomas referring to Thug as “Lil Bra” in the year prior to Thomas’ death.
Addressing the state’s allegation that Thug rented the car used to kill Thomas, Steel had Stephens describe how frequently Thug rented cars for friends without asking questions. “It’s a drawer in his house with all the keys in it. I don’t even ask, I just grab one,” Stephens said of borrowing the rapper’s cars. Stephens said he and other didn’t have credit cards so Thug would rent cars for them and did not ask questions regarding what they planned to do with the vehicles.