Once a hip-hop capital and the genre’s centrifugal force, Atlanta’s rap scene has seen a decline and become a fractured community since the sprawling YSL RICO trial.
Offset joined New York Times’ Popcast on Thursday (Nov. 12), during which he explained why he stood by Gunna after the “Fukumean” rapper faced allegations of snitching once he reached an Alford plea deal in the YSL RICO case in 2022 to regain his freedom.
The decision caused a rift with some of his previous close collaborators like Young Thug and Lil Baby, who haven’t worked with Gunna since.
“He ain’t told on nobody,” Offset stated. “We from the town. I done been through the cap internet storm of people wanting you to show that you’re down… I’m not a follower, I rock with who rock with me. I rock with who I rock with. If I fall off, I don’t want you to say, ‘F me.’ I done been through stuff and seen peers like, ‘I’ma get away.’”
He continued: “We partners. We friends… All that bull divided our city and it made each artist pay for it. The difference is Atlanta, we got unity… There was always things going on between the artists in Atlanta. There’s always politics. We always showed unity. I look at how I got on, Thug got on, everybody got on the same train. And it only worked because of the unity.”
Offset recruited Gunna to join him on his GMFU album cut “Spit Propane,” which arrived on Friday (Nov. 13). The Migos rapper wants to see Atlanta hip-hop’s scene unified once again like it was when the ATL trio rose to stardom in the mid-2010s.
“I just really wish we was all just unified because we ran the whole hip-hop scene. Now it’s a gap. It ain’t no real city running hip-hop, which makes hip-hop drain and lose its powers,” he added. “You killing your own product.”
Quavo got wind of Offset’s rant and posted to his Instagram Story on Thursday, calling for Thug to work things out and reconcile with his YSL mentee, Gunna, for the betterment of ATL.
“We all family @thuggerthugger1 we all some playas,” Quavo wrote. “We gon fix it or lets hit.”
However, Thugger quickly replied with an explanation that, from his view, he wasn’t the one who broke the relationship with Gunna.
“How Uma fix some shit I didn’t break qua?” Thugger wrote. “I been a real man since day one, no n—a on this earth can tell u I lead then wrong or f–ked them over.”
Young Thug and Gunna haven’t collaborated since Thug reached a plea deal in the YSL RICO case and was released in October 2024. Gunna hasn’t spoken out about where their relationship stands either, as it seems to be icy on both sides.
Thug made an appearance on Lil Baby’s Fresh album standout “All My Partnas,” which was released earlier in November. Baby has also distanced himself from Gunna since the case.
Watch Offset’s Popcast interview below. Talk about Gunna takes place around 36:45.
