Gunna has returned with his first new song since being released from jail last December — and it finds him going on the offensive.
Released on Friday (June 2), “Bread & Butter” hears the Atlanta rapper address all the commotion over the last six months surrounding his controversial plea deal in the ongoing RICO case against Young Thug’s Young Slime Life (YSL) collective, who prosecutors allege is a criminal street gang.
Over a sparse, speaker-knocking beat from Turbo, Omar Grand and Cam Griffin, Gunna hits back at those who’ve labeled him a “snitch” for pleading his way out of the high-profile case, and suggests he was tricked by lawyers and the Fulton County District Attorney into taking a plea deal.
“Fuck I pay the lawyers all those mills for?/ Just so I won’t have to say a word to dodge a railroad,” he raps, before maintaining he didn’t cooperate: “Never gave no statement or agreed to take no stand on ’em/ On whatever you n-ggas on, then trust me, I’ma stand on it/ Lawyers and the D.A. did some sneaky shit, I fell for it/ On my Ps and Qs because this time, I be prepared for it.”
The DS4Ever hitmaker also warns his haters that he can have them “hit” and seemingly pledges his allegiance to Young Thug, rapping: “Never fucked a n-gga, always stayed solid/ Kept it real with n-ggas, never lied and always stay honest/ Love my bro so much, I never change on ’em/ Hunna Wunna goin’ do the work, bring you the damn profits.”
Gunna’s lyrical darts become more targeted towards the end of his first verse when he appears to take aim at his Drip Harder collaborator Lil Baby for switching up on him, and even accuses him of being in business with a snitch.
“Peepin’ shit, I’m seein’ n-ggas fall back/ You bitch-ass n-ggas got me as the topic of the chat/ You switched on me when you know you in business with a rat/ And the boy that’s like your brother, and nobody speak on that,” he spits.
“The city see it clearly if I had to state a fact/ You still fuck with a n-gga that done got yo’ partner wacked/ Had these n-ggas talkin’, only knew ’em ’cause of Slatt/ You rap boys need more streams, heard he put my name on wax.”
Gunna appears to be referencing the recent allegations against Lil Baby’s label boss, Quality Control Music co-founder Pierre “P” Thomas. Last month, alleged paperwork surfaced stating that Thomas had fed information to the police back in 2010 over the murder of a close friend.
The QC mogul vehemently denied the allegations. “I’m a [G.O.A.T.], don’t ever confuse me with a [rat],” he wrote in part on his Instagram Stories. “Now take that fraudulent incident report and stick it up y’all ass. I love my freedom so stop playing with it.”
Lil Baby was also one of several rappers who appeared to unfollow Gunna on Instagram following his plea deal.
As for the “you still fuck with a n-gga that done got yo’ partner wacked” line, rumors suggest Baby’s friend and collaborator Lil Marlo was killed by an affiliate of 21 Savage, who the 4PF rapper is on good terms with.
Gunna’s venomous rhymes could also be aimed at his “What Happened to Virgil” cohort Lil Durk, who seemingly dissed him on an unreleased song and put him on blast for “telling” on Young Thug in a recent interview with Akademiks.
“You should’ve went in there and kept your mouth closed,” Durk said during the conversation. “If you a rat, I fucking hate you ’cause I love Thug.”
Gunna (real name Sergio Kitchens) accepted a plea deal in the YSL RICO case just before Christmas and was subsequently released from Fulton County Jail, where he’d been locked up for roughly seven months.
He pleaded guilty to a single racketeering conspiracy charge via an Alford plea, which is “a formal admission of guilt towards charges in criminal court while the defendant simultaneously expresses their innocence toward those same charges,” according to Cornell Law School.
Gunna has come under particularly intense scrutiny due to a video of him admitting that YSL is a gang in court during his plea deal. Legal experts say his plea — and those taken by other co-defendants — makes Young Thug’s fight for freedom an even bigger uphill battle as prosecutors seek to paint him as the ring leader of the crew.
Thugger remains behind bars awaiting trial on eight charges, including conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and participation in criminal street gang activity, along with various drug and weapons offenses.
Despite the intense backlash, Gunna and his legal team have repeatedly denied that he snitched on Thug and his fellow YSL defendants.
“While I have agreed to always be truthful, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way,” the rapper said in a statement following his release from jail.
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