Young Thug Seemingly Claims He Bought His And Gunna’s Album Chart Spots In Leaked Jail Calls

9:58 AM EDT on September 3, 2025

Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

|Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Young Thug hasn't released much music since he was finally freed from jail after his years-long RICO trial ended late last year, and his long-teased album Uy Scuti still hasn't come out. Right now, Thug is at the center of the rap conversation not for his music but for a series of leaked audio snippets, which are supposedly recordings of Thug's jailhouse interrogation and his phone calls from jail. In one of those leaks, Thug seemingly claims that he bought a #1 album chart spot for his estranged protege Gunna. In another, he seems to try to do the same thing for himself.

In 2022, just before Young Thug and Gunna were arrested as part of the same RICO case, Gunna's album DS4EVER unexpectedly debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart, beating out the Weeknd's Dawn FM. Thug and Gunna fell out after Gunna reached a plea deal during the RICO trial. After he was freed, Thug tweeted "I don’t know you my guy" at Gunna. On Sunday, as HotNewHipHop reports, DJ Akademiks posted a leaked phone call in which Young Thug seemingly discusses his long-brewing issues with Gunna and claims that he bought the #1 spot for DS4EVER, paying 50,000 for fake streams.

During that audio recording, Young Thug reportedly says that Gunna demanded $20 million for a new record deal:

I told him, like, whatever you want, just say it I'm gonna give it to you, the money, whatever you want. Just on some we brother shit. Like, I know you can't go nowhere in this world and get no $20 million check from no label. You not doing numbers like that. You all right, but you ain't doing it like that. You know?  Like, the #1 album you just had right now, I paid for you to have the #1 album.  You didn't honestly earn a #1 album over the Weeknd, my boy. I paid for that shit. I never said anything to him.  I never told him that, you know, because I just got -- we just got the plug on it. Like, you never earned a #1 album.  I spent 50 extra grand buy a motherfucking stream, $50,000 buying streams for you.

Young Thug says he spent $50K on fake streams aka (K-BOTS) on Gunna’s ‘DS4EVER’ for it to debut at #1 over The Weeknd’s ‘Dawn FM’ pic.twitter.com/bRlrNofeLq
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) August 31, 2025

HotNewHipHop also reports that Thug discussed buying fake streams for his own album in a leaked, unconfirmed conversation with a record-label rep. Thug released his album Business Is Business in 2023, while he was incarcerated, and it debuted at #2 behind Morgan Wallen's One Thing At A Time. The Wallen record was in its 15th week at the time. In that conversation, Thug seemingly jokes that he should've gotten a Wallen feature for his album and then brings up the possibility of buying streams for Business Is Business: "You still got that plug, right? That shit that we did with Gunna and them?"

Young Thug finds out 'Business Is Business' is at risk of not debuting at #1 and tells his team to contact their fake streams "plug"

"You still got that plug, right? That sh*t that we did with Gunna and them?"pic.twitter.com/7L3UwtSrfT
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) August 31, 2025

There have been many, many other leaked Young Thug conversations, including bits where he disses Kendrick Lamar, the Migos and Gucci Mane. But the most intense fallout has been over supposedly leaked audio of a two-hour jailhouse interrogation, in which Thug allegedly snitches on some of his YSL comrades. As Vibe reports, last week Thug claimed that he's not a snitch in a deleted tweet: "They didn’t play my interrogation video in court cause I helped my brada #Ratwhere?" In a tweet that's still up, Thug seemingly implied that he'll address those allegation on his Uy Scuti album: "Let this music talk spida-"