For the past week, Young Thug has been dealing with fallout from leaked phone calls recorded while he was incarcerated during his RICO trial. In one call, he seemed to claim that he bought chart placements for Gunna and himself. In another, he called GloRilla unattractive, which led to a public apology. More recently, he admitted to cheating on his girlfriend, R&B singer Mariah The Scientist, before going behind bars, which apparently caused Mariah to dump him; Thug posted an apology to her Sunday as well.
Music industry exec and manager Wack 100 is rumored to be the source of the leaks. Over the weekend, he said he had a 28-minute call of Thug dissing Drake and others; that audio promptly appeared online shortly afterward.
FULL: Young Thug breaks down the origins of Drake and Metro Boomin’s beef pic.twitter.com/cnTrZjQwR1
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) September 6, 2025
Thug has mostly been tweeting through the PR crisis, but Saturday he sat down for a lengthy conversation about it all, joining Atlanta luminary Big Bank on his podcast Perspektives With Bank. "These last few days I've been sitting around like, 'What the fuck was I thinking?'" he told Bank at one point, though he balanced out that sentiment with thoughts about how being locked up warps a person's perspective: "You gotta understand my standpoint — I'm locked up, I'm on the phone talking to my girl every day, this the only person I can talk to." The calls re-emerging have been sending him mentally back to those dark times, he said: "This shit just like a fun moment in the memes on the internet. But not knowing, this shit traumatizing." Despite his stated regrets about some of his statements, elsewhere in the interview he asserted that anything he said in the calls, he'd say again. "I done had these same conversations with Wayne," he said. "I done had these same conversations with Savage."
The subject of Gunna loomed large over the interview. Gunna is signed to Thug's YSL label and has collaborated with him extensively, but when Gunna cut a plea deal to go free ahead of the RICO trial, many onlookers concluded he must have snitched on Thug. In the Bank interview, Thug said he felt betrayed when Gunna cut his deal, which Thug believed could have led to a harsher sentence for Thug. However, elsewhere in the interview Thug defended his own brother's decision to take a plea deal.
Thug said he was disappointed that Gunna did not provide financial or personal support when Thug got out, unlike many of his other rapper friends: "Savage sent money to Thug, Wham sent money to Thug, Pluto sent money to Thug, Cash sent money to Thug, Drake sent CRAZY bankroll to Thug. Gunna didn’t send no bankroll to Thug. Gunna didn’t pull up on Thug momma." He sounded genuinely distraught that he lost a friend not through death but "over a piece of paper." After telling Gunna he loves him, he added, "I poured so much into him, I can’t even hate him. In jail I thought I hated him... But I don’t wish no ill will on him — no ill feelings at all." That said, Thug also rejected Bank's report that Gunna loves him back.
There were also these comments, which are in keeping with some of his past commentary on sexuality: "Once you rat, or once you turn gay — and I don't got nothing against gay people... I can't look at you the same. I’ma just look at you like you broke a man code."
The interview is three hours long and not embeddable, so head over to YouTube if you want to watch the whole thing, and check out some excerpts below.
Young Thug breaks his silence on the leaked phone calls with Big Bank:
“I was just so f*cked up and felt like it was over… I’m sitting in a cell 23 hours a day, at this point I’m just talking”pic.twitter.com/C8oeGVASGt
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) September 7, 2025
Young Thug discusses the leaked phone calls from jail with Bank 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/68cIUziKQl
— flexxico clips (@FlexxicoClips) September 7, 2025
Mannn I'm watching this Young Thug interview and seeing him cry about not having Gunna by his side was some real ish
I have a feeling these guys will eventually reunite pic.twitter.com/HS9ZExutvl
— Uchay (@uchayva) September 7, 2025
Big Bank reveals what Gunna said to him about Young Thug and the Plea.
Thugger wasn’t trying to hear it 💔 pic.twitter.com/PtBUcsX7qM
— GUNNAFANDOM (@gunnafandom) September 7, 2025
Bank: What makes you young niggas think you can spin the police, they smart?
Young Thug: ...Movies.When I tell you, these n*ggas are dumb. SMH 🤣 pic.twitter.com/wkOlMVQqhN
— youngflydopefresh! (@_YFDF_) September 7, 2025
"Once you rat, or once you turn gay — and I don't got nothing against gay people, [...] I can't look at you the same. I’ma just look at you like you broke a man code."
— Young Thug on Perspektives With Bank pic.twitter.com/wfH8wOaAq2
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) September 7, 2025
