Newly-leaked audio of a 2023 jail call involving rapper Young Thug suggests that he might have tried purchase streams to surpass Morgan Wallen‘s One Thing at a Time album on the charts.
In the clip, Young Thug — whose legal name is Jeffery Lamar Williams II — makes a comment to his team member about using a “plug” to make sure his album “beat[s]” Wallen’s.
He then suggests that they use leverage from surpassing Wallen on the chart to convince the country singer to collaborate on a future duet.
What Did Young Thug Say About Morgan Wallen in His Leaked Jail Call?
The audio, which was reportedly taped in June 2023, starts with Young Thug speaking to a team member while incarcerated as part of a RICO (Rackateer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) indictment.
The conversation starts with some questions about the release of Young Thug’s Business Is Business and whether it would be able to surpass an album recently released by Lil Uzi Vert on the charts.
But the team member then brought up Wallen’s album, saying “he’s doing 100,000 every week, no matter what.”
At first, Wallen didn’t seem to be on Thug’s radar at all. “Who?” he adds.
“Morgan Wallen, the country guy,” the other person responds.
“Why the f–k didn’t we think to put him on the album? Like, what the f–k?” Thug continues, before asking, “You think we’re gonna beat the boy?”
“I mean, yo, my man, I’m not gonna sleep until we beat him,” the team member says.
“Beat the boy, then tell the boy, ‘Can’t beat me, join me. Get on this song, young boy,'” the rapper continues, seemingly suggesting that he wants to parlay his chart placement over Wallen into negotiating a feature on a future project.
Then, Thug said the line that has fans convinced he wanted to buy streams to beat Wallen.
“You’ve still got that plug, right? That s–t we did with Gunna and them? You still got that plug?” he asks, as the team member confirms, “Yeah.”
Who Is “Gunna and Them”? Did Young Thug Buy Streams for Another Project?
In a separate leaked call, Young Thug appears to claim that he spent $50,000 on bot-generated streams so that rapper Gunna’s album DS4Ever could surpass The Weeknd’s DawnFM.
Both of those albums came out in January 2022.
“Like, the No. 1 album you just had right now, I paid for you to have that No. 1 album,” Thug says in that audio, which appears to be not a conversation with Gunna, but rather him talking to a third person about what he could have said to Gunna.
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“We just got the plug on that. You never earned a No. 1 album.I spent 50 extra grand buying motherf–king streams for you,” he continues.
He adds, “… I never said anything to him. I never told him that.”
Per Billboard, Gunna’s album debuted at No. 1 in a narrow victory over The Weeknd’s; first-week sales figures came almost entirely from streaming.
Did Young Thug’s Album Beat Morgan Wallen’s on the Charts?
Business Is Business did well on the charts, notching the top spot on the U.S. Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. It also peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
But that wasn’t enough to trounce Wallen, who was (and still is) a juggernaut on the charts.
Wallen released One Thing at a Time in March 2023. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and held that spot for 19 non-consecutive weeks in 2023 and 2024.
One Thing at a Time also spent an incredible 75 weeks on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart as of February 2025.
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Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
