Leaks allege Young Thug paid fake streams to boost Gunna DS4EVER

Leaked jailhouse recordings released online late last week captured rapper Young Thug saying he paid about $50,000 for fake streams to push Gunna’s 2022 album DS4EVER to No. 1 over The Weeknd’s Dawn FM and discussing using the same tactic to boost his own 2023 album Business Is Business, according to the recordings. The clips, circulated widely on social media between Aug. 29 and Aug. 31, come amid ongoing leaks tied to Thug’s incarceration and the high‑profile YSL RICO case.

In the audio, a voice identified as Young Thug tells an associate that he spent 50,000 buying streams to secure Gunna’s chart position, saying, "You never earned a number one album over The Weeknd, my boy. I paid for that shit." In a separate exchange captured in the leaks, Thug and a manager allegedly discussed inflating streams to try to outpace country star Morgan Wallen on the Billboard 200 for Thug’s Business Is Business debut, with the manager saying, "I’m not gonna sleep until we beat him," according to the recordings.

Luminate data shows Gunna’s DS4EVER opened with roughly 150,300 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the tracking week in January 2022, with streaming accounting for the vast majority...