Rapper Youngboy released from prison.
November 11, 2021
After seven long months for hip-hop fans, popular rapper Kentrell Gaulden a.k.a. “Youngboy Never Broke Again” has been released from jail on pretrial house arrest. He was being held in his hometown of Baton-Rouge, Louisiana, where he was awaiting trial for gun charges. His bond was set at $1.5 million, and a very strict set of rules for his house arrest. He is set to serve his house arrest at his property in Utah, there is a security team of ex-military guards that will be watching over him 24/7, and that is in addition to the gps ankle monitor he has to wear. Youngboy is not allowed to have more than three pre-approved visitors at his house during one time and there can be no visitors between 9 in the night and 7 in the morning.
On September 24th, while he was still locked up, Youngboy’s label dropped an album on behalf of him. The album, Sincerely Kentrell, was a hit. It sold 137,000 units in the first week, and went number one on the billboard 200. He became the third rapper ever to go number one while locked up, joining Lil Wayne and Tupac. This only goes to show how popular YB is as he couldn’t promote or advertise his album at all from behind bars. He had only dropped one single while locked up so the album was long awaited for by fans all over the world. Part of the house arrest deal will allow his label to build a home studio at his Utah house and keep making music.
Many people across the internet have shown their support for Youngboy through the time he was locked up. Many taking to social media with phrases such as “free lil top,” “yb better,” or “free 38 baby.” Lil Top and 38 baby are nicknames for Youngboy, coming from his early childhood. His grandpa nicknamed him top when he was young and the block he grew up on is the 3800 block of Chippewa Street, hence the 38 baby nickname. One fan even started a petition on change.org requesting that President Joe Biden himself should pardon Youngboy. The petition garnered a lot of support, currently sitting at 160,000 signatures. In the petition the user who goes by “YB supporter,” the creator of the petition, claims that Youngboy was set up and hunted by the FBI in an operation called “Operation Never Free Again.”
Now was Kentrell really targeted by the government, or is it just loyal fans being crazy? While not necessarily targeted, he wasn’t given a chance to turn himself in, and was unnecessarily overpowered by law enforcement at his arrest. Court documents obtained by Fox 8 New Orleans, say that law enforcement used “massive and wildly unnecessary militaristic display of force and intimidation.” This is backed up by the fact that during his arrest in March of this year there were Several FBI agents, three LAPD vehicles, eleven LAPD officers, a task force officer, and a helicopter. Many believe that his arrest was planned due to the fact that the warrant he was arrested for was from Louisiana and he got arrested in California. Those same court documents also prove the existence of Operation Never Free Again.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nba-youngboy-is-getting-out-of-jail-1248473/
https://www.change.org/p/president-joe-biden-freeing-nba-youngboy
