Young Thug appears to be clearing his name after a messy conversation about which rappers are actually helping Lil Durk fight his federal case, putting his support under a microscope.
The Atlanta rapper spoke out Wednesday after questions began circulating about whether he had contributed anything to Durk’s defense. Thug responded on X by arguing that people are focusing on the wrong thing. Instead of discussing who wrote a check, he says people should recognize that his longtime attorney Brian Steel would not even be representing Durk without his involvement.
“N***a best friends on the stand saying he did serious sh**t ‘lying’ and yall asking blogs who paid for lawyers lol if I didn’t say he was my brother my lawyer wouldn’t have even took the case,” Thug wrote. “I sent Brian to get with him and take the case. Stop making me the bad guy and pray harder for him cause I am.”
The Young Thug response immediately adds another layer to claims Akademiks made just days earlier about the money allegedly being put behind Durk’s defense.
As Baller Alert previously reported, Akademiks used an August 30 livestream to name several rappers he had heard were helping Durk financially. Ak claimed Ye gave Durk’s legal fund $250,000, while Drake was allegedly prepared to handle whatever Steel charged for his work on the case. Akademiks also claimed 21 Savage contributed an unspecified amount and Lil Baby had been sending smaller amounts.
Then Ak got to the names he had allegedly heard were not putting money up.
“They said, they said Thug ain’t really come through with nothing, and they say Meek ain’t come through with nothing,” Akademiks said during the livestream. “That’s what they told me.”
Ak also made it clear that the information had not come directly from Durk’s team, saying, “Not, it’s not Durk’s people who told me this. Absolutely not. But that’s the word on the street.”
Thug did not mention Akademiks by name in his new post, so there is no confirmation that he was responding directly to Ak. Still, the timing and Thug’s specific reference to “blogs who paid for lawyers” put his comments directly in the middle of the viral debate over Akademiks’ claims.
There is another twist. This is not the first time Thug has claimed responsibility for getting Brian Steel involved in Lil Durk’s legal fight.
Thug addressed questions about his relationship with Durk in September 2025 and claimed he was personally behind Steel helping the Chicago rapper.
“All yall new junkies in otf, just know I’m the one sent Brian steel to help him on my dime,” Thug wrote at the time.
That older statement makes the current Young Thug response especially interesting because Akademiks recently suggested Drake is the person footing Steel’s bill.
A judge approved Steel joining Durk’s defense team in March 2026 after he filed paperwork seeking to replace another attorney. Steel previously represented Young Thug during the lengthy YSL racketeering case in Georgia, making Thug’s claim that he personally connected Steel with Durk significant regardless of who ultimately pays the legal bill.
Steel has not been sitting quietly on the sidelines either. He has played an active role in Durk’s ongoing federal trial, including cross-examining cooperating witness Kasey “OTF Jam” Hester and questioning evidence prosecutors have introduced against the rapper.
The stakes behind the Young Thug response are much bigger than rap industry politics.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, federal prosecutors accuse Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, of participating in a plot to kill a rival following the November 2020 death of his close friend and OTF artist King Von. Prosecutors allege members and associates of OTF tracked the intended target in Los Angeles before gunfire erupted at a gas station near the Beverly Center on August 19, 2022. The target survived, but a relative traveling with him was killed.
Durk has pleaded not guilty. His trial began August 24 in Los Angeles, with prosecutors alleging the intended target was Quando Rondo and that the shooting was retaliation connected to Von’s death. Durk’s defense has challenged the government’s case as Steel and the rest of his attorneys fight the allegations in court.
That makes the argument over who sent what amount of money almost secondary to Thug’s point. Akademiks may have heard that Thug did not come through financially, but Thug is pointing directly at the defense table and saying one of the lawyers fighting for Durk’s freedom is there because he made the call.
