Gunna Is a Label Boss Now. So Whatever Happened to the YSL Paperwork?

On Friday, Atlanta rapper Nechie dropped "Keep On Pushing," his first single on SB The Label, Gunna's brand-new imprint with Atlantic Music Group. Cute single. But the release is the least interesting thing about it. The interesting part is the paperwork, because for four years the question hanging over Gunna hasn't been his music. It's been who he belongs to.

Here's what's on the record. Gunna, born Sergio Kitchens, launched SB The Label with Atlantic on Oct. 9, Billboard reported. Variety says he's CEO. The first three signees are all from the Atlanta area: Casper Bluff, Dracc and Nechie. Nechie is a childhood friend from Southside Atlanta. Gunna executive produced his 2021 breakout mixtape "Shady Baby," according to BroadwayWorld, and Nechie has features on Gunna's "DS4Ever" and "The Last Wun."

"SB the Label represents the beginning of a new chapter for me," Gunna said. Atlantic Music Group CEO Elliot Grainge said it's "impossible to overstate Gunna's influence on this generation of hip-hop." Variety reports the deal builds on Gunna's longstanding relationship with Warner Music Group, going back to his signing with Young Thug's YSL Records, an imprint of 300 Entertainment, and Atlantic. 300's co-presidents, Rayna Bass and Selim Bouab, are still in the fold. In August, Under Armour named him global brand ambassador and creative director of a new platform called P-Star.

Now the part nobody at the launch party mentioned. Billboard noted that "The Last Wun," his 2025 album, came out through YSL and 300, and said it was unclear whether that would still be the case going forward. In a September interview with Forbes, Gunna was asked whether he was free of his label situation. "I wouldn't say apparently free. We in the works," he said. In 2024 he told RapCaviar, "No paperwork has been changed."

Why that matters: In May 2022, Gunna was charged with a single count of RICO conspiracy in the YSL case and turned himself in, according to Billboard's timeline. In December 2022 he took an Alford plea and was released. Billboard reports court footage showed him answering "yes" to questions including whether YSL was a gang. He has denied, through his lawyers, ever cooperating with law enforcement. YSL co-founder YSL Mondo said publicly that "technically he didn't rat."

Young Thug clearly sees it differently. When Thug took his own plea on Halloween 2024, he got 15 years of probation, and the judge approved letting him keep working with Gunna, noting that Gunna was contractually obligated to deal with him because he was signed to YSL, Billboard reported. Then in 2025 Thug posted, "Gunna stop acting like we friends on the internet, I don't know u my guy." In a leaked jail call with 21 Savage, he accused Gunna of telling jurors "YSL is a gang." So you have a court acknowledging a contract tying them together, and one side of that contract saying he doesn't know the other guy.

One more record worth knowing. On Oct. 9, the same day SB launched, Warner's labels sued Luxottica Group and five affiliated companies, part of the EssilorLuxottica eyewear empire that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley, in federal court in Manhattan, alleging unlicensed use of hundreds of songs in social media posts. The schedule of works attached to the complaint lists four Gunna recordings claimed by 300 Entertainment LLC: "Helluva Price," "P power" with Drake, "STREET SWEEPER" with Future and "fukumean." Those are allegations, and Luxottica had not responded publicly in the coverage I reviewed. But it tells you where those masters live. They're 300's, which means Warner's.

Dez's read, and this is speculation, not fact: I think SB The Label is the off-ramp. Nobody had to rip up a YSL contract in public. Warner just built Gunna a new door inside the same house. The old catalog stays with 300. The new signings, and maybe the new album "Splurge," go through his own imprint at Atlantic. Everybody gets paid, nobody has to say Thug's name, and the probation order about working together never has to get tested. That's my theory based on the timing and who's standing at the press release, not something any of these companies has confirmed.

Also speculation: I'd bet real money the hardest part of this deal wasn't the advance. It was figuring out what, if anything, still flows back to YSL from Gunna's new work. None of the parties has disclosed the terms, and I could be wrong. If YSL still gets a piece, Gunna is funding the guy who calls him a liar. If it doesn't, someone negotiated Thug out. Either answer is a story.

And the Nechie signing reads to me like a statement. Gunna's first move as a boss was to sign the guys he grew up with, the exact model Thug built YSL on. I think he's showing the city he can run a crew without the drama, and the "Pop It" video with Coco Gauff and a mansion on a cliff is the shiny version of that message. Whether Atlanta buys it after the plea is a different question.

What we still don't know: whether Gunna is formally released from YSL; who owns his next album; whether YSL or Young Thug has any financial stake in SB The Label; and whether Thug and Gunna will ever speak again. Gunna, Atlantic and Young Thug's camp have not addressed the contract question publicly.