The never-ending Young Thug trial that could reshape hip-hop

ATLANTA — Two years in the Fulton County court system have turned Young Thug into an iPad kid. With each passing day, he looks less and less like the musical prodigy who came out of the Atlanta projects and redefined the sound and style of trap. Who spent his 20s touring the world and blowing minds, just as likely to pose for cameras in a leather jacket as a billowing couture dress. Now, he wears a blank face in the chilly courtroom where guards deposit him most mornings. The man born Jeffery Lamar Williams, now 32, pecks at a tablet. He swipes, he taps, he barely rises when the judge walks in. Thug paws at the screen as lawyers who will help decide whether he spends the next 20 years in prison crack their morning sodas and their morning jokes. “Is that Schlitz?” the judge asks. “Gotta stay warm in here somehow,” an attorney says. Ha ha ha. Tap tap tap. It is a February morning, the 654th day since Williams was jailed without bond and accused of running a murderous gang posing as a red-hot record label. Jury selection lasted a full year; the trial is likely to run...