Young Thug Takes YSL's New Generation on First Headlining Tour Since 2019

A promotional poster outlines the lineup for "The New Generation Tour." The 23-city international tour, beginning Sept. 1 in Rogers, Arkansas, marks Young Thug's first headlining run since 2019 and features special guest NAV alongside emerging Young Stoner Life Records artists.

Young Thug is taking YSL back on the road, and using his return to introduce the artists he expects to
carry the label forward.

The Atlanta rapper announced “The New Generation Tour,” his first headlining run since 2019. The 23-date U.S. and European trek opens Sept. 1 at Walmart AMP in Rogers, Arkansas, and closes Oct. 24 at Adidas Arena in Paris.

NAV will appear on all 19 U.S. dates. The tour also will showcase Young Stoner Life Records signees Tezzus, Diamond*, 1300saint, Iyrus, Yume, Biggs and Unky, placing a new YSL lineup alongside one of the most influential and unconventional rappers to emerge from Atlanta’s 2010s takeover.

The route includes a Sept. 20 homecoming at Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta, followed by three Texas dates: Sept. 27 at 713 Music Hall in Houston, Sept. 29 at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving and Sept. 30 at Moody Amphitheater in Austin.

The U.S. leg ends Oct. 4 at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. Young Thug and the YSL lineup then travel to Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Germany; Łódź, Poland; and Paris.

Young Stoner Life Records presents

“The New Generation Tour”

Young Thug with NAV and the YSL roster

NAV is scheduled to appear on every U.S. date.

U.S. dates

Sept. 1Rogers, Ark.
Walmart AMP

Sept. 3Minneapolis
The Armory

Sept. 5Chicago
Aragon Ballroom

Sept. 8Sterling Heights, Mich.
Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre

Sept. 10Camden, N.J.
Freedom Mortgage Pavilion

Sept. 11Boston
MGM Music Hall at Fenway

Sept. 13New York
SummerStage in Central Park

Sept. 15Washington
The Anthem

Sept. 16Virginia Beach, Va.
The Dome by Rutter Mills

Sept. 18Charlotte, N.C.
Bojangles’ Coliseum

Sept. 19Raleigh, N.C.
Red Hat Amphitheater

Sept. 20Atlanta
Lakewood Amphitheatre

Sept. 23Tampa, Fla.
Yuengling Center

Sept. 25Birmingham, Ala.
Coca-Cola Amphitheater

Sept. 27Houston
713 Music Hall

Sept. 29Irving, Texas
The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory

Sept. 30Austin, Texas
Moody Amphitheater

Oct. 2Phoenix
Arizona Financial Theatre

Oct. 4Inglewood, Calif.
YouTube Theater

European dates

Oct. 14Amsterdam
AFAS Live

Oct. 17Düsseldorf, Germany
PSD Bank Dome

Oct. 21Łódź, Poland
Atlas Arena

Oct. 24Paris
Adidas Arena

Official dates and tickets

General ticket sales begin Friday at 10 a.m. local time through Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the tour’s official website. Artist and other presales began earlier this week.

The tour represents more than a return to buses, backstage rooms and nightly set lists.

Young Thug’s last headlining trek was the strangely titled Justin Bieber Big Tour, a 2019 co-headlining run with Machine Gun Kelly that did not include Justin Bieber. He has made several major festival appearances since returning to the stage, including Coachella this spring, but “The New Generation Tour” will be his first sustained headlining itinerary in seven years.

His formal return to live performance began at the Summer Smash festival near Chicago in June 2025, where Travis Scott, T.I. and Ken Carson joined him during his first public concert since March 2022.

Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams, had spent more than two years in custody before his release in October 2024 ended his part in the sprawling Georgia racketeering case involving YSL.

Williams pleaded guilty to one gang charge, three drug charges and two gun charges. He entered no-contest pleas to another gang count and racketeering conspiracy, meaning he did not admit guilt but accepted punishment as though he had.

A judge imposed a 40-year sentence structured around five years commuted to time served and 15 years of probation. An additional 20-year prison term can be imposed if Williams violates the conditions of his probation.

That case kept the YSL name attached to court testimony, criminal allegations and debates over the use of rap lyrics as evidence for years. The tour places the emphasis back on Young Stoner Life Records — not simply as the company behind Young Thug, but as a label attempting to establish its next class.

Tezzus and Diamond* have already begun attracting some attention as part of Atlanta’s younger underground movement, while the rest of the touring roster gives Young Thug an opportunity to introduce developing artists directly to an audience that may know little about them beyond their YSL affiliation.

That makes “The New Generation Tour” both a comeback and a handoff.

Young Thug has already shown that he can return to a festival stage and command attention. This fall, he will find out whether that return can carry a full international tour, and whether the YSL name can again become known for what happens on records and stages instead of inside a courtroom.

Lil Durk Scores Pretrial Win, but New Federal Charges Remain Pending

Rapper Lil Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, is shown in a 2024 booking photo after his arrest in Broward County, Fla. A federal judge has ordered two newly added counts tried separately from the murder-for-hire case scheduled to begin Aug. 20. Banks has pleaded not guilty.

A federal judge has separated racketeering-related charges from Lil Durk’s upcoming murder-for-hire trial, preserving the August start date after the rapper’s lawyers argued that prosecutors had expanded the case too late for the defense to prepare.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald granted the defense’s motion Tuesday, severing Counts One and Six of the third superseding indictment from the four counts that will go before a jury Aug. 20.

The ruling is a significant pretrial victory for Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, but it is not a dismissal. The severed counts remain pending and may be tried separately at a later date. Banks has pleaded not guilty and remains in federal custody.

The distinction matters.

Durk’s lawyers did not persuade the court to throw out the government’s expanded indictment. They did persuade Fitzgerald not to make the defense confront the broader racketeering case at the same trial as the allegations it has been preparing to fight since Banks’ October 2024 arrest.

Prosecutors filed the third superseding indictment June 3, about 11 weeks before jury selection was scheduled to begin. The filing added a murder-in-aid-of-racketeering charge and a stalking-conspiracy charge while introducing a wider theory of criminal activity extending beyond the 2022 Los Angeles shooting at the center of the original prosecution.

The expanded allegations describe a group prosecutors call the “Banks Gang Enterprise,” which they claim used violence, drug trafficking and other crimes to strengthen the organization and reward members. Banks and his attorneys deny those allegations.

His defense team argued that prosecutors had taken a relatively focused murder-for-hire case and transformed it shortly before trial by adding years of alleged conduct from Chicago, Atlanta and elsewhere.

The defense said it had spent 19 months preparing for the Los Angeles case before receiving thousands of pages of additional material connected to the government’s expanded theory. Rather than seek another delay, Banks asked the court to separate the new allegations so the original trial could proceed as scheduled.

Prosecutors opposed that request, arguing that separate trials would duplicate evidence and prevent jurors from hearing the complete context surrounding the alleged plot.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Fitzgerald repeatedly pressed prosecutors to explain how the government would be unfairly harmed by severance. His written ruling concluded that prosecutors had not demonstrated sufficient prejudice from holding two trials, according to reporting based on the order.

The August trial stems from the fatal shooting of Saviay’a Robinson near the Beverly Center in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, 2022.

Federal prosecutors allege that Robinson’s cousin, rapper Quando Rondo, was the intended target of a retaliation plot tied to the November 2020 killing of OTF rapper King Von outside an Atlanta nightclub. Robinson was killed, while Rondo was not injured.

The government alleges that Banks offered a bounty for Rondo’s death and that people associated with his Only the Family collective used money tied to the organization to arrange flights, rental vehicles, hotel rooms and other expenses connected to the attack.

Banks is accused of helping finance and direct the alleged plot. He has denied ordering the shooting or offering payment for it.

Prosecutors have also sought to introduce selected lyrics, music videos, social media messages and evidence of public pressure on Banks to retaliate for King Von’s death. Fitzgerald previously allowed some of that material while excluding or limiting other portions, finding that certain lyrics carried too little connection to the charged crime or too great a risk of unfair prejudice.

Banks’ attorneys have consistently challenged the reliability of the government’s witnesses and its use of his music. When prosecutors unveiled the latest indictment in June, the defense called it “lipstick on a pig” and said the new allegations reflected weakness in the original case rather than newly discovered proof.

The Grammy-winning rapper has remained jailed without bond since his arrest in South Florida in October 2024. His trial has been postponed several times, sometimes over his objection, as attorneys reviewed evidence and litigated disputes involving witnesses, lyrics, videos and the defendants who will be tried together.

Tuesday’s order prevents the latest expansion from producing another immediate delay.

Issa Rae Brings ‘Insecure’ Anniversary Tour to 13 Cities This Fall

“Insecure: The 10th Anniversary Tour,” a 13-date fall run led by Issa Rae and showrunner Prentice Penny, with Yvonne Orji, Jay Ellis and Natasha Rothwell scheduled for select appearances opens Sept. 10 in Philadelphia and closes Oct. 8 in Inglewood, California.

Ten years after Issa Dee first worked through her problems by rapping to herself in a bathroom mirror, Issa Rae is taking the stories, arguments and lingering questions of “Insecure” on the road.

Rae announced “Insecure: The 10th Anniversary Tour” on Tuesday, a 13-city run that will reunite her with showrunner Prentice Penny for live conversations about the HBO comedy that made awkwardness, friendship and the everyday lives of Black millennials worthy of prestige television.

 

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The tour opens Sept. 10 at The Met in Philadelphia and travels through National Harbor, Maryland; Detroit; Boston; Brooklyn; Montclair, New Jersey; Las Vegas; Oakland; Chicago; Atlanta; Irving, Texas; and Houston. It closes Oct. 8 at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California — the city whose neighborhoods, businesses and changing identity were central to the series.

Yvonne Orji, who played Molly Carter; Jay Ellis, who played Lawrence Walker; and Natasha Rothwell, who played Kelli Prenny, are scheduled to appear on select dates. Organizers have not announced which cast members will participate in each city, so ticket buyers should not assume the full group will appear at every stop.

The live shows are expected to feature behind-the-scenes stories, candid conversations and reflections on the series’ most memorable moments and cultural impact.

Rae announced the tour with a video built around a reunion of the cast’s group chat. After Rae proposes the idea, Ellis, Orji and Rothwell quickly sign on.

“It’s ‘Insecure,’ but we’re very secure now,” Orji says near the end of the clip.

“Come see us on tour,” Rae adds.

 

Created by Rae and Larry Wilmore, “Insecure” premiered on HBO in October 2016 and ran for five seasons before ending in December 2021. The comedy followed Issa Dee and Molly as they negotiated friendship, relationships, work, ambition and the consequences of decisions that often looked much clearer after they had already made them.

The show’s appeal came partly from what it refused to do. Its Black characters did not exist solely to explain racism, carry a social message or serve as flawless examples of representation. They could be selfish, funny, petty, accomplished, confused, loyal and painfully wrong — sometimes within the same episode.

“Insecure” also treated South Los Angeles as more than a backdrop. Restaurants, apartments, neighborhood businesses, art spaces and community events became part of the story as Issa tried to build a career without abandoning the place that shaped her.

Music was just as important.

The series used contemporary hip-hop and R&B as an extension of its characters’ inner lives, placing established artists alongside records that many viewers were hearing for the first time. Solange consulted on the first season’s music, while longtime music supervisor Kier Lehman helped build later soundtracks that included SZA, Jazmine Sullivan, Miguel, Jorja Smith, Leikeli47, Thundercat, The Internet, Dreezy and others.

Songs did more than fill transitions. They carried scenes after the dialogue stopped, helped define Issa and Molly’s emotional distance and gave each season a musical identity that fans discussed alongside the show’s romances and betrayals.

 

The anniversary tour extends a reunion that began in May with “Blocc Party: An Insecure Podcast.” The weekly rewatch series features Rae and Penny revisiting individual episodes, telling stories from the writers’ room and bringing in members of the cast and crew.

A Citi cardholder presale begins Wednesday at noon local time. General ticket sales begin Thursday at noon local time through Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Most listed performances begin at 8 p.m., and several venues identify the events as restricted to guests 18 and older.

The complete tour schedule:

• Sept. 10 — The Met, Philadelphia
• Sept. 11 — The Theater at MGM National Harbor, National Harbor, Md.
• Sept. 13 — The Fillmore Detroit, Detroit
• Sept. 16 — MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Boston
• Sept. 17 — Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Sept. 18 — The Wellmont Theater, Montclair, N.J.
• Sept. 25 — The Palazzo Theatre, Las Vegas
• Sept. 26 — Fox Theater, Oakland, Calif.
• Oct. 1 — The Chicago Theatre, Chicago
• Oct. 2 — Tabernacle, Atlanta
• Oct. 3 — The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, Irving, Texas
• Oct. 4 — Bayou Music Center, Houston
• Oct. 8 — YouTube Theater, Inglewood, Calif.

“Insecure” ended with its characters growing into lives that once seemed out of reach. A decade after the premiere, Rae is reopening the group chat.