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NBA YoungBoy is ditching the U.S. for good, he says. 

During a recent conversation on Open Thoughts with Funny Marc, the rapper revealed that he had moved to South Korea. He says he “never” plans to return to his home country. 

YoungBoy – whose real name is Kentrell DeSean Gaulden – said that he appreciated that his adopted home is “out of the way” and that he liked its “energy.”

“It’s very safe here and very clean,” he shared. 

The 26-year-old said that the most difficult part of living in a different country was being away from his many kids, “but that’s what they got planes for.”

The move to Korea comes after a tumultuous period in YoungBoy’s life. Here’s a timeline of events leading up to his his decision to relocate. 

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NBA YoungBoy was born in 1999 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He started releasing mixtapes as a teen and was eventually signed to Atlantic Records. Before long, he’d amassed a massive catalog, including multiple chart-topping albums and was one of the most popular (and prolific) rappers in the hip-hop scene. 

But as YoungBoy was racking up millions of streams, he was also building a criminal history, starting with a robbery charge in 2015, which kickstarted his rap career. In 2016, he was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to nine months in prison, noted HotNewHipHop. Next came charges of weapons possession, kidnapping, and assault in 2018. There was an attempt on his life in 2019, followed by an arrest on federal weapons and drug charges in Louisiana in 2020. In 2021, he was arrested in Los Angeles after trying to evade police who were attemping to serve a warrant from the Louisiana case. 

In 2022, a jury found him not guilty of gun charges related to a weapon they found in his possession during the LA arrest. But he still ended up serving time under house arrest in Utah on the charges from the Louisiana case. At the time, his lawyer argued that the Utah move would “keep him out of trouble.” But that was not the case. 

Rapper was arrested in Utah in 2024 

In 2024, YoungBoy was still under house arrest in Utah when state prosecutors charged him with running a prescription drug fraud ring. The scam involved YoungBoy impersonating a doctor while calling in prescriptions to pharmacies. The rapper struck a plea deal that allowed him to avoid prison in that case, but ended up sentenced to 23 months in prison on federal gun charges.

“I let my situation get the best of me,” he said at the time. 

But YoungBoy’s time in prison was brief. In March 2025, he was released after receiving a full pardon from President Donald Trump. 

“I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and giving me the opportunity to keep building — as a man, as a father, and as an artist,” he said. 

Since then, YoungBoy has managed to avoid arrest. His move to Korea seems to be part of an effort to break with his past and get a fresh start. In his interview with Funny Marc, he even hinted that his days as a rapper might be coming to an end, revealing that he had just one or two more albums in him, along with one final tour.

“Music is not where my heart is,” he said. “Music is not what I’m focused on.” 

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