Young Thug

About

Young Thug (or Thugger, for short) is the stage name of American musician Jeffrey Lamar Williams, known for his eccentric style of rapping and high pitched slurred voice.^[1] Young Thug is also known for his odd lyrics and his humorous internet personality, as well as for belonging to the rap supergroup Rich Gang.

Online History

In 2011-2012, Young Thug released his Came From Nothing mixtape series. The series caught the eye of rapper and record label owner Gucci Mane^[2], who signed him to his 1017 Brick Squad Label. After being signed, Young Thug released a mixtape titled 1017 Thug, which received praise from critics, including a spot in Pitchfork's "Honorable Mentions," and Complex Magazine's "100 best albums of the year".^[8][9] The mixtape was also highlighted in Rolling Stone and The Guardian.^[10][11]

In 2013, Young Thug released a song titled "Danny Glover," (later renamed "2 Bitches") which was acclaimed by fans, receiving 4 million views on YouTube as of August 2015. The song was remixed by other rappers including Waka Flocka Flame and Nicki Minaj.

In September 2015, Young Thug released a mixtape titled "Slime Season", which was given generally favorable reviews from 4 reviews^[16]. The mixtape had reached 2 million downloads from the mixtape site, Datpiff^[18]. A month later, Thugger released Slime Season 2, which was given universal acclaim from Metacritic from 4 reviews^[17], and had been downloaded over a million times^[19].

Lifestyle

After a series of collaborations with Birdman's label (with which he signed a management deal), Young Thug appeared on the first single of the second Rich Gang album "Rich Gang 2" titled "Lifestyle". The song received 166 million views on YouTube as of August 2015 and was praised by critics. Online, the song received negative attention by people citing its unintelligible and poorly written lyrics, who often parodied Young Thug's portion of the song.

Smoking Penises

On December 22nd, 2011, as well as January 14th, 2012, Young Thug posted two tweets in which he mentions "smoking penises" (shown below), in addition to using the Internet slang term no homo. The tweets caused fans of Young Thug to theorize about his sexuality.^[3]

According to an Urban Dictionary definition, written July 15th, 2006, "Penis Smoke" refers to "Crack pipe smoking. Smoke from a "glass dick""^[4]. On January 16, 2015 a similar line appeared on the leaked song "Friend Of Scotty" that goes "No homo, but my blunt look like a dick"^[5].

On April 13, 2015 YouTube channel FILNOBEP made a video titled "Young Thug Disses Lil Wayne + Rich Homie Quan Ain't Gay" (shown below) parodying Young Thug's questionably homosexual lyrics, where he mentions the line.

The song received over 700,000 views. An alternate version of the video received over 25,000 views.

Carter 6/Barter 6 controversy

On April 7th, 2015, Young Thug revealed the release date and artwork of his new album Carter VI a title that pays homage to Lil Wayne's Tha Carter series, ^[12] but Lil Wayne and his daughter claimed that the title was used without permission.^[6] Young Thug later changed the title of the album to Barter 6, using the Blood gang style of replacing the letter C with the letter B.^[7]

Upon release of Barter 6, the album had only sold 16k in the first week.^[15] However, the album was met with generally positive reviews, including 4/5 reviews from Tiny Mix Tapes, XXL, and an 8.4/10 from Pitchfork.

Ride in that Pussy Like a Stroller

Ride in that Pussy Like a Stroller is a line by Young Thug on the song, I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) by UK producer Jamie xx. The line is often pointed out for its ridiculousness and nonsensical obscenity.

Personal History

In July of 2015, he was arrested twice in 24 hours, once for threatening to kill a mall officer^[13], and later for drug and gun charges after a raid in his home^[14].

Search Interest

External References