The Cloudcuckoolander of Trap Music, Jeffrey Lamar Williams (born August 16, 1991), better known by his stage name Young Thug, is a rapper from Atlanta, Georgia known primarily for his quirky, eccentric, offbeat vocal and rapping technique and fashion style. He first received attention from collaboration with Birdman and Gucci Mane, along with his collaboration with other rappers such as Rich Homie Quan, Lil Baby, and Gunna. Thug initally released a series of independent mixtapes beginning in 2011 with I Came from Nothing. In early 2013, he signed with Gucci Mane's 1017 Records note , and later that year he released his label debut mixtape 1017 Thug to critical praise.
Young Thug received mainstream recognition in 2014 with the singles "Stoner" and "Danny Glover" in addition to appearances on several singles, including T.I.'s "About the Money", Tyga's "Hookah", and Rich Gang's "Lifestyle." After getting the attention of many label-heads such as his then-manager Birdman, he was later signed to Lyor Cohen's 300 Entertainment and later collaborated with Birdman's Rich Gang on the mixtape Rich Gang: Tha Tour Pt. 1. In 2015, he released a number of mixtapes, including Barter 6 and two installments of his Slime Season series. These were followed in 2016 by the commercial mixtapes I'm Up, Slime Season 3, and Jeffery. In 2018, he released a compilation album Slime Language showcasing the artists signed to his own label YSL Records.
Young Thug also became known for his feature on the 2017 hit song "Havana" by pop singer Camila Cabello, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2018, becoming Young Thug's first number one and top ten single. Williams was awarded the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards for his songwriting contributions to "This Is America" along with Childish Gambino and Ludwig Göransson. In May 2019, he released the single, "The London" (featuring J. Cole and Travis Scott)–becoming his second highest charting song on the Hot 100 as a lead artist, debuting and peaking at number 12. The song was featured on his debut album, So Much Fun, released later that year, which included his highest charting song on the Hot 100 as a lead artist, "Hot" featuring Gunna, peaking at number 11 (boosted by the remix with Travis Scott).
Discography:
- So Much Fun (2019)
- P*nk (2021)
- I Came from Nothing (2011)
- I Came from Nothing 2 (2011)
- I Came from Nothing 3 (2012)
- 1017 Thug (2013)
- 1017 Thug 2 (2014)
- 1017 Thug 3: The Finale (2014)
- Barter 6 (2015)
- Slime Season (2015)
- Slime Season 2 (2015)
- I'm Up (2016)
- Slime Season 3 (2016)
- Jeffery (2016)
- Beautiful Thugger Girls (2017)
- Slime Language (Compilation with his label, YSL) (2018)
- Slime Language 2 (Conpilation with YSL) (2021)
- Black Portland (with Bloody Jay) (2014)
- Young Thugga Mane La Flare (with Gucci Mane) (2014)
- World War 3D: The Purple Album (with Gucci Mane) (2014)
- Rich Gang Tha Tour, Pt. 1 (with Birdman and Rich Homie Quan, as Rich Gang) (2014)
- Super Slimey (with Future) (2017)
- Slime & B (with Chris Brown) (2020)
- Young Martha (with Carnage) (2017)
- Hear No Evil (2018)
- On the Rvn (2018)
Tropes applying to Young Thug include:
- Animal Motif: The snake is often used in his music videos and is even commonly seen in a few of his album covers.It’s no surprise due to the Snake being his favorite animal..
- Auto-Tune: On songs like Best Friend, although he mostly avoids using it.
- He does use it quite a bit on “Super Slimey” in order to match Future’s style.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: His feature on the pop hit “Havanna”.
- Bewarethe Silly Ones: After being arrested in 2022 it came to a surprise to everyone that he was accused of being a mob boss to gangs in Atlanta due to his goofy & feminine style.
- Camp Straight: Frequently has a flamboyant vocal style and personality but is heterosexual, has six children from four different women and is engaged to Jerrika Karlae.
- Catchphrase: Slime and Slat.
- Celebrity Song: Some of his songs, such as "Danny Glover" and almost all the songs on his album Jeffery, such as "Kanye West" and "Wyclef Jean".
- Cloudcuckoolander: Is this for mainstream trap music in general.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Frequently, as typical from most rappers.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His I Came From Nothing series of mixtapes lack his unique vocal and rapping style and are more akin to Lil Wayne, his idol and biggest influence.
- Expy: Of Lil Wayne, especially having similar mixtape name-titling it the Barter 3-influenced from Lil Wayne’s Carter albums. He also sounds like Lil Wayne on a few songs and mentions in interviews Lil Wayne was one of his biggest music influences.
- Gangsta Rap: He could be considered a downplayed version of a type 3 commercial gangsta rapper.
- I Have Many Names: Jeffery, Thugger, Thugga, and SEX.
- Intercourse with You: Very common in almost all of his songs and features.
- Large Ham: In his music videos especially the song “Best Friend” & most his songs with his loud random adlibs.
- Lyrical Tic: Expect Slime, Slatt,and Thugger to be said on many of his songs.
- Melodic Rap: Unlike a lot of his contemporaries who use melodic flows, he rarely uses Auto-Tune on his voice.
- Motor Mouth: Some of his songs have verses where he raps quicker than his usual tempo.
- N-Word Privileges: As typical of most rappers.
- Real Men Wear Pink: his odd style garners some comments, but he also comes from the streets.
- The Rival: Had a beef with his idol Lil Wayne around the time of Wayne's beef with Birdman, the co-founder and CEO of his then-label Cash Money Records, for not releasing the widely anticipated and frequently delayed Tha Carter V. During this time, Birdman primarily focused on the short-lived Rich Gang collective alongside Thug and fellow Atlanta-based rapper Rich Homie Quan. It didn't help that Thug allegedly had ties with Wayne's tour bus shooting in April 2015, in which one of Birdman's and Thug's affiliates Jimmy Winfrey, better known as Peewee Roscoe, was arrested and later convicted of the shooting and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison and probation. To add insult to injury, Thug was originally going to call his debut commercial mixtape Tha Carter 6 before renaming it to Barter 6 following a legal action by Wayne during his beef with Birdman and his label. The beef with Wayne was eventually settled, and Wayne confirmed that they recorded a track together in 2020. That same year, they released a remix to Travis Scott and Thug's track "Out West", with Thug also adding a new verse, which appeared on Wayne's No Ceilings 3 mixtape.. Thug and Quan's friendship eventually soured, and they are no longer on speaking terms.
- Rhyming with Itself: On songs such as "Check" and "Halftime", where he rhymes dick with dick and bitch with bitch respectively.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Is famous for having a very wide vocal range, frequently having many different vocal inflections and cadences throughout many of his songs, often in the same song.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: As with most rappers, many of his verses are drenched in profanity.
- Smarter Than They Look: Has a lot of knowledge on music and gives advice to other artists regularly also surprising has a lot of knowledge on animals.
- The New '10s: One of the most relevant rappers of the 2010s decade.
- The Stoner: Most obvious on his song "Stoner", many of his other songs mention drug abuse as well.
- The Unintelligible: To the point that it borders on scat singing. All his verses on "Lifestyle" are pretty much this.
- We Used to Be Friends: Him and Rich Homie Quan.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: To the point that he admitted that he preferred wearing women's clothing at a young age in one of his interviews.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: On the pop song he appears on "Havana" by Camila Cabello.
