The Genius of Young Thug

How the Atlanta rapper shaped the newest wave of hip hop

Young Thug’s JEFFREY album cover
Thugger first big break into the radio-friendly charts

Young Thug pushed the boundaries of music

“Young Thug mixes together lyrics with a series of syllables that just sound good together, like scat,” says [linguist Darrin] Flynn. “It’s a guide to a natural rhythm of language.”

Lil Keed, a Thugger discipline, uses the same recording strategy as him, recording the flow before adding in lyrics later. Something that garners a lot of criticism online

“Oh, man. He’s recorded songs in 10 minutes, man. He’s really, really, really quick.” — Bainz, Thugger’s sound engineer

Young Thug constantly breaks the mold of what it means to be a rapper

Source: Complex

“Because women’s clothes are [slimmer] than men’s clothes. The jeans I got on right now, they’re women’s jeans. But they fit how they’re supposed to fit. Like a rock star.” — Thugger

Source: CK IG
Source: r/youngthug

Thugger actively mentors the next generation of rappers

Top hip hop chart on Spotify. Lil Tjay, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Moneybagg Yo, and Fivio Foreign are known mumble rappers and long time collaborators with Young Thug

Despite mumbling, Young Thug is insanely talented

Thugger understands the power of memes

To translate a sense of pure feeling, [mumble] rap turns to sheer sound — a form of communication that linguist Darrin Flynn sees as closer to “spontaneous speech” than rhyming, metaphor-laden poetry.

Young Thug is well loved by his standom

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