We Could Probably Be More Considerate About What Young Thug's Going Through

There are many models of care for people returning to society from jail; constant ridicule isn't one of them.

Photo Credit: MILLION DOLLAZ WORTH OF GAME

I’m going to use my newsletter more; I’m thinking biweekly. It’s imperative; the number of people I run into outside who know me but are unfamiliar with my recent work made me realize that I need a hub for everything. I also need freedom to write exactly what I want sometimes. Shoutout to Ellice Ellis, whose A Few Minutes newsletter made me realize Sunday’s a good time to drop.

I missed out on writing a Young Thug review, so I’ll talk about it here. Like everything he’s released since coming home, it’s underwhelming for me, though I realize he’s still getting reacclimated to society after two-and-a-half years in jail. He’s always been a maestro of melody and composition, and I hear that throughout the album. But his delivery lacks what made him great to me.

Thug became a transcendent artist with a knack for melody meshed with a guttural delivery and an ear for hitting unconventional pockets of a beat. Think songs like “Digits,” “Just Might Be,” and even a recent song like “Lil Jasmine,” which was released recently but recorded pre-jail — that’s my favorite wing of Thug music. Some people on Twitter are chalking that version of him up to drugs, but I feel like it’s irresponsible, if not disrespectful, to assume he has to be high to channel that. I almost hear it on “On The News,” “Sad Spider,” and the end of “Miss My Dogs,” but so much of the rest of the project feels almost like he’s holding back.

It also feels like he’s too preoccupied with virality on various junctures of the album. The intro, featuring the Fulton County prosecutors calling him “King Slime,” was way too front-door, like he was trying to placate Twitter’s white-boy-with-Black-artist-as-profile-pic brigade, who couldn’t stop talking about how cool it would be for him to have clips from the trial on a song. Ditto the “Whoopty Doo” song, which feels like the kind of play on a viral moment that’s beneath him; I expect that from comedian-rappers on Facebook and older artists trying to stay young, not legitimate musical geniuses. And of course, someone should have stopped him from repeatedly using the hard “-er” N-word on “Ninja.” His explanation to Adin Ross left more questions than answers, but one thing we do know is how many non-Black hip-hop fans are primed to use it for obnoxious TikTok and streaming moments. Why would he give them that opportunity?

Thug’s always had a thirst for “???” viral moments, but they never bled into his craft, they were the confounding treasure trail leading up to great music. Even the most homophobic people came to like him despite the dress and “bae” comments because the music overcame their prejudice. Now, some of his choices here feel a bit desperate.

That said, it’s a comeback album, and a return from jail at that. I expect him to be a little wayward. People love to mention Tupac coming right home to record All Eyez On Me, but, in many ways, no one could compare to him. Being in jail is a traumatic experience, and most artists aren’t the same after a lengthy bid: Bobby Shmurda, Gucci Mane, Boosie, Shyne, and Kodak Black all came home to fanfare but couldn’t consistently reach their previous highs. We romanticize the artists who tell us they wrote songs every day in jail, but that’s rare in such a brutal, isolating environment. Those artists deserve credit, but we can’t hold everyone to that expectation.

In 2011, Wayne told Rolling Stone that when he first came home from his prison stint in New York’s Rikers Island with a whirlwind two days, including a court hearing in Arizona, a Hornets game in New Orleans, a show in Vegas, and a party in Miami, he felt “out of place, mentally.” He said, “I didn’t talk too much. I had my hood on the whole night, my shades. I played the corner — you wouldn’t have even known it was my party. We went to the strip club afterward, but I didn’t really get to enjoy myself. It was too much of a shock.”

When Thug first went to Fulton County Jail, he was in solitary confinement and sought to be transferred to a new jail because of the conditions. And even after being sent to DeKalb County Jail, he still wasn’t in a good space. He’s admitted that the controversial phone calls that went viral were a result of him losing faith in jail, telling media personality Big Bank Black, “I was locked up 23 hours a day. At some point, I just didn’t care.” That’s what jail is designed to do. There are numerous studies about solitary confinement’s deleterious psychological effects. Thug also told Big Bank that he’s still feeling the emotional and mental toll of jail and losing numerous friends during the trial. Yesterday, he made tweets about suicidal ideation. Those admissions have fallen on deaf ears to rap fans conditioned to view artists not as human beings, but as a means of consumption.

The music industry demands ceaseless motion from big-ticket acts like Thug. He’s probably lost out on millions of dollars in missed opportunities and legal fees over the past three years, and may feel like the show must go on, even as he’s questioning how he can. There are many models of care for people returning to society from jail, to treat their “unmet psychological health needs;” being ridiculed as part of the reductive, callous celebrity matrix isn’t one of them.

Instead of joking about his album or making Shaderoom fodder of his jail calls, we should probably think more about what he’s admitted to going through mentally, and how it was all the result of a shitty RICO case where Thug’s lyrics were manipulated to postulate that he was a criminal kingpin. Even if the trial was a bust, Fulton County DA Fani Willis effectively decimated Atlanta’s biggest musical movement at the time. The leak of Gunna’s plea hearing fractured his relationship with Thug, and the jail calls, which people were making public records requests for from DeKalb County, may have upended this generation of the Atlanta rap scene. And at the root of it all, the state is to blame. As I said recently, none of this had to happen.

I understand that Thug is a figure of ire now after the jail phone calls and constant torment of Gunna, but many things can be true at once. Would people be this insensitive about this album if they didn’t feel like they were clapping back at him on behalf of Gunna? Even if one thinks his “snitch” energy toward Gunna is cruel and misguided, it doesn’t justify us doing the same to him. The shift in his public image is self-inflicted, but we can still be considerate of how jail adversely affects someone’s psyche, including their creative mojo. We too easily dehumanize artists and expect them to be music machines, no matter what they’re going through, mocking them when we’re disappointed with the results.

It sounds like Thug’s still feeling his way back around the studio. I’m not ready to call him “washed,” like fans conditioned to disposal culture are soing. Maybe it’s just a matter of finding a new creative groove.

random thoughts

• Assata Shakur passed last week, and I haven’t seen many hip-hop artists at all pay tribute to her. I’d be surprised how many 30-and-under artists could even tell you much about her. That’s not solely on them; it’s a reflection of what we prioritize, extol, and teach, but it’s pretty depressing regardless. As I wrote before (with Timmhotep Aku), hip-hop is the world’s most popular tool of communication, yet its links to the Black radical tradition are pretty much relegated to indie rap. That doesn’t bode well for the masses. More on this at another time.

• Interestingly, at the same time people are bemoaning a lack of superstars in hip-hop, NBA Youngboy is selling out an arena tour, and I don’t hear much fanfare about it. I’ve always said that if an artist can sustain a nationwide arena tour, they’re a superstar…it seems like YoungBoy’s been doing that. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the fanbase seems to be mostly comprised of the Black youth who get forgotten and unconsidered in so many other ways.

• I’ll take this NFL Sunday to note that medical examiners diagnosed the man who committed a deadly shooting at the NFL’s New York headquarters with CTE. He had only played high school football; what does that say for college and pro players of today?

updates

I realize it’s difficult for people to keep up with what I have going on, so I’m going to put it all in one section. In recent weeks, I’ve written about artists geo-blocking their music from Israel on streaming services as part of the No Music For Genocide movement, and Cardi B’s recent album rollout. I also spoke to Tyriq Withers about his role in HIM, as well as Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist about Alfredo 2 and everything else they’re up to.

Last week, I announced my representation with Cooke McDermid Literary Agency; I’ll have more to share about what I’m working on later. I also appreciate Da Chicken Shack’s spotlight piece about my work.

This is a free newsletter. Those who wish to support can contribute here:

cash.me/$andrejgee

Venmo: Andre-Gee

paypal.me/andregee

Add me on Twitter and IG.