By: Alfonso Abreu
There’s something special about a rapper’s “first day out” of jail release. The vivid details of the time spent incarcerated, the lyrics that teeter the line between vulnerability and exhilaration, and just the overall “I’m back” moment that brings all eyes on them.
For two to four minutes, a rapper is able to flawlessly walk the tightrope between controversy and honesty, letting the music speak for them. It is the firm balance between the two in which rappers are able to still pursue a successful career or at least preserve their dignity. The Atlanta superstar Young Thug forgoes embracing the controversy, letting it both influence and take over the music for the purpose of maintaining relevancy.
In 2022, Thug and fellow members of the YSL Records (Young Stoner Life Records) were charged in a 56-count Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) act. Whilst spending over 900 days in confinement, Thug was in and out of courtrooms ,wondering if he’ll once again see outside of the four walls, while the internet was focused on both his legal and musical drama.
On his fourth studio album “UY Scuti,” named after one of the biggest-known stars in the universe (literally), Thug is aware of the status he had built before getting locked up and what he has to address coming back. That’s why the rollout of what was supposed to be his long-awaited return was overshadowed by the internet forcing a response; leaked jail calls of him gossiping about his musical peers, random rants on X, and a long emotional interview about the fraught relationship with rapper and former close friend, Gunna, all led to the rapper spiraling out of control.
It’s why the album’s opener, “Ninja,” has a sample of a state prosecutor from the YSL RICO case dubbing the rapper as “King Slime,” and the prosecutor speaks on the danger Thug brings to his communities. The sample is paired with dramatic production elements such as gospel singing and swelling orchestration. It’s in this opening track where he musically decides to dedicate the album to salvaging his reputation and maintain some of that stardom he had before getting locked up.
You can see the theme of reclamation come back in the outro and second lead single “Miss My Dogs” as Thug tries to balance sincerity and reputation. The song contains “heartfelt” apologies to everyone who was a victim of Thug’s leaked gossiping; Apologizing directly to Drake, Future, Lil Baby, and Mariah The Scientist, to name a few.
Over a cliche sappy sample of an AI soul band, Thug stretches his voice around, like a kid going through puberty, to at least add some emotion to what is already a manufactured apology. Lines which addresses his romantic partner and singer Mariah the Scientist (who appears twice on the album) “You was encouragin’ me on my bad days/You pick the kids up, despite me being away/That’s why every day you wake up, I’m tryna make you happy” carry such strong weight that is immediately undercut by attempts to appease to his musical colleagues (“Drizzy, you my brother/You know I ain’t goin’ against you, I got manners/Everything you did for the rap community, can’t ban you.”), a series of lines that come off as odd, considering we’re a year removed from Kendrick Lamar calling out Drake for exploiting Atlanta’s music scene. On what should be the album’s most vulnerable moment,it instead comes off as a PR move hoping to keep his connections still intact.
Throughout the record, there are glimmers of authentic vulnerability.
“Catch Me I’m Falling” is a track where he details his increasing hopelessness after every meeting with his lawyer (“Broke down in a cell, I heard my brother was gon’ turn/Lawyer asked me was I next, it’ll never be my turn.”) with subtle synths and soothing grooves from producers Wheezy and Southside.
“On The News” features an oddly hypnotic synth courtesy of the producer London on da track, allowing for the catchy yet upsetting hook loop around in your head (“Do you know how it feel to see your face hit the news, mate?/Mama call your phone, she boo-hoo-hoo”).
“Blaming Jesus” has a shaky falsetto from Thug over a delicate set of piano keys and somber vocal chops, which all come together to deliver what can be an encore to his intimate, tiny desk performance. The other emotional cut “Sad Spider” fail at hitting any emotional stride due to the stale whimpering singing coming off as an effort to gain sympathy from listeners; “I been cryin’ all day/I seen my brother turn rat in my face”, a shot at Gunna which holds no importance because it feels as if it is feeding the street-politics obsessed fans.
On the lead single, “Money On Money,” longtime duo Thug and Future come together for a song that comes off lazy attempt at recapturing the magic of their past collabs with uninspired production. Thug tries to recapture the explosive silliness from his 2019 studio album “So Much Fun” but fails cause what made that album work was the amount of vocal inflections Thug pulled from his bag of tricks, which barely come to play on “UY SCUTI” as Thug favored a more monotone delivery.
The two-parter “Whoopty Doo” comes as a cheap bid to cash in on a viral quote from his very lengthy “Perspektives With Bank” interview, which has been making its way on TikTok prior to the album’s release. The track falls apart as the fuzzy 808s and robotic synths, which sound like if the Millennium Falcon had built-in sub-woofers, demand a vocal performance full of the regular Thug yelps and screechings instead of the phoned-in delivery we’ve been given the past few years, even constant ad-libs throughout sound lifeless, it’s as if he was being forced to have fun.
That isn’t to say the album lacks any explosiveness from Thug.
On “Pardon My Back,” he raps with an inspired intensity, delivering humorous lines (I rock Saint Laurent, they think it’s gang clothes) and is bookended with a loud boasting Lil Baby verse that makes you believe he has another “My Turn” in him. The cinematic hushed choir vocal chops and dramatic chords provide this duo the perfect backdrop, coming straight out of the Dark Souls series. Unfortunately, that is all the energy you’ll get from Thug, as it seems he is more enthralled by internet fame and virality.
Case in point is the aforementioned opener “Ninja”, what comes tacked on to a verse full of dull flexing and absurd threats, is 30 seconds (yes 30 seconds) where he squeals the hard R. What is a “look guys I’m saying something I’m not supposed to say” moment instead comes across as a corny and pathetic punchline you’ll expect from an edgelord. Days later, following the album’s release, Thug hops on stream with famed right-winged streamer Adin Ross, with the same glee of a kid taunting his opponents after a game of pick-up basketball (fingerpoints and all). He raps along to his song, backed by thousands of white teenagers flooding the chat with “lmaos” and laughing emojis.
It’s saddening to see an artist who once delivered a magnum opus like “Slime Season 2” is now resorting to making a fool out of himself for precious internet points. It seems as if the music is the least of his concerns in the hopes of securing relevance.