May 28, 2022

Hello SXN80,

Haven't posted in a while... Like some of you gentlemen (@LasiK) I've been a huge fan of Young Thug's leaked hidden gems, collecting the finest tracks and collabs that were never released, making fan compilations and all. While we all scream daily FREE YSL!!!, I'll post here quite regularly some of these (and also some very known ones of course), hoping to make some of you new fans of the genius, bizarre Young Thug, who was, in his 2014-2017 days, one of the best rappers/singers to ever brace the surface of this planet.

I'll start with collabs he made with the great RICH HOMIE QUAN. Of course Lifestyle and Flava are incredible, but the duo recorded so much more heat...
For instance, this great remix of Wayne's Grindin that surfaced online yesterday!!!!!!!



There's also the absolute b-----r "Aye" that I would describe in thousands of words if I were more fluent in english...



Third and last one for today: the perfect (perhaps more known) "Color Purple"...



Enjoy, discuss, and see you very soon for more Thug masterpieces.


FREE YSL

 

May 29, 2022

Let's start something else!

***
A VERY PERSONAL TOP 50 YOUNG THUG SONGS
***​

First I'll state what's obvious for any Thug fan: it's hard to make a top 50 Young Thug songs.
Really hard. Like, impossible.
I would be frustrated making a top 200, cause even that would mean cutting dozens of tracks I love.

So how to choose from here? How to rank? Well, these are the 100% arbitrary, questionable rules I made for myself:

• 1. When I hesitated between two tracks, I always sacrificed the more known one (even when it was slightly better) to make the list more interesting. You won't see timeless classics like "2 Cups Stuffed", "Best Friend", "Lifestyle", "Check", "Old English", "Danny Glover", "Stoner", "Good Times"... (<-- would be a solid top 8 thug songs of course, but we can go deeper)

• 2. Unfinished songs like "Ring", "Been Gettin Racks" or "Scoop" had to be left out even if they're absolutely great

• 3. I tried to include as few features as possible (final list: 44 solo songs and 6 collabs I think). Goodbye "Don't Know", "Anybody", "Imma Ride", "Flava", "Homie"...

• 4. No RHQ/Thug song (the duo did too many classics, makes it impossible to do this kind of list; hence why I began the thread with them. here are two more: )

• 5. It's ok to leave perfect songs out for no reason, even "Memo" or "Numbers", they won't feel sad or anything, it's just for a sxn80 thread

• 6. I can have some kind of "honorable mentions" before the top 50 to cheat a little. I can even put a lot of songs during this preliminary list of rules to cheat even more. (So the top 50 is a top 100 in disguise really)

• 7. Ranking order could change tomorrow and doesn't really matter

hope you'll enjoy the ride

TOP 50 STARTING SOON
FREE YSL

 

May 29, 2022

Thug and RHQ are the best duo in the history of music and im not exaggerating and it’s not close

 

Jun 7, 2022

Very busy IRL these days, but I got half an hour finally - let's go! sorry for how short the little descriptions are, will try to make the next ones longer

50. Blue Emerald
Thug has only put out a handful of truly great tracks since 2017's BTG - Blue Emerald is one of them. The song is labeled "Rich g---" - has that woken something up in Thug's inspiration? These glorious little "whew"/"yee" adlibs in the intro seem to say so. On an infectious T-Minus beat, Thug delivers a classic chorus. Verses are pretty great too, but quite symptomatic of recent Thug's attempts at simplifying his flows - it's a little repetitive (for Thug, of course) yet so effective.


49. Abrakadabra
On a great instrumental that kinda sounds like a 2009 Daft Punk simplistic draft, '14 Thug takes his time to build the crescendo. No hook. Would have been a great intro track!


48. Ecstasy (OG)
Without MGK's verse of course.
Sometimes Thug must feel like... the beat doesn't quite work yet? and just finishes it with text and adlibs (famous example is Jeffery's Kanye West of course)- it's the case here, and it just slaps. What a hook. In the direct spirit of the 2017 Southside sessions, Thug doesn't hold back; high-pitched, rapid flows hit and don't stop. Is "I'm in the back with the killers, don't try that / My n----s gon' take all your mud, yeah" used for the RICO charges? Just free Young Thug!


47. Smash
Sometimes I think about Mystikal - he had the groovy flows; a raw, sometimes almost ODB-esque freedom; the pop-appeal... What's happened since Mystikal to let such a weird creature see the light of the mic? Lil Wayne, probably? From 2014 to 2017, Young Thug was pretty much unpredictable and d--- catchy at the same time; raw and polished; cold and emotionfull; etc. "Smash" is just another one of those genius, London-produced leaks



46. Big Dripper (feat. UnoTheActivist)
This one's interesting. Recorded in 2019, "Big Dripper" features a beautiful beat, and overrall a strange, melancholic atmosphere that the subpar UnoTheActivist verse doesn't manage to dissipate. It's a very nice exemple of recent Thug stepping aside more and more to let the beat breathe (which works with a nice production like here); he doesn't stand out anymore, he blends in.


45. Harambe
What can I say? Thug's vocal range is exceptional, and he proves it once more by emulating Louis Armstrong (of course one can also think of Screamin' Jay Hawkins or recent Tom Waits) on that classic song with a weird title.


]

44. Money (The Root)
A calm and soothing one! "Money is the root of all evil", Young Thug quietly sings. "I came out the dirt / I ain't never seen a church / I ain't have the patience to serve - work (So what?) / I'd rather get a mask and go lay and lurk". Oh, and "motherfuck the judge".


43. Again (feat. Gucci Mane)
Classic bop! London samples Gucci Mane's verse from Trap House 4's intro. Classic beat, classic hook, classic verse. I love little details here, like how Thug snaps out of his repetitive flow by simply breaking the word "narcotics" in half.


42. Daddy's Birthday
I like "Feel It", I love "For Y'all", but Daddy's Birthday is the definitive BTG song. The song he's tried to remake during the whole not-very-good "Punk" album. I think I read somewhere that Elton John recently told Young Thug to rap less and to sing more- he just sings less interesting melodies now.


41. Speed Racer
Metro Boomin and 2014/2015 Young Thug really were a match made in heaven. Not a top 5 Young Thug/Metro Boomin song, and still a top 50 Thug song. It's weird, it's raw; it's dark, it's pop, it disperses in all directions, and yet it's perfect.



40-31 coming soon!

 

Jun 1, 2022

***
15 breathtaking leaks that could have made the final list
***​

15. Patek

Hesitated between "Plays out a Bentley", "Hoe Tendencies", "Give You More", this and other tracks, but despite an unfinished mixing, Patek is a true classic Thugger song. I was trying to quote parts of first, then second verse, but every part just grooves, every flow works ; does Thug sing? does he rap? is this a verse, is that a bridge? well that was never really how Young Thug "constructs" his songs, and that's part of what makes them so mesmerizing.


14. Streets (feat. T.I.)

Waited like the Christ by some (the snippet was known as "Beast Mode"), Streets finally leaked a few days ago. First thing you notice when hitting play, of course, is the beautiful London beat. And when Thug starts his "bridge" thing ("b---- I do my thing give me my credit on my debit
I wanna see spaghetti if you run around being petty") no mistakes can be made: this is that classic 2014 Thug sound.

13. Best Thing Of All Time

"You should try to taaaaaaalk to me." is just the first of dozens of lines that may get stuck in your head for days. Particularly love how he makes the crescendo works at the beginning of the first verse.

12. Doing it Big

A Wheezy beat again! Nothing special about that beat though, Thug does everything. With a raspy voice, he raps:
"b----, I got green like a lobster
f--- all these hoes like a pornstar
My momma she said I'm a born star
We got that stuff white like a corn starch
I tatted my body like king toes
We let that s--- fly like flamingos
That b---- done lucked up like a bingo
I think that I'm Future, the peacoat"

He's doing this s--- for sure.

11. Proud Of Me

There aren't many Young Thug that catch you by the sample used - it's the case here! You don't really expect that 90s eurodance sound for a Thug song, but it works perfecty (2014 Thug basically never missed). "Please free La Flare ! I know he's gonna be proud of me."

10. Homicide When We Ride

Now we enter less catchy, bizarre, lowkey "fragile" Thug territory, that doesn't hesitate to break a momentum to create another one. Switching voices (you can hear that 2016 "Harambe" voice), stretching vowels, he never loses the listener.

9. Perc

We should have gotten that SouthsideThuggin album back in 2017. It's a whole style, it's an instantly recognizable color. It's cold. It's crisp. Thug raps with a high-pitched, very well-mixed voice. Precise flows HIT. Would have been a pure rap album, and it was, in my opinion, Thug's last artistic peak. Tracks leaked here and there though, b-----r, b-----r, b-----r; everyone made his fanmade album. "Perc" is just one of those. Pop me a perc... Pour up some purp... There are also "Mutha f--ka", "Ok", "Penthouse", "Ha ha"... And then some that couldn't be left out of my top 50 list... They're all great! Thank you mister Williams. Hope you will soon be free.

8. 10 Years (feat. Future)

Here goes my first really unpopular Young Thug opinion I think: "10 Years" is the best Future/Thug collab. yeah it's simple, it's humble, laid back, but it just works, it slaps; there's a real chemistry that, quite frankly, is often absent from their collaborations, and I just can't get enough of it. I love the beat, I love their flows, I'll listen to it till the day I die.

7. Die For You

Thug is hip-hop; what else? He draws from rock, from r&b, from blues, from jazz even. So everytime he visits, he's given an enthusiastic welcome by the people of guitars.

6. Ain't Rocking Gold (feat. Playboi Carti)

A very, very good 2019 leak. Thug delivers a CLASSIC hook over a beautiful, addictive London beat... Would have loved a verse and Carti's isn't very good, but it's still magical.

5. f----- Up

I admit, I don't really know how to talk about that song. It's some serious s---. Thug talks, sincerely, pours his heart out, and now he's rapping very fast -when did he start rapping? He's singing at the top of his lungs now, and then attacks the second verse. "I'd rather be a rose than a rat any day!" It's raw, it's catchy, and it's one of the best Thug leaks.

4. 420

Back to that 2014, classic Thug/London sound, with these "ayyyyye" adlibs. Thug doesn't need a hook. It's kinda unfinished and ends abruptly (couldn't Rich Homie Quan record a final verse to this?) so I left it out the final list, but I'll never have enough of these.

3. Ha ha

Over a menacing Southside beat, 2017 Thug displays just how good a songmaker he is. Incredible track. Oh, and that little trembling thing he does when singing "overseeeeas on a boat eating crepes", that he loved doing during these southside sessions... So catchy, d---!

2. Cloud 9

A very famous, old school leak. Recorded in 2014 over a London beat that kinda sounds like Dre's "Gone" featuring Kendrick Lamar, "Cloud 9" has Autotune Thug with full powers.

1. Paper Terminator

Another 2019 leak (there were so many); another "perfect mess" of a song, another example of how effective Thug's "automatic" writing is when he's inspired.



Alright alright! Lots of songs in this thread already, I'm glad... Hope that will start some discussion about these gems, maybe y'all disagree with some of my takes? Top 50 starts soon anyway!

 

May 31, 2022

ha other omissions on my humble list might sadden you too... this is too hard man! I had to sacrifice some, even randomly like I said, to put emphasis or some... more underrated songs maybe? Putting Killed Before and 2 Cups Stuffed in the OP helped me coping

(((right now i'm trying to write a little something for each of "15 breathtaking leaks worth mentioning before entering the top 50", but writing "well" in english isn't so easy for me, it takes some time. coming v. soon though)))

 

May 31, 2022

fr one of my favourite thug songs.

fun fact: the guitar on Killed Before is a Splice loop.

2018 based on the leak tracker

 

May 30, 2022

This isn't the Eminem thread.