Thugga and Guwop again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4gmGYhr-7k
We went too long without some Young Thug content. Recently a friend of mine made a Facebook post asking for the "best rap lyricist" and some of the replies he got made me sad. Like one guy said "Eminem, Slug, Aesop, and Brother Ali are my faves. They're all unique but top tier imo." hmm well there's one thing that isn't so unique about each of them hmmmmmmm. Other people unironically saying Watsky and Macklemore. This is what my blog is for: to provide a counterforce to these people's opinions, opinions similar to the ones I had when I was 13-16. I take this task about as seriously as I should, I think.
I said Gucci Mane, of course, and the true heroes liked my reply. His verse here is just lifted from the Trap House 4 intro but it's so good it could be used in a thousand songs without any sort of diminishing returns. The way he coughs in the intro alone is such a declaration, an encapsulation of his entire person in a single non-word. Every line of the verse is substantial, packed with vivid descriptions of a lifestyle, pop culture references, and clever braggadocio. "If Gucci Mane got so much money then why he robbin'?" is a classic Gucci existential/practical question, up there with "Why they call you Gucci Man and you head to toe Louie?" from "Don't Look at Me", or this classic from "Dope Boys"... something about the sudden "outsiderness" of the now 3rd-person perspective, it's both endearing and intimidating, it suddenly makes Gucci an "other" that you feel now more "distant" from, but, since you feel "closer" to him than the speaker asking the question, there's a different type of intimacy. Hmm.
But soon after that, we are distracted from these concerns with perhaps my favorite proclamation in all of 2015 music: Young Thug saying "Thugga and Guwop again". If you don't listen to rap music, you might liken this to something like "McCartney and Lennon again". And the way it comes after that legendary Gucci verse, it's like... the proof has preceded the statement such that the power of the statement isn't new information, but an articulation of your present feelings. Like when the opening title of a movie comes up after some definitive excellent scene.
And the whole feeling of "again", like, there's a direct acknowledgement of their legacy, of the minimum quality of their collaboration, of all the elements that it entails... And, of course, Thugger delivers, with a verse that again is packed with classics like "I don't speak English" or "Edumacation abort" and operates on a level of linguistic duality where the meaning and sound of words are both idealized and unimportant. Masterpiece again.
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