#58: Young Thug — Jeffery (2016)
Atlanta, GA — 300, Atlantic
Young Thug! Straight out of trap capital Atlanta, Jeffery Lamar Williams is hands down one of this last generation’s biggest and most influential trap artists, with a large discography I’m mostly well-acquainted with. Jeffery, his 16th mixtape, was released in 2016 to much acclaim and discord, as is usual with Thugger, and is today one of his most paradigmatic records, even if at the time it wasn’t as impactful and iconic as Barter 6 or the Slime Season series, for example [citation needed]. It’s also not as long as most of his other releases at the time, clocking in at a modest 42 minutes (38 if you skip the bonus track with Travis Scott and Quavo). How and why, then, did I elect this mixtape among the plethora of other releases by our friend?
One step at a time. We can start by talking a little about the cover art: in stark contrast with the norm for standard trap aesthetics (bands, jewels, guns, women, maybe some horrorcore elements), Thugga wears an androgynous, almost angelical garb designed by Alessandro Trincone, something that caused quite the ruckus across social media at the time. It was far from just a publicity stunt, though: beyond his well-documented interest in avant-garde fashion and occasional disregard for gendered aesthetics, two main staples of his artistry are casual experimentalism and off-the-wall-ness, and starting in 2015 his output became more and more original and authorial, and Jeffery is a turning point in this process.
One thing I’ve always loved about trap is how it’s so unafraid of getting weird as fuck (mostly production-wise) without taking itself seriously as an avant-garde or experimental thing. It’s nothing pretentious, usually guys are just working mostly within eclectic but set frameworks rather than trying to reinvent the genre, but sometimes the end result will be something that’s partially or entirely outside the curve, be it regarding rapping, production or whatever; I personally put that on trap’s generally vibe-centric and “fuck it, we ball” attitude. I think most if not all important trap or trap-adjacent artists, across generations, did that at some point: Gucci Mane, Zaytoven, Future, T.I., Metro Boomin, Playboi Carti, Chief Keef, Jeezy, you name it, they’ve all been at the forefront of something shocking and new at some point. And I think Young Thug might be the one that best understood how to instrumentalize that weirdness in a way that’s both completely loyal to himself and works within a pop framework at the same time.
Nine out of ten rap fans will agree that the most memorable characteristic about Thugger’s music is his androgynous, quirky voice and flexible, off-kilter delivery style. It’s not always that he flexes it to its full extent, and most of my least-enjoyed projects by him are the ones where he boxes himself into a more generic, tame style (So Much Fun and Punk come to mind). I am glad to inform that Jeffery, however, absolutely does not fall into that category. Thugga’s many weird little voices and yells and whines are not for everyone, that’s for sure, but I for one am head over heels for it, and this project has some of the most extravagant examples of this I’m aware of. Harambe, my favorite track off of Jeffery, is practically a smorgasbord of what he’s capable of: he shouts, whines, growls, whispers, howls, sobs, croaks, his voice cracks like he’s thirteen every other bar, he goes from low to high registers and back again like it’s nothing, and it’s absolutely glorious — absurd comparison alert: it reminds me a little of Bethlehem’s Dictius Te Necare in terms of batshit vocals.
Performance and musicality are the core of Young Thug’s thing, and you can honestly pretty much ignore every word he says. While you won’t miss out on much, there actually is some pretty clever writing in here, with more than just a few surprisingly witty double entendres and references in almost every track. Theme-wise it’s mostly the usual trap topics: having money, smoking the best weed, wearing luxury brands, having a worryingly active sex life, et coetera, but there is a noticeable, if incipient and frankly kind of insignificant, theme or concept around this album. It is that of Thugger naming each track off of one of his idols or role models: Wyclef Jean, Floyd Mayweather, Swizz Beatz, Future, Rihanna, etc. The tracks themselves, though, have little or nothing to do with the people they’re titled after. The guest verses are also nothing to write home about, ranging from mostly OK to thoroughly unconvincing, not to say not daring at all — the exception being Wyclef Jean’s verse on Kanye West, which rules mightily (yes, Wyclef is a featured artist in one track and also the title of a completely different track, and so is Gucci Mane).
And, by the way, let me just jot this down real quick before I forget to: the videoclip for Wyclef Jean is unbelievable, absolutely incredible. Whatever it is you might be expecting, I guarantee you, it’s a hundred times better. Seriously, go watch it right now and then come back here and tell me how right I am:
Moving on to the beats. There is some variety in the producer roster here, but nothing too crazy, with TM88, Wheezy and the Billboard Hitmakers dominating most of the spots; notably, there are no beats by London on da Track, one of Thugga’s most prolific contributors and the one that has the best chemistry with him in my opinion. The beats are consistently top-notch, and noticeable diverse and different, with stuff like Wyclef Jean’s dancehall-influenced groove or Future Swag’s aggressive, techno-esque bass stabs giving each song its particular energy and identity. However, no matter how different they might be, he’s always fairly comfortable and in his lane on them.
It’s one of his defining characteristics: the ability to sound good on any type of beat, to adapt his performance to the exact vibe needed. Another one of those is his unholy ability to summon the catchiest, most perfect hooks and choruses seemingly out of thin air. His verses might not be mind-blowing, but it’s seriously amazing how he combines mellifluous cadences, catchy melodies and surprising adlibs (the mwah mwahs and erk erks and womp womps don’t let me lie). He takes that trap ethos of making your voice become part of the instrumentation and takes it to its limit, practically melding himself with the beat while still delivering cleanly and powerfully. Some rappers are best with wordplay, some are technical flow prodigies, some tell stories like no one else, and Young Thug is one of hip-hop’s most powerful hook machines.
Most of my favorite songs by him are elsewhere. Similarly, my personal favorite beats and guest verses are mostly not in here. However, Jeffery is still my favorite Thugger because it just manages to flow perfectly from start to end, allows him to freely but tastefully flex his muscles and do what he’s best at. We live in a time where it can be kind of hard to talk about classic records, given the current state of the recording industry and media consumption, and even more so when trap-pop is the genre in question; I do fully believe, however, that this is one of the biggest classics the genre has produced in this last decade.
Favorite tracks
Wyclef Jean (prod. TM88 & Supah Mario): great mid-verse flow switches, wide variety of delivery styles and surprisingly well-developed verses, all over that delicious reggae beat. And, of course, it has one of the greatest music clips of our age to boot. “Okay, my money way longer than a NASCAR race (Slatt)/ I told her keep going on the gas, fuck the brakes […] Boolin’, rockin’ all the Franck Muller (Slatt, slatt)/ I know some hoes with good head, fuck a tutor (Slatt, slatt)”
RiRi (prod. Wheezy & Billboard Hitmakers): suddenly slower, more emotional, almost confessional. Great writing (for his standards), somehow connected to his feminine side and all, with one of his greatest whiny choruses to date, which interpollates Rihanna’s Work. “Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, work, ayy/ Do the work, baby, do the work (Yeah)/ Tonight, baby, do the work, baby, do the work/ Tonight I wanna chill, so you gotta do the work, ayy (Rihanna, yeah)”
Harambe (prod. Billboard Hitmakers): this is the one, folks. Harambe is probably tied with Check for my favorite Thugga song ever, for good reason: absurd vocals, lyrics, beat, everything about this makes me want to recreate that GIF of the kid slapping a paper towel roll and throwing a stool. Untouchable masterpiece, is what this is. “Bentley wheelin’ nigga, bad killer nigga, back it up/ Bands kill a nigga fast, will a nigga back it up?/ Apeshit, nigga, Godzilla, nigga, act up/ Go apeshit, go Godzilla, bae, back it up”
