Young Thug’s five favourite albums of all time
When Young Thug mentions rap, one thing that picks him out is a glint in his eye, as behind all the diamonds and the layabout, he is a student of the game.
Recently, during an Adin Ross stream, Thugger left a list of his top five favourite albums of all time, full of a handful of legends, peers and his crown jewel. It is the type of a list which tells as much about his two-sidedness of being a bizarre character with intellectual insight, or an underground man conscious of his heritage and vision of himself, straight from the heart.
The interesting thing about his list is the way in which it links varied periods to one another, with two icons of the 1990s, two of the 2010s and one of his own group making appearances. It is the voice of a rapper who knows his origin and his demographic and feels like he is a link in the lineage of Tupac to Gunna.
Concisely, the five selections by the Atlanta native are like a roadmap to the creative DNA that informs his self-belief, melody, emotional depth and street poems sewn into something strikingly misfit yet cohesive.
So Much Fun – Young Thug (2019)
Any artist will have a record that they would go to death defending, and in the case of Thugger, that record is So Much Fun. It is nothing but self-awareness on his part that he has included his own project in a list of giants for this was his mainstream coronation. The album featured a blend of his anarchic melodies and stadium-ready production, bringing forth the sound of an artist who is at the mercy of his weirdness.
Thug has frequently cited So Much Fun as the first occasion when he simply lost control, with the name itself suggesting that it is playful, bright and unpredictable. It’s the type of record that propelled Thug to the status of an innovator and a top-charting artist, and while it is no patch on the other picks of his list, he’s just proud of what he has created, and that’s how artists should aim high.
The Black Album – Jay-Z (2003)
Close to no rap albums serve as the epitome of legacy as Jay-Z’s The Black Album. It is appropriate that Thug should include it as he has always envied Hova’s combination of business and poetry and his power to make retirement sound like a movie. Songs such as ‘Encore’ and ‘What More Can I Say’ determined what Thug thinks about exit strategies and staying power, and established Jay-Z at the top of the rap food chain.
Thug has reiterated this sentiment in interviews when he described Jay-Z as one of the last great bosses. The album’s sound and aura speak to Thug himself, evidence that being on top of commercial success means being on top of creativity and not in spite of it.
Take Care – Drake (2011)
Take Care changed the musical landscape for the melodic rappers, and it is no wonder that Thug admires it. The album provided vulnerability with a glassy, nocturnal touch, which led such artists as him to give the balance between the pain and pop a try, rendering a consciousness that a rap cut could sound like a break-up.
The fact that Thug includes Take Care is also an intimate insight into his personal melodic performance, which is fragile, unpredictable and reflects that emotional openness. To him, Drake not only produced hits, he simply reinvented the wheel on what rap could sound and feel like.
All Eyez on Me – 2Pac (1996)
The shadow of 2Pac can never evade him, and Thug does not attempt to gloss over it either, and the fact that All Eyez on Me is one of his favourite albums demonstrates his admiration of the mythology of rap. The double album is all that Thug adores made bigger-than-life, emotional, contradictory and fearless.
The combination of suffering and resistance is something that Thugger has continued to glean from the music of 2Pac, with his view of art as confession and a weapon, harking to the fallen rapper’s work. The inclusion of All Eyez on Me is Thug attempting to pay tribute to the unlovable reality that made hip hop dangerous in the first place.
DS4Ever – Gunna (2022)
The last choice that made many eyebrows peak, for although Thug has fallen out publicly with Gunna, the rapper did not hesitate to identify DS4Ever as one of his favourites. It is a wakeup call that music cuts across individual politics, and that an album soaked in opulence and gloom that replicates the melodic trap sound that they created together stands out as a labour of love over anything else.
Thug keeps DS4Ever on his list, showing that he still values art over war. He saw in Gunna, even as their friendship broke, the same seeking of perfection which he requires in himself, a bittersweet addition coming from admiration with a distance, but that is what makes it a true favourite.