Young Thug – Beautiful Thugger Girls

By Harry Cunnungham

Young Thug is truly one of the leading contemporary creative forces in Hip-Hop’s wave/ evolution of trap-pop sub-genres. ‘Beautiful Thugger Girls’ isn’t much of a stylistic advancement in terms of his start-stop flow and roaming, stream-of-conscious lyrics – preaching about his extravagant lifestyle. But there’s a difference in tone that reinforces Young Thug’s originality.

Thugger rides the recent wave of organic sounds worked into trap, however there’s no flute instrumentals here. Similar to Post Malone’s 2016 single “Go Flex”, ‘Beautiful Thugger Girls’ seamlessly fuses R&B vocals, acoustic guitar instrumentals and trap kicks. The 14 track LP gives an insight into the numerous relationships around the 26 year old. Whether it’s with the women in his life, his 8 kids or his self perception. Although I wouldn’t look too deeply into this project’s inner meanings.

It’s stacked with bangers, but it’s not what you’d expect. Stand out tracks like “Daddy’s Birthday” present hooks that are mellow yet punchy -“New coupe, new shoes, ooh” “Red bottoms, I’m kicking shit, yeah I’m flossing on you fools”. “You Said” fully exposes Young Thugs talents as he serenades and flows over fast Spanish guitar work- “Say now, ooh, ooh, ooh”. Young Thug stays true to his original description of the album being a “Singing album”. However, toward the middle of the album, his tracks become more shallow and bland.  “On Fire” takes a minimalist turn compared to the rest of the album. The instrumental plops and bobs, expose Young Thug’s lacklustre repetition of simple, throw away flows. Even his feature with Snoop Dogg and Lil Durk was a slight disappointment. Although his creative lines gave the track some humour – “Roll up some gas, I’m not talkin’ a car”. The album ends on a positive note with “Take Care” followed by “For Ya’ll (feat. Jacquees)”. “For Y’all” is Spanish-trumpet-and-Flamenco-guitar-pop which keeps building on the good vibes. Thugger’s creativity paid off once again, as he produced a menu of tracks that have organic originality and are catchy as hell.

FAVOURITE TRACKS: For Y’all, Relationships, Daddy’s Birthday

RATING: 7.5/10

STREAM: Spotify