Young Thug

The Good:

Young Thug & Bloody Jay - Black Portland

I'm not a big Future fan, but I enjoy Ty Dolla $ign's Auto-Tune ballads. Chief Keef doesn't really do it for me, but I can certainly mess with King Louie and his brand of Chicago gangsta rap. I think Migos is just alright, but I think I love Young Thug.

Let me clarify why I just listed all those inconsistencies within my music taste.

I've listened to Black Portland a lot over the last few days. In fact, I can't stop listening to it. I've probably listened to this mixtape more over the past year than any artist not named Chance the Rapper or Vic Mensa. And it's not necessarily because it's good. It's just...so different.

Young Thug is an Atlanta native who's been receiving a lot of hype as artists like Migos and Future have been rising out of the Hotlanta scene. He was just recently signed to Future's Freebandz label if that gives you any idea how big this kid is.

But he's not like the banger-producing Migos or the Auto-Tune-heavy Future. You might be able to convince me he's somewhere in between the two, but it'd be hard because Young Thug isn't much like any rapper. His stature is a mix of 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa, he's got a septum piercing and his facial tattoos would make Lil Wayne look clean-cut. But above all that, he sounds different.

Before I go any further, let me just comment on Bloody Jay really quickly. Bloody Jay is a fine rapper. In fact, he's probably a better rapper than Young Thug, since he follows the rules of conventional rap. But he's not skilled enough that he makes up for not being as eccentric as Thug.

Okay, now back to the reason this album is relevant at all: Young Thug. As I mentioned, he doesn't really follow conventional rap wisdom. And by that I don't mean he uses weird samples or anything like that. He literally just takes the typical hip-hop formula and throws it away. Verses to him are like prolonged choruses--another way to garner the attention of the listener. And when Bloody Jay is spitting a verse, there's Young Thug hooping and hollering in the background.

It's these random ad-libs, Thugger's yells seem to bring Black Portland to a whole new level. I've been finding myself mumbling "Fluda wuta" (from "Florida Water") to myself throughout the day. Or shouting, "I'm foreva bladdy!" from "4Ever Bloody." It sounds insane and it probably is. But here I am, a hip-hop blogger from Ohio, raving over this Atlanta rapper for what he's shouting.

There's clear influences from early Lil Wayne, which is kind of what makes him good. And the production, while not drifting too far from the Southern norm, does a good job of fitting to Thugger. But the real reason Black Portland is not just worth a listen, but actually pretty damn good, is because of Young Thug's eccentric, over-the-top, goofy-ass style.