Album: I’M UP
Artist: Young Thug
Label: 300 Entertainment
Release Date: Feb. 5
Grade: D
This mixtape is what happens when Young Thug reaches into his feeding trough and pulls out some “lit” slop.
I’M UP is a mercifully brief nine tracks, indistinguishable from any other Young Thug project. It lacks a cohesive theme and has no bars to remember, save for the opening cry of “F— cancer!”
It’s as if Young Thug is in competition with Future to see who can release the same project over and over again before their career implodes.
Judging by I’M UP’s sales figures – 21,851 in its first week – Future is winning the race to the codeine-soaked bottom.
While songs featuring dark, moody beats with empty bars and a boring sound are popular, Young Thug keeps recycling material with only slight alterations.
Listening to this mixtape is like watching the same scene over and over, with director trying to pass off the same scenes with dialogue and delivery changed slightly.
The only track with an ounce of novelty to it is “Bread Winners,” which boasts a different level of quality from the rest of the mixtape, and Young Butta’s guest appearance provides a great break from hearing Thugga’s voice.
The monotony of hearing Young Thug for so long, when he’s saying so little over such repetitious beats, is grating on the soul.
Like Future, Young Thug delivers strong singles. “Lifestyle” has the markings of a classic track, but there’s no reason for anyone to listen to him for 30 minutes at a time.
If this mixtape was a novel, it would be a generic by-the-numbers paperback thriller. Yet even the worst novel would be about something, a feat Young Thug has yet to achieve. He never takes a topic and raps about it.
Poor Young Thug is burning himself out. Where is the next installment in the Slime Season series? It seems he’ll just reach into the mud again and pull out a dozen more tracks, slap them together and call it an album.
Young Thug is an anonymous name for a man behind a non-descript output. If his goal is simply to enjoy where he is, then he is succeeding. But his stagnancy betrays a lack of ambition that also infects Future, Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa, Chief Keef and a ton of other rappers with nothing to say and a very one-note way of saying it.
Alexander Blum is an arts staff writer and can be reached at arts@ubspectrum.com.
