Last month, Young Thug announced his upcoming project EBBTG (or Easy Breezy Beautiful Thugger Girls) as his "singing album," which got us thinking, isn't every Young Thug project a singing album to some extent? The Atlanta rapper has never been shy to approach melody; his earliest attempts being largely inspired by his favorite rapper of all time (and also one he experienced some indirect conflict with) Lil Wayne. In a 2014 interview with Complex, Thug named Wayne's "Steady Mobbin'" (one of Wayne's most sugary hooks) and "Eat You Alive" (one of the rapper's strangest vocal experiments) as two of his favorite songs from his idol. In the years since, Thug has taken that blueprint and made something all his own, rarely rapping without adding some sort of tunefulness to his vocals and always pushing his voice in unexpected directions.
While singing in some form or another is present on the majority of Thug songs, it's almost always weaved into rapping, to the point it can be a tough thing to properly classify his vocals. EBBTG seems like it could be the first project that Thug establishes the line between rapping and singing, and while we can't say for sure what it will sound like, some of Thug's more melodic moments should supply a few hints.
In this list, we're looking back through 10 songs from Thug's career that could bear comes clues to the "singing" album he's promised. Click through the galleries above to listen to our selections.
Keep In Touch
An early classic in the Young Thug canon, "Keep In Touch" is both one of Thug's greatest departures from rap conventions and one of his most traditionally structured tracks. In other words, it's a pop song through-and-through. A strikingly emotional synth-string riff provides the backbone of the song, dancing over a mid-tempo drum track that moves the track into ballad territory. Thug's hook is high-register but decidedly restrained by his standards. For a vocalist whose methods are often described (accurately) as "weird" and (less so) as "incomprehensible," "Keep In Touch" is Thug as clear-eyed and focused as we've ever heard him. If this were not released a few years before he really broke, it could have easily been a hit.
#TwitterSong
2011 was a year we saw the brightest and most sugary hooks coming out of Atlanta with tracks like Soulja Boy's "Xan With That Lean" and Futures star-making appearance on YC's "Racks." "#TwitterSong" has the same genetic makeup as those tracks, mixed in with the sweet innocence of "Kiss Me Thru The Phone." However, phones were passé in 2011, and wouldn't return for a nostalgic comeback in rap songwriting until 2015-2016 with "Hotline Bling" and "Pick Up The Phone." In 2011, Twitter was still a new and exciting way to communicate, and a title you could drop without sounding corny, or at least one you could pull off if you weren't worried about sounding corny. Thug did just that by giving us the best Twitter love story ever told. The gimmicky concept and self-censored version present on I Came From Nothing 2 made it clear that this was Thug's attempt at a radio single. The hook is simple and catchy as hell, and finds Thug pulling out a very sweet singing voice that predicts the "emo-rap" melodies we'd later hear from Lil Uzi Vert.
Lifestyle
When it comes to Young Thug's singing, there is probably no more recognizable moment than his "Lifestyle" hook, which is ironic considering most people probably couldn't recite it. Still his highest peak on the Hot 100, the bright, ascendant melodies on "Lifestyle" are Thug's most successful pop performance on that scale. Paired with London's glossy chords, the song sounds expertly A&Red in a way many of the rapper's songs do not (which often works to their benefit, but not always). With Drake taking on the role as executive-producer on EBBTG, perhaps we'll hear more of these cleanly crafted singles, and subsequently, another hit of this magnitude.
Numbers
"Numbers" continues where Rich Gang The Tour Part 1 left off. Produced by London On Da Track, the warm keys and swelling bassline introduce a wash of filtered and reversed Thug harmonies as a backdrop to the rapper's lead. Thug is in rap mode for much of the record, and his hook remains rhythmic as ever, but also features one of the catchiest melodies across Barter 6. The simplicity of the rap-influenced chorus is offset by the expertly arranged backing vocals that accompany it, once again adding layers of complexity to the rapper's natural melodic gift.
Never Made Love
Young Thug's collaborations with Rich Homie Quan have allowed him to explore more complex songwriting arrangements. As an equally melodic vocalist, Quan helped Thug to find the overlap between ad-libs and harmonies. "Never Made Love" is one of their most adventurous hooks. Over a slick bassline, the two vocalists sound more like an R&B group than a rap duo. Thug's titular declaration "She never made love, never made love," is filtered into a textured refrain that's complimented by Quan exclamations and Thug's own worldless wails. It's not too far off from what we heard Future do across his more pop-inflected moments with Mike WiLL and most recently on 2017's HNDRXX. Judging by the trap and R&B synthesis we've seen with newer artists like Bryson Tiller and 6LACK, "Never Made Love" could be an effective blueprint for Thug's next move. Then again, he's never been one to play by the rules.
That's All
"That's All" is as poppy and high BPM as Thug gets. It's a reminder that a "singing" album doesn't necessarily need to slow the tempo at all. Thug puts his whole body into the bright melodies on the track, giving them an upward momentum that contrasts the dark textures Atlanta rap has become accustomed to ever since "Commas." With the rise of major key post-trappers like Lil Yachty, there's a whole new market for this kind of record. In some ways, it's a throwback to his ICFN2 days, a sound he's been revisiting less and less as time goes on, but one he still owns whenever he does.
No Wendy's
Drake's "Controlla," much like the dancehall riddims it borrowed from, inspired a number of remixes (even if some didn't admit the fact). One of the more unexpected takes on the Caribbean-influenced instrumental came from Young Thug, who also came up with the best title of any of his peers: "No Wendy's." Dancehall embraced auto-tune as a standard long before Future ensured it was more than just a fad among rappers, so Thug's sing-rap style sounds perfectly comfortable over the instrumental (though he goes dry on the effects). He adjusts his delivery just enough to pay tribute to the vocalists who inspired the sound he's experimenting with, but he's also far from predictable in his melodic choices. Seeing that Drake is set to executive-produce Thug's upcoming EBGGT, and the current abundance of dancehall and Afrobeat sounds in rap, "No Wendy's" could be a good indicator of some of the music we'll be hearing on the project.
Kanye West
"Kanye West" finds Thug playing with both genre and vocal timbre, working with Wyclef Jean on what might be a more effective take on the Trap & Roll he attempted with Waka Flocka. While melody has become an inseparable part of rap vocals in the last few years, Wyclef is an example of a rapper who always used his strong singing voice as an asset. Here, Thug is an impressionable protege, letting off throaty bellows, quick high-register accents and everything in between, using the drumless breaks to let loose on an emotional pre-chorus that pulls from some of the classic reggae Jean has been known to tap into.
RiRi
It's no surprise that "RiRi" was the one song on Young Thug's JEFFERY that he named after a pop singer. The Billboard Hitmakers beat is crisp and dynamic enough for Rihanna herself, and it's not lost on Thug, who gives us a ambitious hook that he may not have nailed a few years ago, but is able to support as he becomes a more powerful vocalist. It's also one of his most fluid performances in terms of merging rapping and singing. He never revisits his original verse melody, instead introducing new elements during each break between hooks. It gives the song a forward momentum that makes every chorus land with more muscle than the last.
SAFE
Released this February and quite possibly set to appear on EBBTG, "SAFE" is one of the best indicators we have for what the project will sound like. Auto-tuned ever-so-lightly, there's a lot of texture in Thug's voice on the ballad. Scratches, cracks, and squeals are audible as he reaches both to the top and bottom of his range. It makes for a physical vocal performance and one that matches the vulnerability of its central refrain: "I spend more money on security than I make/Just to be safe, dawg/Gotta make it home." This is the other side of Thug's "Lifestyle," and a perspective we'll likely hear more of on EBBTG.