Known for his classic mixtapes & collaborations, Jeffery Lamar Williams A.K.A Young Thug built a name/reputation for himself through adding his own unique sound to the Trap genre whilst birthing and influencing many artists that followed. After venturing out to country music, building up his own Record label and appearing on mega Pop single ‘Havana’ what was next for Thug?
On Jeff’s birthday August 16 2019 his debut studio album ‘So Much Fun’ would release and cultivate everything he’s done - bringing his most mainstream and successful project to date. Originally under the title ‘GOLDMOUFDOG’ (stylised as GØŁDMØÜFDÖG) the album would be changed to ‘So Much Fun’ because he wanted listeners to “take it as it is”. “If you not having fun or in a fun mood, don’t even play this album.” The title perfectly describes the project with every song filled with FUN, Jeff would say himself that there is no further meaning to the album
“because every song is like, it’s not even a point to the songs. All of the songs are like turn up, club radio… fucking parade music. Like it ain’t even no storylines to most of the songs.”
The album was supported by the successful single ‘The London’ featuring J. Cole and Travis Scott. Cole would enlist Young Thug to join him on the KOD Tour in 2018 which is when this track was originally recorded. Thug and Cole have clearly stated a lot of mutual respect for one another with Cole having this to say about Thugger’s unique ability:“If you wanna talk about Young Thug as an artist, he’s an innovator. If you know skills - you can call him a mumble rapper all you want - but if you know skills and you know the art of rapping - and you know like how you put words together and you know pockets and you know flows and know the things he’s doing with his voice - dude is a genius”.
It was heavily rumoured but never officially confirmed by the two, that J. Cole would be the executive producer of the album but his contributions seemingly never made it on the final version.
Thug consistently brings all the adrenaline and energy to each record on the album delivering the clearest vocals of his career whilst keeping those infectious inflections that fans love. The 19 song tracklist does not drag, with most songs being supported by his frequent collaborators. From the absurd back and forth with Future on ‘Sup Mate’, to the standout performances from Thug’s protégés Lil Baby, Gunna, Lil Keed & Lil Duke - at no point does it get boring. Further embracing his undeniable influence, ‘SMF’ also features appearances from Thug’s impacted artists: Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, Doe Boy, Quavo, Juice WRLD, Nav & Travis Scott. ‘So Much Fun’ would be Thug’s first US number one album and highest first week sales of his career with 131,000 album-equivalent units. It would also mark a positive turn in Thug’s career, as he ascended into superstar status. Despite not caring about numbers and commercial success, Jeffery would already see the outcome before it happened - having this to say:“I’ve been going through the storm, Once this album goes number one, the storm is over. The storm been calmed. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted it to be fun, because I felt like this album was going to go number one. I felt like it was going to be the highest-charting album in my career. I felt like everything that’s happening; I felt that it would happen and deep down I was going through a lot. That’s why I wanted to make it So Much Fun, because I wanted to really fall back on this and be like, ‘Damn, this is really [how I] overcome oppression and struggle.”
All excerpts from RELOAD VOLUME ONE
Read the story behind the album cover HERE