Young Thug released his first studio album in 2019, which debuted at number 1. However, he’d been making music since at least 2010.
Young Thug made his musical debut as a guest appearance on rapper TruRoyal’s song “She Can Go,” in 2010. His first single as a solo artist was “Stoner” released in 2014. The track reached number 47 on the Billboard 200.
Now let’s explore the life and career of Young Thug.
The Beginnings of Young Thug
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 16, 1991. He is the tenth of eleven children. His family was not well-off and resided in the Jonesboro South projects.
One of his brothers went to jail for murder and another was killed when Young Thug was in elementary school.
Thug reflected on his childhood, saying, “I was in the streets at eight, nine years old. I was going to school so my dad and mom would keep buying me clothes, but when I got out I did what I wanted to do—fighting, all kinds of s**t.”
When he was in the sixth grade, Thug’s life took a turn for the worse. He got into an altercation with a teacher. “I broke my teacher’s arm,” Thug explains.
He was expelled from school and was enrolled in a juvenile detention program for four years.
Young Thug remembered the time, saying, “Seven in the morning to six in the afternoon. No windows or nothing, like a real jail. Lot of punishment. I didn’t do shit there but gamble, smoke and f**k.”
Fortunately, Young Thug found the path to rapping. Talking about the early days of his rap career, he said, “Anyone can rap if you’ve got brains. So I just went with it.”
In 2010, when he was 19, Thug was featured on TruRoyal’s song “She Can Go,” giving him a taste of life as a rapper.
He then self-released three mixtapes which formed the series I Came from Nothing throughout 2011 and 2012.
The mixtapes caught the attention of rapper Gucci Mane, who then signed Thug to his label 1017 Brick Squad Records.
Through the label, Thug released another mixtape 1017 Thug, which received positive feedback, and was included in Pitchfork Albums of the Year: Honorable Mention and Complex’s The 50 Best Albums of 2013. It was also listed as number 5 on Rolling Stone’s 10 Best Mixtapes of 2013
Young Thug released his debut single “Stoner,” in 2014. The song charted as number 47 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It was certified gold for selling at least 500,000 copies.
Watch the music video for “Stoner”:
In 2014, Thug recorded “Highlights” with Kanye West, which reached number 41 on the US
R&B and Hip Hop chart. West commended Thug for being able to make songs so quickly.
Later the same year, Thug was signed to Lyor Cohen’s label 300 Entertainment. He announced he would be releasing his debut album in 2005, and that he would be calling it “Carter 6,” in reference to Lil Wayne’s series of albums.
Lil Wayne wasn’t happy about the homage, however. “Stop listening to songs of n****s who pose naked on their motherf-ing album covers,” Wayne told a crowd at one of his shows.
The project ended up being a mixtape instead of an album, and was renamed Barter 6, following the Blood gang practice of switching the letter C with B. The mixtape was released in 2015 and reached number 22 on the US charts.
Young Thug went on to release several more mixtapes, without having ever put out a studio album.
At last, in 2019, Young Thug released So Much Fun—his debut album. The album featured several other artists: Future, Machine Gun Kelly, Gunna, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Duke, 21 Savage, Doe Boy, Lil Keed, Quavo, Juice Wrld, Nav, J. Cole, and Travis Scott.
It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.