Fka Groovy

3y

Damn so a nigga who has actual real life s***with women doesn't think Young Thug is tantamount to Prince

Makes sense, logic works out.

joy

3y

let’s not act like j cole is the reason thug started doing better commercially lol

rayray

3y

I wouldn’t say “wasn’t ready”. Although it is ahead of its time and still sounds fresh. But in this case the Barter 6 thing was thug calling it a mixtape at first then a album then a mixtape etc... also he was beefing with lil Wayne which turned a lot of people off towards him being that thug was still a fresh act to most people.

I wasn’t comparing sales in a sense. I’m looking at Gunna and Baby before they even blew up. Like late 2017 early 2018 era is what I’m referring too. They always had proper album rollouts and promo to follow it. They was doing low numbers aswell but it built up as time went on due to great marketing and good music of course. Sure, thug music is way more unique and easily better than his children but his sales has always been low due to terrible marketing and the way that he does literally zero promotion. Thug should of been doing future numbers by 2016 if he would of kept Lyor Cohen in his circle.

And trust me as a thug fan he’s ALWAYS stated the art over numbers so I know that lol. The best example was when he was set to drop EBBTG. And he told everyone this was the music HE wanted to make and not him doing his regular rapping that everyone loves.

Everyone’s aware of thugs insane impact on the game. He’s on tier with keef wen it comes to the influence in 2010s and till now. But you know who else is to? Future. And future numbers was up there and thug is basically his cousin musically. You see how future was doing numbers because even though he had a s*** ton of leaks to and flooded the market he always had proper album rollouts. So it’s no excuse for thugs numbers. Yes the influence and impact is there. Yes thugs music was ahead of his time. Yes he really the father of rap post 2016 and up. But his numbers don’t reflect that simply because he did not promote or market himself to be put into a position where he could statistically succeed

ghost

3y

Yeah, all good points actually. Especially about Future. He's ALWAYS been on top of it and goes #1 every time. That's actually a really good comparison and point to make since Fewtch and Thug blew up together.

Although, there are some differences in their styles - Thug is for sure the more "out there" of the 2, and up until SMF has definitely been more experimental than Future.

I don't agree with your first point though. The rap game definitely was "not ready" for Barter 6. I still remember the day it dropped - Everyone had these expectations and the first listen was just this moment. The media didn't know how tf to respond, it was just a perplexing album to say the least. Everyone was expecting this big statement from Thug where he'd come out and prove he's bigger than Wayne in that moment, and the album was just.... There. It was literally the birthing of the new sound in hip hop, but it arrived so casually. It was so subtle, yet so powerful, and important.

IMO you're really overstating the importance of sales. Especially to somebody like Thug. He's an art first guy. He's known for putting his family and crew before him. Consider the fact that he profits off Gunna/Baby blowing up. Barter 6 doing 17k units is not a slight against him at all.

rayray

3y

Hmmm yea I can see where your coming from. And being a stan of thug he def was the one who was more out there compared to future. Another thing is that I knew from the get go thug wasn’t a numbers guy. I was just responding to OP questioning why thug never did numbers in his prime. However your so correct on him being the art first guys and putting on his team. He stated in his interview that he has always wanted to be the big homie/OG to someone because he never had that growing up. So my fault for really overstating my sales point because till this day he don’t really care about sales. I mean he’s created his own label for others. Made a whole album (Slime Language) to get all his artists and people in his circle heard and has constantly been the OG for the newer acts of Atlanta. It’s just people who aren’t really in tune with thugs run may be confused because his impact/influence doesn’t match the numbers and that’s okay in general but with thugs case like you said he’s always been the art first guy and even back in 2015 he never was trying to do it the old fashioned market album promo way.

But to the barter 6 point maybe I’m bias because I really wasn’t on music forums? I do remember a lot of older people cutting thug off immediately because he was already dissing Wayne through the gate and Barter 6 wasn’t something the OLDER people was expecting. As far as people my age and younger(13-17) we all immediately fell in love with the sound and new this nigga was the next big thing. I never really saw critics clown thugs music as much as him outside of the music. The most I saw was people saying he sounds like a whining dog but people paid homage within a year of his huge 2015 run. Thug really is like Gucci Mane/Lil Wayne combined when it comes to trying to put on other artist and his influence to the game

Chuck McGill

3y

If Thug could put together projects like Travis then we'd be living in a reality where Young Thug was a household name

Fka Groovy

3y

How rotten and degraded is this generation's collective brain where Young Thug is seen as an eclectic, sophisticated genius

I feel so old and I'm 22

soccerfanj

3y

y’all act like thug ain’t dumb down on SMF

RIACTIVE2

3y

She hasn’t had a song as successful since then.

Chris Brown most successful song since 2007 just happens to be a thug feat too 🤷🏽‍♂️

Compare his monthly Spotify listeners to Baby Uzi Carti or Roddy etc. and he hasn’t dropped an album as recent as them.

He’s bigger than he’s ever been rn and his main focus is to drop a compilation album to put more of his people on. He’s just not playing the same game as them.

ghost

3y

This is mostly true, but ignores the fact the public simply wasnt ready for Barter 6. And of course, it was incredibly ahead of its time.

How are you going to compare barter 6's opening sales week in 2015 (when no-one was ready for that album) to Gunna and Baby in 2020 (the sound was already commercialized and became the norm).

Your point about marketing is true- on each Thug album release except for SMF he was more concerned about the art and not sales numbers. But you cant ignore how much the culture changed in 5 years.

The "17k units!!" is just a dumb and lazy argument and ignores the bigger impact Thug had on the game, which is more profound than any # of units sold.