Although Thug's vocal experimentation and unconventional style can be heard across contemporary hip/hop, his shift in focus on to curating his YSL label post-2017 has dramatically stunted his career trajectory

The Jeffery-BTG-Super Slimey run was great, and reminded everyone that Thug is one of the most dynamic doing it right now. But then his efforts changed to growing his YSL roster, and his solo output took a huge nosedive as a result.

Post-2017, Thug's solo output has only been two short Eps that were largely forgotten (although On the Rvn has some great tracks) and his 'debut' album So Much Fun. SMF is a strange once since although it performed very well commercially, it felt like a sonic regression. Even Thug admitted that it was more of a playlist of summer bangers, to me it felt like more of his 'More Life' moment than anything else - just an extended playlist that he got loads of his friends on. And while yeah that's fine, dropping a big playlist of vapid hits following the creativity of his 2016/2017 run came across as a step back rather than an artistic step forward.

Beyond Gunna, none of the YSL roster is as half as interesting as Thug. Plus as @americana pointed out in an earlier thread, the YSL compilation tapes are pure fast-food projects thrown together with no cohesion that the majority forget about within the month.

An artistic regression as sharp as this one is frustrating to see, more so for someone as talented as Thug. His decision to curate his fellow weed carriers has costed us a lot of great solo Thug material - and ultimately when we look back in 25 years, it's the solo output that matters.

Thug's lack of attention for his own material has led to the 'Gunna has surpassed him' narrative. Although I disagree, this claim does have some validity, as post-2017 Gunna has carefully advanced his career progression with three decent projects.

What makes it worse is Thug's own sporadic nature, cancelling Barter 7 & HiTunes are prime examples of this. Hopefully Punk is a return to form (unless he cancels that as well), as it would be insanity to sit on material as good as this and not release it:

Thats a lot of words

SMF his only album with mainstream success

Woahhhhh you expect me to read all that

smf out now

Yeah because he diluted his sound

You didn't listen

I did

BTG still so good

Those snippets arent even that good expect for maybe the last one

SMF >>> Jeffrey, Super Slimey, I’m Up, etc

Yeah but it's been known that he takes care of the people around him, even before himself, even if their music isn't always good. He's a selfless angel and I wont allow you to sit here and try to drag him for it.

didn’t read but u wrong

Hitunes leaks were f***ing terrible and the public didn’t want that s***

Thug drops one mainstream, hit-driven album and you've come to the conclusion that his career is stagnating? Lol

there’s only been 1 YSL compilation tape

the original Slime Language was a Thug album with YSL features, and it was one of Thug’s most creative projects. y’all overlook that though

@SlimeonaDime knows what i’m talking about

Thug never canceled Barter 7 and HiTunes. Barter 7 was always just him trolling & HiTunes became Slime Season 3

op only just found out how most album tracklists are made today & is having a breakdown because of it

Imagine reading any of that

don't understand smf slander cus its still hard the way y'all describe it is like young thug fell off a cliff