Getting To Know Young Thug

Earlier this month the internet got excited when a cryptic Instagram post made it sound like Young Thug might be dropping a new mixtape. In the post, his fiancé (Jerrika Karlae) was laying topless across his lap, and he wrote, “Her mixtape this week…” This could be interpreted as Karlae herself dropping a mixtape, but the broader interpretation was that Young Thug had something in the works.

So far no new mixtape has come out, though Young Thug did team up with Chance The Rapper to release a new track to SoundCloud. The track is called “Big B’s,” and it did plenty to satisfy fans of both artists. But just in case “Big B’s” was the beginning of a chain of releases, or Young Thug really does have a full, surprise mixtape on the way, now seemed like the right time to focus on the young rapper and get to know him a little better. Still just 25, he’s one of those artists who just seemed to surface out of nowhere, and even a lot of fans of his music don’t know that much about him.

Born In A Hotbed Of Hip-Hop

A few years ago, a newspaper article from Seattle wrote up five things people should know about Young Thug, and included the fact that he’s from Atlanta’s Zone 3, an area that is also home to Waka Flocka Flame, 2 Chainz, PeeWee Longway, and most notable of all, Ludacris. It’s no secret to anyone that Atlanta is a city with a proud history in hip-hop, but to see all those names hailing from the same neighborhood is wild. It puts a lot of pressure on Young Thug, and so far he’s lived up to it.

Crazy For (Crazy) Fashion

When you look at some of the things Young Thug wears and famously shares on Instagram, he looks like he’s more in tune with some of the trends we’ve seen in athletes in his generation than with hip-hop. Like some NBA stars these days (and in particular MVP Russell Westbrook), Young Thug favors eccentric looks with bright colors, unconventional ideas, and crazy looks. It adds some spark to his public persona, and makes his style as unpredictable as some of the sounds that made his mixtape “I Came From Nothing 2” such a hit.

A Casino Gaming Enthusiast

We think of casino games mostly as forms of online and mobile entertainment nowadays, this is especially true for a few types of games. Slots are the most recognizable and popular form, but roulette, blackjack and poker are also pretty mainstream. It turns out that hitting the tables might also be a passion of Thugger’s. It was mentioned in a GQ profile hitting the casino could Thug’s favorite hobby (after rap). The artist apparently an avid dice thrower. His director (Be EL Be) claimed to have seen him win a $100,000 watch in a game! We suspect Thug might be more into making money than the actual games though.

Big Families

In his personal life, Young Thug (or Jeffery Lamar Williams) has become accustomed to large families. That may be why he seems so at ease in front of crowds. He was born as the 10th out of 11 children in his family. At age 25 Thug already has six children by four different women. It definitely doesn’t sound like an ideal setup, but it’s interesting background information on a guy who’s becoming one of the bigger young names in hip-hop. If one thing’s for sure Thug is doing well enough that those kids are probably set for life.