Young Martha – EP | Review
One name in the diverse world of hip-hop music has emerged as one of the best, if not the best, rappers alive. With his unique style/flow, his controversial image in the media, and his ability to deliver new elements of the genre, this artist has not failed at proving to be the most entertaining in the culture.
Young Thug, the very special 26-year-old Atlanta native rapper, has shocked us all once again. This time, it has came as a total surprise.
Back in June, Thugger released his first project of 2017 with the album Beautiful Young Thugger Girls. This was not the typical trap, Atlanta-influenced sound we are used to hearing from him. The artist did more than even the unexpected. All of the tracks were a mixture from country, to pop, to R&B, and of course hip-hop. The album was without a doubt one of his best products of his growing career.
Thug didn’t make a lot of noise after the project was released. That was until September 22 when Young Martha – EP was dropped. The four-track project was produced by someone who Thug has never collaborated with before. Instead of working with someone we’re accustomed to, Thugger teamed up with a new name.
Carnage, a Guatemalan-American DJ and sometimes rapper under the name “Thirty Rack”, has worked with some other top names before including Lil Uzi Vert, A$AP Ferg, and Lil Yachty. He has not really been heard of, but that might change and would be expected after working with the idol of the game.
In an interview with Complex, the producer of the ET described Young Thug saying “He’s a musical genius” and that Thugger “Will go into the studio and finish ten songs in a day.” He even stated that Thug carries around a hard drive with over 1,000 tracks on it.
It’s crystal clear that Young Thug has the most passion for his music, and is constantly at work creating the new music we’re all dying to hear. With his amount of work, that might be the reason of why this project received no promotion from the featured rapper himself. He probably forgets half of the things he records.
Carnage also pointed out one very important detail that fans of Jeffery will rejoice in hearing. Young Martha will be a series like Thug’s Slime Season trilogy, the mixtapes that ultimately got him into the highly debated conversation of the best rapper of today.
Carnage has teased the project since last December, but all of that has gone missing from the news since that time. Overlooked, the ET wasn’t even expected when it dropped. This was definitely a pleasant surprise.
Three of the four songs on the project have been released as singles. “Homie”, the first official single off the ET, was dropped on September 8 as what we thought was just a great track duo between Thug and Meek Mill, another big name and rapper of today.
“Homie” is just under four minutes long, but includes more than a great sound from the two artists. Thugger uses some aggressive vocals in the hooks. We saw this same flow on “Harambe” off of one of his prior albums Jeffery that came out in 2016. Carnage does a great job of making the beat for this to happen. He uses a cathedral organ to provide Thug with a great backdrop for his creativity to take place. Not only Thug, but Meek as well. With the flow used by Jeffery, Meek Mill was a great choice to go with for the feature. Meek’s street style flow compliments the track as a whole, and let’s Thugger do his thing while still doing his. As far as lyrical skills go, Thug doesn’t display very graphic bars like we are used to having. He relies on quick punches, followed with his vocals just being switched up to make him more dynamic. “Homie” is an instant playlist bound song for fans.
The other feature on the project goes to Shakka, a British singer and producer signed to Pitch Up/Columbia Records, on the last song “Call Me.” This song was formally put on Carnage’s SoundCloud about a year or so ago, but isn’t the same one as what we hear. An intro by Thug is added and gives the song more flavor and a boost to jump into the island/beach style used. Thug does a great job with his vocals, mixing right in with Shakka. Shakka has some great vocals, and creates more of an ocean or underwater like sound. The palm tree vibe in this song is very laid back, and just gives us another Thug song to vibe to.
The second and most popular song off the ET is “Liger.” Thug goes off in the entire song. For three minutes and 29 seconds, Thugger shows us his ability to take a beat and make it into something we’ve never heard. Liger is the hybrid of a male and female tiger. Strange? Not with Thugger. He uses it as a metaphor to describe himself and other things as a rare breed, or different in other words. His line “Everybody got tigers, so I wanna go get a liger” just goes to show why he used the title he did. Throughout the song, Thugger just flows with the idea of being different and separating himself from the normal. In rap, he is everything from basic. Carnage brings in a church organ sound to the beat, and delivers multiple flows for Thugger to jump on. This is, in my opinion, the best track off the album.
The third track titled “10,000 Slimes” was previewed on Duke’s, a member of YSL, Snapchat in 2016. This was the only single that was not released. Young Thug’s record label, and much more including a clothing line, YSL members are referred to as “Slimes” sometimes. In the track, Thug describes how all of his guys are real and down for him. He also shouts out his boy Wheezy, another producer on the album and has worked with Thugger a great number of times, in the intro as being the trillest member of YSL. Thug has some good vocals in the repeating hook and uses that to feed into his verses. This track was the longest on the ET at almost five minutes. Carnage does a good job with how he switches the beat up to allow Thug to go from rapping to talking and to just going Young Thug.
The project was pretty successful as far as I’m concerned. Thug delivered his audience four sounds that were all different in their own ways.
On the flip side, his lyrical uses didn’t reach as high as they could. Jeffery isn’t known for rhyming schemes or his jaw-dropping bars, but for his alien-like style and his unique flows. He gave us what we expect of him, and nothing less. Did he go above them? I think he had moments where it seemed like he had the title of the best rapper alive.
Will this ET become a series? That’s to find out in the future. One key note to take into consideration would be the song “Guadaalajara” that leaked this past summer. It was supposed to be on the project, but got let off of the final cut obviously. However, there is a low chance it could be on the second part of this series, but is not likely. But hey, it’s a chance right?
With all of that, a second part to this ET should be expected. When? Only time will tell. Young Thug in the meantime will continue to impress us all with creating the most diverse and interesting music in today’s rap culture.