Super Slimey – Album Review
On November 20 an unexpected collaboration between two top name Atlanta rappers had many fans in shock, and frankly still in shock.
Unlikely Pair
It’s very hard to believe that Young Thug and Future haven’t been on more projects together than they have. Despite living only roughly a half hour from each other, they never appeared to be close in any fashion. They actually started off having beef together.
Both rappers have worked alongside (arguably) the best producer in the game, Metro Boomin, and have both appeared on countless albums, but collaborating between the two was unheard of.
In 2015, beef started when Metro Boomin sent shots out to rappers saying they need to stop trying to copy his and Future’s high work rate. Thug didn’t like the comment at all, and responded arrogantly with comments describing Future as the “Tito to his Michael Jackson.” Both artists were about to release projects, which led to more shots over the internet and social media.
Making Amends
Soon after, Thugger would apologize publicly during one of Drake’s tour shows he appeared on. Thug ultimately made amends with his fellow Atlanta native by putting the track “Future Swag” on his popular album Jeffery that dropped later that year. Thug created the titles of the 13 tracks on his album by naming them after people who have influenced his rapping career.
The two would finally give the rap world the collaboration we’ve all been anxiously awaiting. Thug and Future would make “Relationship” a huge mainstream hit off Young Thug’s album Beautiful Thugger Girls that dropped this past summer.
Super Slimey
The album received no media attention until two weeks ago on Twitter when both rappers would tell us to expect something to drop that night.
The last time Thug was seen in a collaborative project was back in 2014 with Rich Homie Quan on Rich Gang: Tha Tour Pt. 1. Despite already releasing a great album in BTG and the EP Young Martha, this project was not seen coming by a long shot. Future has also had his share of moments with both of his albums this year being placed at the top charts of all music sites. FUTURE and HNDRXX, which dropped on back to back Friday’s last spring, gave us the full taste of Future and how solid of a rapper he has become.
Future last teamed up with Drake in 2015 and made What A Time To Be Alive and made possibly one of the best collaborative albums ever made in the genre of hip-hop. With that in mind, I was interested in seeing how much Future has progressed with his skills.
The 13 track album only has one feature in Offset, who is in my opinion the lyrical master of Migos. Production on the album includes familiar names Metro Boomin (of course), Mike WiLL Made-It, and London on Da Track. It also features Southside, Future’s right hand, and Wheezy, Thug’s right hand.
“No Cap”
The album starts off with “No Cap.” I start to listen to the track and the beat is just what you’d expect from Southside. Considering that, my thoughts went straight to Thug and how his own personal style would fit into the trap sound Southside and Future create together. Future goes straight into his verse after a short space of time. His lines are basic Future bars. Thug comes in after, and I wish I could say more positive things here. The song isn’t trash with Thuggery, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know why Thug was put into it. His flow is thrown off by the beat, and his vocals don’t blend well at all with the Southside production. This song is a pure Future classic like we’ve seen in the past. That’s really all it is.
“Three”
Moving to the next song, I was unsure of how this whole album was going to be. As soon as I thought this project would just be another average, forgotten playlist, Young Thug does the unexpected yet again and my mixed feelings are suddenly gone.
In “Three,” Thug is in a zone. This same zone was shown in “Homie” the single with Meek Mill in his EP last month. His flow is contagious, creating a whole new platform of Thug we’re beginning to see repeatedly. DY of 808 Mafia joins forces with Southside on production, and the duo impresses with a hard trap beat.
Thug’s verse takes off with his first line “I got more bracelets on than you got chains, bro.” From there, it’s just like Thug to rap about his jewelry, woman, and luxuries. He spits a couple more ear-catching bars later in his verse saying “I mixed some Act with some yellow Tuss like a Laker// Three shot ‘em like a *********** Pacer//Never lose like my *********** McGregor, ya heard?” He uses Reggie Miller, one of the best three point shooters of all time who was a member of the Indiana Pacers for a long time in his career, as a reference in the second bar to compare how good he is at shooting. In other words, it would only take him three shots to put somebody down the way Reggie knocked down three pointers. He comes back with a huge punch line where he calls out Conor McGregor, an Irish mixed martial arts fighter and boxer, who recently lost a huge fight to the boxing idol of today, Floyd Mayweather. Thug says he’ll never miss his target when he shoots, therefore saying he’s going to hit every time and win unlike McGregor did. Thug has plenty more bars in his verse, but those really caught my attention.
Future comes in after Thug repeating Jeffery’s first line of the song, but tweaking it by spitting “I got more rings than you got hoes, bro.” He then goes on rapping his usual trap style, and about providing the best for his kids.
“I’m out the zoo, zoo, zoo// I’m a gorilla, ape, n****, ain’t ate// Ain’t satisfied ‘til all you n***** in yellow tape” shows how plain Future is about the trappin’ style of his life. His flow is great, and he has plenty of bars to go along with it. He implies about a girl in his life still having the hood at heart, which gives him the connection to the trap he always seeks. Other than that, his lines and punches are aimed at his haters, trap ways, and his dislike of the police.
He closes the two minute and 40 second long track out with a slow outro, just spitting a couple lines to fade the song out.
“All Da Smoke”
So far, I’m impressed with how well both of the rappers voices blend together. I knew their vocal abilities matched well together, but their rapping styles compliment each other as well.
“All Da Smoke” pops up on my phone as the third track off the album. My interest in this track picks up quickly when both Future and Thug open up with a soft vocal intro. Future jumps into the first verse after about 30 seconds, and Thug can be heard in the background creating even more emphasis on each of Future’s bars.
From the start, Future can be heard rapping about where he came from, saying in his first line “Every n**** out my city became a boss.” Migos has took this whole generation by storm, and they’re from the big city of Atlanta as well. Future is also most likely implying Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz, as well as Young Thug himself. All of these highly regarded rappers have came straight from the same place, and that’s really eye opening to see such a high value of success come from one point of the map.
Future creates a head bumping verse, and a couple lines later he hits us with the lines “Pyrex, cook it up like Kyrie, trade you off// Green and white like the Celtics, don’t play with me, play with a fork.” This can be summed up simply by Future comparing NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving, who was traded to the Boston Celtics from the powerhouse Cleveland Cavaliers before the start of the 2017 regular season, to going to Boston to “cook up,” which means to have success in the hooping world. Future often includes these lines, always reminding us that he’s still to be on the street.
Future has a couple more ear catching lines, one of which being “I got Barry Bonds on my wrist.” He uses the retired baseball player Barry Bonds, who is one of the wealthiest players in the game of baseball, as a reference to how much is ice and watches are on his wrist.
Future finishes his verse and combines with Thug for a short repeated hook “We want all da smoke.”
Thug raps the next verse, and his vocals are high pitched. His flow his solid, but his delivery switches up, and I personally like when Thug adds this to his overall toolbox. His ability to mix a combination of flows together is something many rappers strive to do, but Thug can multiply his vocals and overall sound by just a new pitch, or speed.
No lines of his are worth mentioning, but the overall delivery of Thug is what makes his verse good. His usual bars about how he came up with nothing, and now how he has all the women he does, and his usual money problems can be heard throughout the minute long rap.
“200”
Just one of my personal favorite songs between the Atlanta artists off the album will come next in “200.” This sound is something we heard from the rappers on “Relationship.” We all know how much of a banger that was, so my hopes were definitely up for this one.
The song opens with a Thug intro were used to hearing from him that just gets us into the swing of what we should expect.
The hook is rapped by Thug, in which he says “I got at least 200 h***.” That line might even be a feed off of relationship. If you reflect on that, on the track this past summer Thugger and Future had both mentioned “I’m in a relationship with all my b******, yeah// I need to cut some of ‘em off, I need help//I got some bad things, I want her to myself// Had to take the time to cut ‘em off, I need help.” Whether or not those have any connections, it’s clear both rappers have a history of claiming they have a lot of women. The hook is catchy, and I like the whole rhyme scheme Thug uses before getting into the verse.
Thug has his best verse of the project in the opening rap of the track. I’m a huge fan of Thug, and he’s probably one of the best out right now. His delivery in this track in particular is a huge success even for Young Thug himself. His verse transitions quickly from the hook, he starts out rapping “I bought my moms a car, it felt amazin’” which references the car he bought his mom back in 2015. That line sets the tone for the whole verse in the way Thug’s vocals lead the way for the rest of his bars. A couple lines later Thug expresses his affiliation to the Bloods, an African American street-gang founded in Los Angles that can be identified by the color worn by it’s members. Thug says, “I was in a white and red Maybach like peppermints” and flexs as well as represents his gang with that bar. The Maybach Motorenbau is a German Luxury car manufacturer, so Thug is just stunting when he says he has a Maybach the color of a peppermint, which is also the color of his gang.
Thug spits a lot in this verse, and it’s very complex to cover everything. He expresses how much cash he spends on his jewelry, and just how much cash he has in general.
Future goes straight into his own verse after Thugger, and he gives us a hard delivery. In just the second line of his rap, he states, “I got racks on me, now I can buy me a cruise ship.” This is symbolic considering one of the tracks names off this album just so happens to be “Cruise Ship.”
Future says he just bought the iPhone 8 and has 200 girls stored as contacts already, which is just another classic bar about how many girls want him because of his status and fame.
He goes on with his usual style, and sticks to rapping about how he only wears designer clothes you can’t find in stores. He sticks to his luxury items as his topic, and then Thug wraps up the track with the hook once again.
I’m feeling good about the whole sound of this project, and I feel like both of these rappers have had their moments.
Both rappers have two tracks to themselves. Thug’s first one is named “Cruise Ship” and is placed at number five on the playlist.
The intro is short by Thug, and in one line he says “Everything I got came from a lick” describing his hustle to get where he is now.
The hook is a long one, and I like how the song was set up. The sound is nice, complicated with the vocals from Jeffery . A couple lines in the hook stick out, “If I wouldn’t have rapped, I’d still be rich// Three million dollar house, came from evictions// Out here on a jet and a cruise ship// Last night I stole a yacht to cruise in it” and this all sets the tone for the verses. The lines describe his loyalty to where he came from, and their background in the street. It also expands on how he compares his life as being on a cruise, or just gliding along without giving a care.
Thug’s one verse in the track doesn’t have any specific highlights. Thug uses word play which caught my attention with his bar “Forreal, la familia, I go gorilla, I’m part of the Bape team.” This plays on by Thugger saying he goes gorilla, which means to get hyped or like to be in beast mode, while adding his part in the Bape team, which just means he likes to wear the A BATHING APE prestigious clothing brand.
That’s really the only thing that caught my attention in the core of the song. This whole track is really just a lyrical pull-together, and not really much of a bar-filled creation. I wasn’t blown away by this track, but it wasn’t trash. Thug did a nice job creating a catchy hook but his verse was lacking to say the least.
“Killed Before”
I’m just going to go on and add Thug’s second solo track right now. “Killed Before” is 11 on the album, and I feel this one was the better of the two tracks by Thug himself.
The track opens up straight to the hook, and Thug goes off by saying “Everyone knows I’ve been killed before// I’ve been bent like a centerfold” and that opens the golden doors for his Thugger style I’ve been awaiting to hear from him. The lines express that everyone knows that Thug has been hurt in the past most likely emotionally/mentally. He adds to his first bar by coming right back and saying he’s been bent, or had it rough in his past. This is lyricism at it’s finest with Young Thug. People are often featured in the centerfold of magazines, and Thug has embraced his model side a number of times in the past.
At the end of the hook thugger places two bars on top of each other saying “Did you pay someone’s tuition, no// Do you own a store, no” and that adds to his overall image as a person in the media. Thug paid his sister’s tuition, and he owns his own clothing line YSL, or Young Stoner Life.
His verse is a classic Thug bop. The lines are all four or five words long, creating a short tempo to his rhyme scheme he uses in this format. His beat layout compliments his style well, as it’s often stop and repeat with Thugger. Thug sticks to his money, and doesn’t get off topic much with that idea. One highlight bar I took away was at the end of the opening verse when he says “Got a FN and a stick, don’t test me” both of these represent firearms, FN stands for Fabrique Nationale which is a leading manufacturer, and a stick commonly used as a term for a AK-47. Thug warns his enemies and haters to not try him, and wraps up his verse soon after and we hear the hook once again.
After the hook, Thug floods us with another verse. In this one, Thug expresses a variety of feelings he’s having. He mainly raps about his woman, and some drug references are used. Just the same old thing we’ve heard before. The hook follows, and that’s the end of the track.
Mainly, I thought the track had a great beat to go with Thug’s flow, but his lyric value was just average with nothing popping out lyrically, Thug is still developing as a rapper and needs to learn to combine his short bars about familiar topics with some of meaning and depth. This was lacking in both of his solo tracks, but neither of them can be labeled as “bad” Young Thug songs.
“Patek Water”
The mainstream hit off the album, and one that is sure to be played on radio stations everywhere, appears sixth. “Patek Water” has the only feature on the album, and it surely didn’t downgrade the track any at all.
The intro is voiced by Future, and just adds some build up to his hook. Southside is on the production again, and I’ve been widely impressed with him on this album.
Even though Future only appears on the hook of this song, I feel like that’s what he needed to be on. Future’s delivery on the hook shouldn’t be overlooked. The opening line “Ayy, what kind of water is that? It’s Patek water” lets us know the thoughts behind the naming of this title. Patek Philippe & Co. is a very high-end Swiss watch manufacturer. They use that to compare water to the watches on their wrist, or commonly known as “ice” (the slang term for diamond jewelry). The whole hook focuses on the high currency value of all three rappers. The whole hook is really just a big bar, Future adds a nice punch when he spits “N****, we changing whips out like new Jordans” that compares how the rapper often picks a different vehicle to ride, just like people change their Jordans. In other words, he’s bragging that he’s so rich he can switch cars like less wealthy people can switch shoes.
Thug is in on the verse, and provides a solid vocal delivery over a head thumping beat. His lyrics stick to his jewelry, and fame status. Nothing really pops, but Thug’s verse is really just a setup for Offset’s mind blowing verse.
After the hook is repeated, Offset might just spit one of the best verses you’ve ever experienced from the Migo. He delivers a hard flow, followed by punch after punch of bars. “Uh, back to back Lambos, repeat it, you like to run when it’s heated// AR-15 with the coolant, just in case it get too heated” is a bar that caught my attention. Offset describes how when people have problems with him, they usually don’t want to stick around and face him, and if they do he’s ready for them with the AR-15, a heaving duty assault rifle, near him.
Besides that, all the other lines really just bind together to form his whole verse layout. I was impressed and will be looking for him to do more things like this in the future.
Feed Me Dope & 4 Da Gang
Now getting into Future’s own two solo tracks, I felt like these were just like some of the old Future bangers we all used to jam to. “Feed Me Dope” and “4 Da Gang” are both great tracks that show Future’s progression as an overall rapper.
“Feed Me Dope” just includes one verse and a hook rapped before and after. I love the flow we received from Future, even though nothing really sticks out lyrically.
The other track, “4 Da Gang” is straight playlist-bound track. The trap sound Future brings is nothing new. This track is dedicated to the death of Future’s long time engineer Seth Firkins, who passed away last month.
This whole track is Future’s way of honoring his late rap bother, and to express his feelings towards his entire gang.
His verse goes on to say “We don’t ever stop at red lights at night, n****” which expresses his street life, and how hated he is that he won’t stop at a red light for possible gunfire could occur. The whole verse is more than average, with some bars spit, but it all just folds together in one big highlight.
The verse has a Future delivery, which is simply defined as a trap-sound, unique rhyme scheme over a hard drumming beat to rattle any set of speakers.
His hook follows the verse, and he aggressively says “Now everything I do is for my gang gang?? Even though I made it on the Forbes’, ain’t a thing changed.” He references his appearance on Forbes, an American magazine for business, in which he made a top ten appearance on the most paid rappers of 2017. Even though he has all of that money, Future remains loyal to his day ones that were with him from the start.
At the end of the hook he adds some other highlight worthy bars saying “It’s like a funeral when they see me, ’cause these h*** faint// I done got used to dead homies, I stay in the bank// Ain’t got one more tear to shed on me, all my son’s straight// I put Casino in my will, n****, I’m a die with this cake.” These lines are very deep in explanation. In short, Future uses wordplay to describe how girls “faint” when they see him, and how he is so used to his friends being killed that he just stays to making money. He adds on to both of those bars by pointing out that he won’t cry anymore, because he’s down for all his guys, especially Casino, another fellow Atlanta rapper and long time friend to Future.
The second verse feeds off the energy of the hook. I was blown away when I heard the verse, because every line just plays on to the next. Future raps “I ain’t gotta walk around with my steel, ‘cause the streets made me// I still keep a chopper at arms reach, ‘cause I stay faded” then adds “I can finesse him without my gun, how he gone still hate me?// I’m a nine figure n****, we ain’t never worried about murder cases.” In all of these bars, Future clearly states how his lifestyle is, and describes himself as someone you don’t want to cross paths with.
That sets the tone for his final set of lines that could honestly be the best Future add-on bars I’ve ever heard. Future goes all in saying “Every time we plead, we plead not guilty in the first place// I look my demon in the face, I’m booted up the worst way” and then goes on to say “She want my semen, so she can run with it and take it to the bank// I can’t grieve, ’cause ain’t none of my Grandma bills late// I bought my Mom a mansion and it came with a lake// I’m so real, my day ones got every code to my safe// I told my ex hoes, “can’t nobody take my place” // I know I’m a rock star and that’s on everything.” All of these bars added together equal a straight banger verse from the 33-year-old rapper.
I was deeply impressed and moved by Future’s drive in the last track, especially on that second verse. I was anxious to listen to the rest of the album.
“Drip On Me”
Wheezy is credited for the production of eighth track “Drip On Me.” Possibly the second most popular mainstream hit off the album, this bass-filled track captures Thug and Future in their best form.
Future speaks over a soft intro, then the bass towers down as Future kills the opening hook. It’s simple, laid-back, and flows right along with the beat.
The first verse is rapped by Future. I liked the delivery of the vocals, and Future switches his pitch up right at the mid-ending of the verse, which creates that head bumping vibe. The whole idea of Future having too much money, status, and popularity is what this whole track is revolving around.
Thug raps the second verse after the hook is repeated again. With Young Thug’s style, I feel like it combined well with Future on this track alone. I’d like to see the two do more of a style as we heard with this track, because it doesn’t limit either of the two rappers in what they can explore flow wise.
No lyrics really stand out, but both of the deliveries are great in terms of how lyrically placed each rapper uses their context.
“Group Home”
As we jump down to the last track off the album, and yes I know I’ve skipped two just be patient, this is one I have the most mixed feelings about.
“Group Home” is a very different track than any of the others on the album when discussing musical values.
At the start of the track, Thug does a little intro saying ”I cheated on my fears, yeah// I broke up with my doubts, yeah// Got engaged with my faith, yeah// And now I’m marryin’ my dreams, yeah.” This is interesting, because Thug has used this intro twice before in past songs, the most recent being “Haiti Slang” off I Came From Nothing 2.
The opening hook is Future rapping about his excessive use of codeine. We’ve seen this many times throughout his raps, always referencing his drug he seems to be addicted to. He does throw in a bar “You can’t cry over scars this permanent// I put a Patek in traffic like Pablo Escobar.” He emphasis you can’t change the past, while comparing the famous Drug Kingpin Pablo Escobar’s money status with his own and being able to afford a Patek watch. We see Thug and Future reference Patek multiple times throughout the album.
Future’s verse is raw. The tone used in his vocals makes my ears hurt. I don’t like at all what he decided to go with here. The sound of the whole track is just something really forced. I’m not even going to discuss this verse, that’s how bad it is.
On the flip side, Thug does an exceptional job at delivering over this flat beat. I like the use of pitch autotune Thugger uses to give us a classic Young Thug sound just like we heard in 2013. A couple lyrics stood out, Thug says “Cut you off and dodge you like a ****** charger” was a nice word play bar by Jeffrey. He has a couple nice rhyme schemes, and an overall solid verse.
“Real Love”
I start listening to the slower of the tracks of the album, “Real Love” and I’m bopping my head as I hear Thug’s vocals open up the song. The one thing I love about Thug is his ability to rap off flow rather than his lyric use. He sticks to woman, jewelry and his money, but in every rap of his the flow changes to something new.
The track is a little over four minutes long, and I overall like it. The hook is catchy, and goes well with how Thug spits his verse. I don’t have any lyrical references to mention, because Thug bends his abilities together so well that they aren’t needed.
Future does a solid job showcasing his skills as well. I wasn’t blown away by the trap rapper, but I was kissing my teeth when he says “I don’t give a **** about big homie, I’m big homie ‘round here?? I’m rockin’ blue diamonds, ain’t nothin’ to get ya killed.” I feel like Future has progressed tremendously as a rapper over the summer and into the fall.
“Mink Flow”
The last song I have left to share might be one of the more underrated tracks from the album. “Mink Flow” is a combination of Thug and Future blending their voices together, creating a very dynamic sound.
I love Thug in this track particular for what he brings to the table. When he takes the hooks and verses, Future seems to feed of the energy and in return he gives us a head shaking sound.
This track is one of my favorites and should be something people pick up on later on when the album is forgotten about.
Closing Thoughts
My overall view on this project is not bad and not good. Yes, they were several “banger” title worthy tracks present on the album, but ultimately I feel like both of them weren’t in top shape for this production.
I think Thug proved once again he can spit over any beat in any format. I was impressed with his lyrical ability.
Future still needs work. On his solo track “4 Da Gang” I can say that he did surprise me with a very well-rapped track.
I do, however, want to say this….. Future is a great rapper. Young Thug is a great rapper. I’m a fan of both. With that said, I feel like their first project together couldn’t of gone better. For working with someone for the first time, the two rappers combined well. Yes, they had their down moments, but everybody in this business does.
I’m interested to see if they chose to collaborate again in the near Future. I would expect to now see one of the names on the other’s album feature list from now on.
All eyes will be watching Thug, as he’s expected to be dropping music at any given time after the EP he gave us last month. Keep an eye out for Future too, I feel like he’s cooking up something.