Young Thug - I Came From Nothing 3 (mixtape)

Young Thug, as his name bluntly suggests, is a rapper. Don’t let the generic title fool you, however, because the rising Atlantean is making some of the oddest and wildest rap music today. His city has been the setting for the growth of a distinct technicolour sound since the turn of the decade and whilst Young Thug is in the strain of hitmakers like Future and Ca$h Out – he’s already collaborated with both artists in the past – he is no follower. Contemporary rap has moved in favour of loose, at-times downright sloppy, stylings in its performers but Young Thug pushes it to its limits – delivering vocals that move away from proper grammar and syntax to become pure prosody. His unique breaking screech and tilting drawl has already been showcased on his first two mixtapes ‘I Came From Nothing’ and ‘I Came From Nothing 2’ and the third in the series, released yesterday, sees him continue his rush.

In close alignment with its star, ‘I Came From Nothing 3’ is a crashing mess of euphoric proclamations and rambling narratives and it’s most notable feature is a brilliant, boundless flow. Nothing on this tape quite matches the super abstract Haitian Slang from his previous release but there’s still plenty of offer. OK Cool and the sour B**** fall into raw squeals and grunts when Young Thug unshackles and deems sentences superfluous to his expression whilst tracks like I’m Paid and Foreign are glimpses of a very sharp pop sensibility hidden beneath the madness.