I feel like I have had to offer a disclaimer when recommending Young thug to people over the last few months. Giving caveats to how much I liked Slime Season 3. Only listen to this if you are in the mood for club tracks. Not for easy listening. And more of these same excuses to one of my favorite albums of the first half of the year. With the release of Jeffrey, Thugger seems to have matured. So I can finally say, without reservations, that you should listen to this album. He has dialed back the brash intensity for something far more personal, without loosing the energy and bombastic flair that makes Young Thug so much fun to listen to.

It is a lean album, like always, which I definitely appreciate. No filler can be found in this ten track, 42 minute long album. It’s punchy and to the point, not wasting any time. I never want to skip a track, which after dozens of listens is always impressive. The album is themed around different inspirations to his life, from Kanye to Future to Rihanna and Swizz Beats. Even Harambe makes an odd appearance in what should be a meme-rap track straight off of the latest Hopsin tape. Instead it manages to sound pretty damn good, no matter how much the name wants to make me hate it.

Jeffrey is an attempt to move away from the identity of Young Thug. He wants to drop the Thugger moniker because, to him, Young Thug can only ever be that, a thug. Here he is attempting to be reborn as Jeffrey. He’s taken a more personal slant in his new songs, focusing on the relationship he is in and the life that he leads. “Uh, I’m a vet but I’m ready to settle down / I don’t wanna know what’s next / It don’t matter what I do tonight / Cause I’ma know you the best-best-best, yes.” He’s done playing round, he’s seen it all. Groupies, drugs, parties. The uncertainty that comes with living that life. “I ain't never playin', you the main baby / When I die, I'ma leave somethin' for you baby.” He’s in love now.

That does not mean that the juvenile lines are gone. He still retains that essential tinge of Young Thug, rapping about giving women facials and Patek Phillippe watches. It is an album in transition, a feeling he purposefully attempts to invoke in interviews about gender before the album dropped. He is casting aside the shell of Young Thug, transitioning into the new artist, Jeffrey.

Editor's Choice

Tracklist:
1. Wyclef Jean
2. Floyd Mayweather (Feat. Travis Scott, Gucci Mane, and Gunna)
3. Swizz Beatz
4. Future Swag
5. RiRi
6. Guwop (Feat. Quavo, Offset, and Young Scooter)
7. Harambe
8. Webbie (Feat. Duke)
9. Kanye West (Feat. Wyclef Jean)
10. Pick Up the Phone (Feat. Travis Scott and Quavo (Bonus))

This title was reviewed before the inception of our current review system and as such is not scored. We still stand by the content of our old reviews.

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Tags: Young Thug, Hip-Hop, Jeffrey, Editor's Choice