Young Thug is one of the brightest stars in the genre today but he isn’t trying to rap until 45 or 50 years of age.
Thugger along with Gunna are the newest cover stars of Billboard magazine ahead of their performance at Samsung + Billboard Present THE STAGE at SXSW on March 17. In the chat, they discuss their popularity, chemistry, why Gunna has seen so much success lately, why Atlanta is different from other markets and more.
Thug also speaks on how he plans to retire, saying that he doesn’t want to be 45 or 50 years old making albums and instead will only do passion projects like music collabs with Chanel, Balmain etc.
“I just don’t want to be a certain age and still rapping. I’d rather start doing a different thing,” he says when asked if he has a time frame in mind. “It ain’t even about nobody else, it’s just about me and my integrity and how I want to be looked at. Why would I be 45 or 50 years old trying to record albums? When I’m 50 years old, I know 80% of the world is motherf–king 15 to 24. What the f–k am I trying to make an album at 50 for? Why? I’ll sell a song to Chanel when I’m 45 or 50. I’ll send three or four songs to Balmain. As far as trying to rap, f–k no, I ain’t doing it. It’s not [that I have] a problem with it, it’s a problem with me doing it. I don’t want to do it at that point. I got other business and other s–t to be doing. I got kids that gonna need more attention from me in 10 years.”
On why Atlanta rappers taste so much success in today’s climate, Thugger said, “we just the quickest adapters. Everybody from New York still New York. You got Atlanta n—s that sound like New York n—s, you got some Atlanta n—s that look like Miami n—s, you got some Atlanta n—s living in Los Angeles. New York is just New York. That’s the No. 1 reason we gonna have it for a minute. We adapt, and we pay attention to the charts, we see drill beats, and the New York sound going crazy right now. We gonna adapt and get on it.”
Gunna commented on scoring another #1 album with DS4Ever and beating a pop star like The Weeknd in a close sales battle. He refers to the Canadian superstar as his “opponent” in the narrow competition.
“I feel this one because I had an opponent [The Weeknd] that was a pop star. I also feel like my album was anticipated. DS4 had everyone waiting on this s–t, and it had been a while, and I was teasing this s–t. [Lead single] “Too Easy” was anticipated as f–k for the album. I was already ready. I had two or three videos ready, but it was clutch timing and just waiting on that window,” said the “Pushin P” hitmaker.