First Impression Review of Young Thug’s New Album ‘Punk’
Written by SOURCE on October 15, 2021
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After years of teasing it, Young Thug finally dropped Punk today.
In an interview published this Wednesday as part of Young Thug Week at Complex, Thug explained that after releasing So Much Fun, he wanted to make an album that was a little more serious in tone and included more details about his own life. “Punk is just real life stories,” he told us. “The whole album is purified. It’s just real.”
The concept of the album came together when he made the intro, “Die Slow,” a stripped-back song in which Thug tells a stream-of-consciousness story about helping his brother Unfoonk return home from a life sentence in prison, his father getting involved in a shooting, and his mother having a stroke. From there, he was inspired to do more storytelling about his own life. And he’s well-aware that might surprise some people.
“It will surprise some people that I am speaking on what the youth is speaking on,” he explained. “I have never went with the program. I always stood out. I always had that mindset, like, ‘I’m not rapping about what everybody else is rapping about.’ No matter what is popping. But this time, it was just like, ‘You know what? I’m going to do it.’ Just to show n****s I can do it.’ This shit is easy. And I’ve got more stories than anybody in the world. These n****s ain’t old enough to have more stories than me.”
So, did he pull it off? Was Punk worth the wait? What’s the best song? What are the best and worst parts of the album? After giving this thing a few initial spins, members of the Complex Music team (Jessica McKinney, Andre Gee, and Eric Skelton) shared their first impressions. Dive in below.
