Young Thug Says He’s ‘Never Written a Lyric’: ‘I Kind of Just Freestyle’
Written by SOURCE on December 17, 2021
In a new interview with i-D, Young Thug opened up about his songwriting habits, revealing he doesn’t write down his lyrics when recording songs.
When asked to name his favorite lyric he’s ever written, Thugger responded: “So maybe you should rephrase that question. I’ve never written a lyric. Ever. I really haven’t. I kind of just freestyle. I just go with it as it comes. I never really wrote anything down. I’m not patient enough to sit and write. It just takes a lot of my day.”
The Atlanta rapper went on to say that he’s not a fan of writing, therefore the only time he’s written lyrics are when he’s been locked up.
“Only time I’ve had the time to write lyrics down is when I’ve been incarcerated,” Thug explained. “Even if I just have to go to jail for a day or something. I don’t like writing and that’s the only way I can write; if I just got time on my hands and there’s nothing in the world I could do. And the only time you can be like that is like prison, basically. Other than that, there’s always something to do.”
Thugger’s remarks can be viewed as an extension of what he told Complex in an interview in October, where he explained that with his latest album Punk, he’s most focused on mastering the art of storytelling.
“I usually don’t show emotion, which is why my storytelling songs be so hard,” he said. “Y’all usually don’t see nothing from me, so when you hear a song that’s really serious, you’re like, ‘Oh my fucking God.’ You remember a n***a human. Like, ‘OK, he is human, and he’s saying shit that we’re really going through right now.”
“Punk is just real life stories,” he added. “The whole album is purified. It’s just real.”
Back in October, Thug earned his third No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with Punk taking the top spot in its debut week, amassing 90,000 equivalent album units, 77,000 of which accounted for SEA units.
