Song of the Day #313 - Gucci Mane and Young Thug - Yay (ft. Takeoff)

Any time I'm in the club I order ten bottles of Ace of Spades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXF6IVgEkH0

It's funny how when you're feeling nostalgic for one thing, you start to feel nostalgic for everything else. The generality of it kinda explains why people first treated it as an actual medical condition, it certainly feels like a sickness... it isn't all bad, though. Sometimes the juxtaposition between the depth of the feeling and the target of it can be pretty hilarious. Like here: I was getting really nostalgic for the specific line "any time I'm in the club I order ten bottles of Ace of Spades". When I was first really getting into Young Thug, this was one of the lines I really latched onto, one that seemed to signify everything I found so novel and enthralling about the rapper.

Part of it is in the meaning - the idea of Thugger spending ~3k (way more actually, since it's at a club) any time he goes to the club hits that sweet spot between believable and absurd where so many of his ideas lie. And note that it's any time, not every time... it's describing his behavior, not bragging about a pattern... I'm not sure if I can explain why this is important right now. But the real appeal is in his delivery, the way it bursts out in extra syllables that it feels like he violated the intrinsic structure of time and space to accommodate. Even now, two years later, I can't quite pin it down. And when he arrives at the title drop, the climax of the song thus far, and gives it just a bit of space before doubling down on the tonally and rhythmically complex line yet, it's exquisite. A venerable masterclass in hook-writing.

The rest of the track is as good as it should be, given the people involved. Takeoff explodes out of the gate with some of the most frenzied but articulate rapping imaginable, cooling off when he drops the hilarious "In the trap with the Meta World Peace elbows", then coasting with well-earned bravado and simpler lines. Gucci's verse is sorta the inverse, showing off his signature arc as he builds up to gigantic proclamations... like holy cow, the last four lines, the way he's escalated to that point not just in complexity but subject manner, it's such a triumph. That's a real Gucci moment. I'm so glad he's free.