Live Review - Young Thug - Barter 6

I am in school

I am a student at university. Usually I like it okay but sometimes it's awful. Like around this time of year, when a lot of assignments are due, and sometimes I don't want to do those assignments. Sometimes I want to do something else, and the more I want to do that other thing, the less I want to do the assignment. Like, I have had this album sitting on my harddrive for a week now. A week. It has been a painful week.

But now... the term is over! All my assignments are handed in! I feel something stirring, a warm wind, so warm that must have blown in straight from Atlanta. It's welling up within me, making me shiver at first... shiver to the rhythm of staccato trill drums, and then smoother, like London on the Beat's melodies which do not distinguish between the cloud and the surrounding sky. It is a wind full of the smell of loud and white and lean, a wind from the trap. Real trap shit, that is, not the latest mutation of brostep. A great sense of weightlessness comes over me; it is time for new Young Thug music.

I was gonna write a big long paragraph comparing Young Thug to Mango the Melee player (and the Young Thug-Birdman-Young Money situation to Mew2King-Triforce-EMP), talking about how "winning" is only an incremental goal that luckily happens to fall along the metric that they pursue to their true goal, which is fun. And then I was gonna talk about how Young Thug falls into the only intersection between Andre 3000 and Lil B, but then he also is the only intersection between Yung Lean and Lil Wayne, and a bunch of other things like this, until I'd end up having to make some sacred geometrey-esque diagram to explain myself. And I was gonna end by saying "but basically all I'm trying to say is that Young Thug has the most fun of anyone when he's rapping", and I think really that's all I should say.

This album is called Barter 6 because first he wanted to call it Carter 6, which would be the sequel to Carter V, which Lil Wayne has said will be the final Carter album, and thus would signify some sort of torch-passing thing. Cute, if a bit strange, and then also actually very inspiring and moving if you think about it a bit and aren't a hater. Then there was some unfortunate/ugly/confusing/justified beef between Birdman and everyone who isn't Young Thug and Lil Wayne reneged on the idea, and Young Thug decided instead to call it Barter 6, because he is a true blood.

I don't know if this is a mixtape or an album or what. I've heard both at various times and I don't know what I heard most recently or reputably. A Young Thug mixtape is about as good as most rappers' whole careers, so I'm thinking an album will probably kill me on the spot. So if this gets posted, it means I'm alive and it was a mixtape. If it gets posted with some memorial thing at the end explaining that they decided to post it after seeing my corpse slumped on my desk in front of the unpublished review, then it was an album.

Okay, here we go:

Young Thug - Barter 6

Live Review

1. Constantly Hating

Ahhh here we go... Nice underwater muted sound... idk who produced this where is the tag? "Hopped outta motherfucking bed, hopped in the motherfucking coupe" shit idk how to spell cars lol. Oooh on this smooooooth melodic flow, gold like chuckie cheese again lol. When he shouts like at 1:00 I love it every time. Calling his nigga a horse? Idk. He's complaining about groupies masturbating on him? Birdman coming in now, kinda doing his own version of this flow... Idk if I like Birdman much but he's usually pretty good on Thugger tracks. His flow is pretty good here, like, Thug inspires this in his guests somehow. Birdman basically just brags all the time but that's fine. "But really what is it to do?" is such a good line to start a verse, such a good example of this implacable Young Thug attitude. Jesus Christ this beat is fantastic though oh man. "I don't break promises with my Ds (they're my dogs!)" awwww, there's a love and sentimentality in Young Thug sometimes which is really nice. Birdman doing an outro where he talks about what they're doing and it makes no sense that's okay. *

2. With That

Ohhh here's a HIGH ENERGY sorta beat warming up... as soon as the drum hits i'm gonna freak out and hit my knee on the desk prolly. LONDON ON DA BEAT. "My money stay tall as Ludacris" hahahahaha omg. His voice has that wobbly autotune thing, I love it. "If you are a nuuuuuurd" hahaha. "My bitch she a jew!" I have no idea what this could signify hahaha. Damn this beat is intense, very sinister, "She made that D grow now it feel like a tower" oMG. This flow is bananas, so choppy and yet smooth, the texture of a good smooth. Hahahaha he just adlibbed "dork!" omg. "I put lipstick on the 'rari she say that's delicious" idk what this could mean. Popping a zanny makes him fast? That seems backwards but whatever. Cool song. Very spacey. I thought it'd have more aggression but this is good too. *

3. Can't Tell

Feat T.I.! Hell yes. Everything they do together is gold. AhaAAAAAAHAHHHHHHHHHHH oh man here we go. Ahhh, it feels like this one will be slower than About the Money or I Want War. Damn this flow is good though, it feels like you can't not move, and WOW T.I. is going in "If your gang got a throne bet I'm on that thing", "It be ashes to ashes, dust to dust", "She let me put it everywhere, butt to butt", ohhh man. The way Thug goes from precise jumpy flow to languid drifty flow is godly, prolly what it feels like to be on a bunch of lean and benzos but also a lot of coke. LEAN, LEAN LEAN LEAN, omg. "I was screaming everything Gucci no big cat", damn. His voice is so expressive, there is no point of disconnect between his emotions and the sounds he's making. "500 thousand cause she's got no head problems", his head doctor that he calls for surgery? I have no idea. "Glasses on, she don't know how I look (nerdy nerdy!)" hahahgahahahagshgaaghagaahahaha. This beat is SO COOL too, so delicate and precise. Oh man Boosie Badazz is so sinister, so aggressive, I love this. "Just trying to live, and have a little fun", yeahhhh, I just wanna party. I don't get the line "I call the spot elementary cause I keep a K around here", like... Kindergarten? lol. **

4. Check

This was a single and OH MY GOD do you even comprehend this? Like, his opening verse, and that beat, SHEEEEEESH! He's got a cheque! He's got money on his mind! He's starting to compound his flow! Now it will grow exponentially in potentially. Screaming Gucci Back! "If cops pull up I put that crack in my crack, or I put that brack in my brack", hahaha. Some GODLY adlibs here, brand new sounds that no human has made before. I love the sirens too. There's such a powerful and pervasive emotional energy here. Where he doubles the vocal part and makes everything move at once it's insane... "When I put ice on, I am Sub Zero", "All my niggas hard, call them beetles", haha. And the way his voice drops off at 2:40 and the beat follows it... producers are STILL getting better at handling Young Thug. We haven't even seen the final form yet! I assume making music with Thugger is about the most fun you could ever have in the studio, everything supports this assumption. London on da track is so godly I feel like I ought to cry or scream. **

5. Never Had It

This warbly horn is so intriguing... Oh maaaaaan going in here, I feel it. "Check out my attire, this expensive fabric", so straightforward. "All the bitches that's busted live in your house" hahahahaha. "Schroooooooooooohhhh", "She running away from my weed like it farted"??????? OMG born in 91 JUST LIKE ME. I think I already knew that. Around 1:45 when they double his voice with the metallic thing i LOVE that. Young Dolph coming in on the hook in a hype-ass way, he understands what sorta track this ought to be. If he snaps in the right way on his verse it's gonna be AW YEAH. He's going way tf in. "The Houston niggas say that young nigga trill, those New York niggas say that young nigga ill!", so many good lines on this verse. "My momma call them big booty bitches trashy" hahaha. Great job. And Thugger back with the outro "My jewelry cold like the attic" hahahahaha. They must have had so much fun making this. **

6. Dream

And now we slow it down a bit, space it out, bring it back into some really cloudly place. "Rich shit, I eat fish and grits", that's some pimp shit. "My money long as school buses, ain't ducking no zans", "PS3 I'm not playing" hahaha wow WOW he's just going more and more intense. And then it dials way back on the hook, this is so sweet. "Catch me booling with my dog, just like Michael Vick" hahaha. Yak Gotti having a lot of fun on his beat, dropping YSL and stuff. Super emotional flow. "Living out my dream, broke is not an option", genuinely inspiring. "Yellow diamonds, no crime scene", unsure what this signifies. "No sleepy brown" okay these must be deliberate Outkast references now?? That was a sweet song though. Beautiful. *

7. Dome

Idk who "Duke" is. Lighter sound effects and an outerspacealien sorta beat. Hoes dripping on his clothes. "Yaaaaaahhhhhh", I loooove when he just... goes past language entirely, completely skips it. "I'ma sell at least like two!" haha. "All these drugs we abusing, we addicted to winning not losing", I like this Duke dude. Looks like they're gonna do some back and forth stuff, I like it. "Let's go off the dome, I can't make it home"... I love when he says his girl's like "What's going on-a" to make it rhyme, it's so smooth and natural. Duke is so intense, it works perfectly for a guest verse like this. The flows here are INSANE. "You ride in that loaner I'm riding with owners", great. Yaaaaaahaaaaaaahhhhhhaahahhhh, this is so good, yes, I am so happy. **

8. Halftime

Oooh, this is intense... the beat is SO SO low. "Halftime, half a brick and half a zanny", oh okay is that normal. "Hit the streets and rip that bitch up like I'm Willie B" RIP WILLIE B!! "All my diamonds black, you can motherfucking knight em" hahahaha sweet. "Every time I dress myself it go motherfucking viral" so good. And WOW this fast erratic flow is amazing. "Cocaine white like Justin Beiber dick" hahaha "I want your pizza Little Ceaser bitch" oh my god so many good lines. And WOW at 2:00 this layered autotuned sound is so good wowowow. "Hey, have a very good time"? Is that right? That's so nice! Thank you!! "I pull up on bitches that wear all white like Miley Cyrus" and they suck on his "privates" hahaha wow. When he does gun soundeffects like "pshpshpewpuhpew" it's very good. Dude yeah "Let's have a very good time", that's awesome. *

9. Amazing

Idk who Jacquees is either. Woah this beat?? Um excuse me? "Have you ever dreamed?" "I dreamed." "God damn who let rats in the house?" When he's in Texas he leans back like a couch. This has like... a country vibe to it? Or maybe I've just lost my mind. This fluid triplet flow is insane. "She suck it too slow, I'm impatient." This is a weird ass song man lol. I like it though. Jacquees seems like he's arrived at a similar flow to some of Young Thugs but from the opposite direction. Thug seems to have chosen this point completely randomly to way more in than ever before. "Take some sand to the beach", he seems very occupied with the beach in a lot of songs. Thugger's flow is getting even jumpier and more intense on every verse, it feels like he's gonna explode. "How many times have I asked if you were well", "How many times have I burped" and then he burps. Wow.w. This outro is cool too. What a bizarre song. *

10. Knocked Off

This beat is like... super drunk underwater angel core. "I'm a beat that pussy up like a champion, I'm a be inside these streets like a barbarian". Birdman on a flow unlike any I've heard from him, Idk if it suits him too well but I like it OK. "The ice is rolling cause we rolling" that makes sense. "I'm banging green like the lizard in Geico" IDK but I like whenever he calls himself "Big B" or "Beast" or whatever he's saying. Thug rapping about all the circumstances where he could die, pretty impacting tbh. His flow flips up like every two bars, it's insane. "She made me lean back like a sofa bitch" hahaha he already said that. "We laughing at these pussy boys, they so hilarious" his use of hilarious here is hilarious too. S+

11. OD

Woah this choral intro... Just gotta close my eyes a second... Whenever he says "bring me a lighter", my heart catches a bit. Feeling like he's ODing with drugs, his girl gonna help him out... "I could live off my boat like nautical with my partner" <3 2:00...="" a="" about="" album="" all="" an="" and="" are="" around="" b="" beautiful="" brown="" club...="" crime="" crying.="" deceased="" direction="" distant="" ee="" effects="" fight="" gets="" gonna="" he="" hearing="" higher="" his="" hook="" hope="" i="" if="" in="" is="" lighter="" ll="" lmao.="" loyalty.="" m="" man...="" many="" me="" means="" michael="" motherfucking="" moves="" names="" nose="" nostalgic="" of="" og="" on="" outside="" part="" partner="" people...="" quan="" real="" realest="" really="" record...="" remain="" rest="" s="" saying="" second="" shifts="" shit...="" shit.="" shoutouts="" slimes...="" so="" something="" song...="" start="" started="" streets="" such="" that.="" the="" their="" there="" these="" this="" tired="" to="" triumphant="" very="" vocal="" way="" when="" wipe="" wow...="" wow="" y="" yeah="" your="">


Edit: I have no idea what happened here, some sort of glitch in blogspot's software... prolly cause i made the "less than three" heart... it alphabetized every word in the paragraph? This is surreal and sort of nightmarish. I have no idea how or why this bug (or feature??) exists. I dunno how to fix it. Oh well. ***

12. Numbers

Woaaaaaaaah WOW. This is like, Lil B sort of theatrics. The thunder! The piano! "I go up up and away", ;_____; And that beat is PERFECT, so crispy. "Ammo for these boosie motherfuckers", damn. He's doing numbers, he's in jail I guess. "Count a hundred, want a hundred more, that's hunger", "Yes I'm hungry, Thugger got the munchies", his emotional spectrum is like, everything all at once. His adlibs on this song are SUPER on point. "I'm a tell em one  tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime" wow. "Youse a buster, motherfucking rhymes" hahahaha. "Let me pick up his remains" :'( This is another godly track... How will he top this one? What is our finale?? What a lovely outro... **

13. Just Might Be

Again with this sort of choral intro... very soothing, very cloudy, very bright. "Living life bro, I'm happy, nothing more or less" AND OH WOW THIS FLOW. This BEAT! This is the final boss! The final form! Kefka! Dancing mad! (Neeerd!!!) I can't even SPEAK on this, every line is hilarious. That verse was INSANE. Woah that was the HOOK I guess. I love the adlib "Really rich!", "I swear all these rappers nautical now, and I'm the chlorine" for real? Or did I mishear that? My god. "Okay you know all my diamonds got no flaws", gigantic triumphant flow now, this is casting ultima. The vocal effects around 3:00 are awesome, so many new ideas, so many new directions, even now... So many hypocrisies and injustices, and he's just rampaging through all of them. Okay. That's it. That's Barter 6. I am very happy.

I am very happy

Because I am done school, and maybe it is nice out, and my dad is coming later today to buy me a blender as a late birthday present. But perhaps most of all I am happy because a flood of happy memories from the future have rushed into me. Because I know now that dozens of future hours will be soundtracked by what I have just heard. Because I now have 13 new options when I'm sitting on the bus or walking somewhere and I think "wow I want to listen to a Young Thug song", which I often think. The happiness I'll feel then has transcended time and space to warm me further today.

On Barter 6, Young Thug has displayed virtuoso talent and awesome creative vision. There is a trend towards his cloudy-golden sorta sound, I'd stop just short of calling it sacred. Sometimes I feel like I miss his really banging stuff that he'd do on 1017 Thug etc, and other times I'd miss Quan or other collaborators whose bridges are covered in beef, collaborators who have the sort of tight synergy that enables Gotenks-style flow. But it isn't like there's a marked absence of these things, like, Thugger doesn't need them, it's just something else that he can do. And to showcase everything he does, it would take like a three-hour project. I am okay with this.

Beyond the raw talent and meticulous direction on display here, there's also a passion and emotional openness that basically will infect you as deeply as you'll let it. I can't really coherently talk about Young Thug, I have to make a bunch of strange pseudo-mystical images or make metaphors like "Gotenks flow" that no one understands. I think it's because this passion drills down to me so deeply that all I can do is flail about with signifiers that seem as deep and passionate, on a level where little has yet to be exposed, the level where everything originally comes from. See, again... this makes no sense.

So we should probably end it here. Hopefully the next few days will be have a bunch more album reviews. I have a long backlog and I'm eager to get it to it. But I had to start with this one. And honestly, if I lost all the other albums, and had to just listen to Barter 6 nonstop for the next few months, that'd be OK too.