Review: Young Thug’s “Slime Season 3″[Download]

          young Thug returns with “Slime Season 3,” a tighter, more focused tape than “I’m Up.”

          The first two installments of Young Thug’s Slime Season series arrived a little over a month apart last fall, providing a good display of both Thugger’s speed in the studio and his versatility. The first one had him stretching his style in every direction, from the Flockaveli-style aggression of “Rarri” to the stately piano balladeering of “Power” and “No Way” to the minimal Cali bounce of “Udiggwhatimsayin.” The second was much more measured in its approach, despite being four tracks longer. It’s a lot to ask for the wildly unpredictable Thug to stay on the same page as himself for 80 minutes straight, but Slime Season 2 is probably as close he’ll ever get to accomplishing that (at least in terms of marathon-length releases). It was a one-two punch that, first, displayed Thug’s creativity and lack of fucks given, and second, his ability to reign it in for the benefit of a cohesive project.

         Although his next two releases, February’s I’m Up and March’s Slime Season 3, are each about half the length of either previous Slime Season tape, they follow basically the same pattern: the first was all over the place, the second’s a little more monochrome. Whereas I’m Up featured ten separate guest vocalists, and only two of its tracks had Thug rocking solo, SS3 crams all three of its features onto one track and lets its star take control for the other seven. Wheezy produced five of nine I’m Up cuts, and continued his trend of lacking a well-defined style, experimenting with tempo and arrangement so much that consecutive tracks “For My People” and “King TROUP” sound like the work of two completely different people. This time it’s London On Da Track, who at this point has crafted an almost instantly-recognizable sound, who controls the lion’s share of the tape and gives it a piano-heavy vibe that persists throughout. But as was also the case with SS2, Thug uses these less crowded, more uniform surroundings as a springboard to some of his most inventive vocal work yet.