Genre: Trap Rap, Southern Hip Hop
Favorite Tracks: “All Over,” “‘Bout (Damn) Time,” “Oh Lord”
Young Thug is at it again with a sequel to September’s SLIME SEASON. In lieu of any indicator of when the HY!£UN35 album will arrive, we’re given another very similar mixtape barely a month after the first one. This time around, the only real improvement comes on the production side of things. Even though LondonOnDaTrack still hasn’t got his shot at a whole mixtape with Thug, he does cover a good amount of the tracks. Most notably, some tracks feature more than one producer. This allows it to reach more refined and even atmospheric sounding beats, which border on including elements of the modern vaporwave or cloud rap craze and surpass the manipulated Ellie Goulding samples on the first SLIME SEASON’s “Calling Your Name.” But a lot of Thug’s less thought-out rapping makes this all for nought. One of the main reasons there was no writing on the hit track “Best Friend” from the SS1 review was because the nod to Jhené Aiko’s famous booty-eating line and constant repetition just made it feel too dumb. And with SLIME SEASON 2, it seems like Thug is moving further in that direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL2SgUynh4Y
When reading a track’s title you can guarantee that Thug will repeat it with very little variation ad nauseam on the song’s hook. Some of them work. “Oh Lord” and “Bout (Damn) Time” are short enough phrases that they really showcase his unique delivery. This was of course aided by London’s exceptional producing talents on the former and the pairing of Ricky Racks and TM88 on the latter. Another interesting collaboration is C4 and Supah Mario, who produced Thug’s arguable best track “2 Cups Stuffed,” on “Thief in the Night,” but even with help from feature rapper Trouble, Thug can’t help but utter “G’s up hoes down” close to ten times in a row. Pointing out the laziness of this project even more are rhymes that appeared in SS1 being shamelessly recycled including, references to Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and “HERCULES HERCULES!” from Eddie Murphy’s THE NUTTY PROFESSOR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX8oyYwxnhI
The whole thing seems so hastily put together and serves as a vehicle to highlight the strengths of producers rather than that of Young Thug himself. With that mindset, if not one of an extreme Thugga fan, the mixtape still only serves as a complementary piece that is way too long for its own good. Thug seems to be thinking that everything he belts out will be gold. Hype is still retained for the upcoming collab entitled MIGO THUGGIN with Migos, who have proved that sequelitis has no effect on them with 2014’s NO LABEL II, if not the album HY!£UN35. All SLIME SEASON 2 proves is that Thug still has an army of producers at his disposal, and Birdman too.
Verdict: Do Not Recommend
Alexander Larios
Mr. Alexander Ignacio Larios used to own a Sega Dreamcast. Follow him on Last.fm at: http://www.last.fm/user/KeroseneBath. on RateYourMusic at: https://rateyourmusic.com/~KeroseneBath. on Letterboxd at: http://letterboxd.com/Phallixander/.