Young Thug is a famous American rapper and a songwriter who is known not only for his unconventional way of rapping but also for his unusual way of dressing and wearing jewellry.
Early life
Jeffrey Lamar Williams also known as Young Thug was born on August 16, 1991 in Atlanta in USA.
He was raised in a family with eleven children so it was always crowded in their home. He had a very troublesome childhood due to family problems and marriage problems of his parents. They also had a very low income so the kids learned to take care of themselves from an early age.
The family lived in social buildings in the Janesboro South which was also a place were some other known hip hop artists spent their childhood, for example Waka Flocka Fame and PeeWee Longway. He claims that the streets had a big impact on him and that the influence that came from the streets was something that made him reconsider music.
In 2010 he started rapping which was quite late since he was already 19 years old. Most of other rappers started making beats in their early teens. Jeffrey started to think about his career and what he will do in life later rhan others. Maybe he was preocupied by his brothers and sisters and taking care of them to have time for music.
While he was in elementary school, one of his brothers named Bennie was killed in a shooting and that marked him inside. It wasn’t an easy experience for him because he witnessed his brother’s death himself. That left a scar on him, and for a while he spent a lot of time alone, at home, trying to handle the fact that his brother is no longer at his side.
He got himself in a lot of trouble afterwards: he made problems, started stealing and having issues with the police.
It ended up with his four years long stay in a detention home during his teenage years. The reason for such harsh punishment is his fighting with the teacher and breaking his arm.
After he ended up in a detention home, he never went back to school so he never completed his education. Jeffrey was never really crazy about getting his degree so he wasn’t all too sad to end his education. He knew that he was going to do music anyway.
Career development
In those days a very known Atlanta rapper called Gucci Mane was at his peek and he was the one to notice Young Thug. He came across his mixtape “I came from nothing” and he liked Young Thug’s style.
Gucci was an owner of his own record label by then so he signed a contract with Young Thug and released his first labelled mixtape :” 1017 Thug”.
The mixtape became a hit and everyone was thrilled about his new and refreshing rapping style, a little unconvencial.
He released his first single under the name “Stoner” in 2013 and it was a huge hit which was later remixed by Jadakiss and another hip hop artists. Young Thug didn’t like when somebody else altered his music and made a new song out of it, so he often pointed that out in his interviews but also in their lyrics. That’s why he often had probems with other people making covers of his work and he insisted on people not making remixes.
His best charted single was “Picacho” from his “1017 Thug” album and a known music magazine “Rolling Stones” listed it in the Top 100 tracks of the year.
Kanye West offered him a collaboration in 2014 which led to Kanye’s great reviews of Young Thug’s work which ultimately ended in his recognition all over America. Kanye West is one of the most popular producers of this hip-hop era and therefore Young Thug gained a large fanbase after being mentioned by him.
The same year Young Thug signed a contract with “300 Entertainment” but their cooperation lasted very short because he soon transferred to Atlantic.
Young Thug was featured on Kanye West’s album “The Life of Pablo”. This also brought him some regonition.
After an unfortanate leak of his singles to the Internet, he started releasing singles every week to minimize the damage.
He entered a record label business and started signing artist to his label.
He collaborated with Drake and Calvin Harris in 2016. The same year he released an album “Bankroll Mafia”.
Due to Drake’s and Thug’s great collaboration, Drake became the main producer of his mixtape “Beautiful Thugger Girls”. Drake also helped promoting the tape and it gained Young Thug huge attention.
Media oftenly talks about Young Thug as someone who got famous by being mentioned by other popular musicians, rappers and producers. Young Thug finds this offensive and denies it, yet it is true that he gained most of his fans from other people’s fanbases.
Young Thug found his role model and a rapper to look up to in Lil Wayne. In his honor he wanted to call his album after him but Lil Wayne got affended and asked Young Thug not to mention him.
Personal life
He got engaged to Jerrika Karlae, who he met while recording in Gucci Mane’s studio. After a period of dating they got engaged in 2015.
His fans like her very much, especially after her performance in Thug’s video for a single “Worth It”. She is a swimsuit designer and has her own business.
Young Thug can bragg to be one of the rare hip hop artists to be a Calvin Klein model in 2016-th collection. He also shot some advertises for Puma and Sprite. He said that he thought of making his modeling career bigger before, but he says that everytime he leaves music, his life is suddenly dull.
He has siblings but they have different father so he has only one real sister.
He is close to his sisters Dolly and Dora who also tried theirselves in music water. They were guests on his “Best Friends” video.
He has a brother Unfunk, but he is in prison for murder.
He had six children with more than one women (four to be exact), but they don’t live with him. He only pays child support for them. He also tries not to mention them a lot due to the fact that the mothers want to regain privacy.
In 2015 he came on the covers of newspapers after hr was arrested in a mall where he was found threatening the security guard. The guard wasn’t impressed by Young Thug’s character.
Although he became famous he hasn’t changed hus behaviour much since he was a teen: he is still acting rude and fighting when there is no need for it.
Not many people know that he was a gambling addict and that he robbed shops to have money to spend in the casino.
He is known for his septum piercing and his tattoos and he claims that he would also love to get more of them.
He was rumoured to plot a conspiracy with Birdman to kill Lil Wayne after Lil dissed Young Thug.
Quick summary
Full name: Jeffrey Lamar Williams
Date of birth: August 16, 1991
Birthplace: Atlanta, USA
Age: 26
Profession: rapper, songwriter
Height: 190 cm
Weight: 76 kgs
Net Worth: $3 million
