Young Thug has released his new album Punk, after weeks of anticipation and fan speculation.
The stacked project boasts appearances from J. Cole, Gunna, Future, Post Malone, ASAP Rocky, Drake, Travis Scott, Doja Cat, and others. It also features posthumous vocals from Juice WRLD and Mac Miller.
Arriving right at the end of Complex’s Young Thug Week, the rapper adds to his dense catalog with his latest offering since dropping what was technically his debut studio album in 2019, So Much Fun. Of course, Young Thug’s discography is packed with critically acclaimed projects like Barter 6, Jeffery, his Slime Season trilogy, and more. The Atlanta rapper has always labeled these projects as mixtapes, so Punk is the sophomore album for the rapper who has morphed soundscapes to fit his own glimmering, pink-glazed image.
While it’s been more than two years since So Much Fun, Thug has been anything but quiet on the music front. Earlier this year, he shined a light on his Young Stoner Life Records label roster with the release of Slime Language 2. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, earning 113,000 equivalent album units while boasting features from the likes of Drake, Travis Scott, Kid Cudi, and more.
Ahead of the album’s release, Complex caught up with Thug to talk about Punk, his life, and the mythos surrounding him. During the conversation, Thug revealed how he ended up on Kanye West’s Donda, and why he couldn’t be told to abide by the rapper’s strict gospel rules when recording it.
“You can’t instruct me,” Thug explains. “You can’t give me instructions, and I am saying that humbly. I understand music. I understand life. I understand everything. I understand that this car is bigger than the car in front of us. I understand that a motorcycle could never beat this car. I understand the way the universe works, so you don’t have to talk to me about certain shit. I feel like n****s like Kanye West, and Jay-Z, and fucking Quincy Jones, and James Brown, and if Michael Jackson and Prince were here… Them n****s understand that about me. They trust me.”
That trust that is shared by fans and music legends alike pays off with the arrival of Punk, which is available to stream now below via Spotify. The album arrived to the streaming service after a bit of delay. It was scheduled to drop at 12 a.m. ET but instead arrived at 3:00 a.m. “Added a couple friends… Punk @ midnight PST/3am EST,” Thug wrote on social media in a post that also featured the project’s tracklist.
You can also listen to the album on Apple Music.
To celebrate the release, Thug linked up with Lyft for an opportunity to connect with his fans. “In a car, you get to hear sounds you wouldn’t hear if you were in a studio, or in a club, or on stage,” he said. “When you record a slap, you’re like, we got to go hear this in the car.” Check out video of Thug surprising Lyft drivers below.
