c/o HotNewHipHop.com
In the midst of controversy, Young Thug has dropped his topically titled On The Rvn EP, running at six songs and 21 minutes. Coming just over a month after Thug released his somewhat disappointing compilation album Slime Language, I was skeptical that he would be able to put out anything really interesting. Yet one of auto-crooning rap’s most influential pioneers has proven me wrong.
This might be the last we hear of Young Thug’s rapping for quite some time, given that he recently turned himself in after being indicted on eight felony drug charges. And in that case, he doesn’t seem to really be on the run anymore, but we can still listen to his new release. On The Rvn, while not terribly innovative and running at only six tracks, still manages to deliver a healthy balance of creativity, bangers, and generic trap songs. The tape is fun to listen to and provides us with a return to Young Thug’s unpredictable and unique style that was largely missing on Slime Language.
The tape opens with the almost-titular “On The Run.” Produced by London on da Track, this track is certainly a banger. We hear an 808-laced beat led by soft steel drums and a flute, with kicks at all the right times. While Thug’s lyricism here is pretty forgettable, the energy of the song is hard to ignore. There is certainly some dark humor found in Thugger’s rhymes about evading the law. The project’s great opener is followed up by the painfully generic “Icey.” The beat lacks energy, and the lyrics are boring, with Thug telling us all about wanting more diamonds, having nice cars, and more of the like. The track adds nothing to the project and really didn’t need to be on it; it sounds like a Slime Language leftover.
Young Thug gives us a somber relationship ballad with “Climax,” featuring 6LACK. The chorus seems to have been heavily influenced by the late XXXTentacion’s sad-guitar-and-sample sound found on songs like “Jocelyn Flores;” Young Thug’s improvisational vocals add to the dark emotions portrayed by the instrumentation in the song, and to a degree, we can feel the same pain that Thug has felt due to past relationships.
c/o Pitchfork.com
“Sin,” featuring Jaden Smith, is another banger, with signs of Migos influence. The beat is very reminiscent of “Narcos” by Migos, and Thug even shouts the rap trio out in the chorus. Here we listen to Thug explain the relationship that money and vice have in his life; not exactly an original premise, but it’s always nice to hear some introspection from a rapper who tends not to focus on lyrical content. Smith adds some hype to his verse with a well timed coupling of a line with the bass coming back into the song, but overall, the feature is a little awkward; Smith sounds like a high school SoundCloud rapper, with a basic flow and basic rhymes and almost no intonation on any of his bars.
“Real In My Veins” follows, another trap banger, with a beat just interesting enough to give the song value. While we get to hear about Young Thug’s ruthless nature and his many VVS diamonds, an emotionally wandering beat keeps it interesting, as do multiple flow changes by Thug. The beat transitions seamlessly from melancholy, semi-acoustic sections into high-energy, distorted-bass-driven fast-flow verses from Thug, and it is definitely a fun listen. While this song also sounds a lot like a Slime Language leftover, its energy puts it far above most tracks from the recent album; Young Thug’s inexplicable, organic, and frankly random energy shines through here in ways that it didn’t on his last project.
The album closes out with “High,” Young Thug’s rendition of Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” It features vocals from the original song interlaid with Young Thugs autotuned crooning and spaced out by Thug rapping about his drug use, as well as some of his ambitions and his ever-important money. Something about this song just works; not many people would have thought of these two artists as musically compatible or even thought about them in the same context. Surprisingly, their combination delivers a pleasant and positive yet solemn sound that is both calming and uplifting to listen to. Few rappers could adapt their own sound so aptly to that of Elton John, and Thugger deserves high praise for this creative feat.
Young Thug’s On The Rvn delivers an accessible fix for fans of his work and a swift summary of Thug’s creative library for those who aren’t familiar. With a mixture of trap bangers with fairly generic rhymes, some somber, crooning tracks about love and desires, and wacky vocals paired with energetic beats, On The Rvn is certainly worth listening to. While sometimes lacking in lyrical and vocal interest, the EP is very easy to listen to and is more than creative and diverse enough to keep you interested for its 21-minute run time; it’s likely that it will leave you wanting more.
Alex Rogers can be reached at aarogers@wesleyan.edu.