Young Thug returns today with Punk, his long-awaited second studio album. The LP leads off with “Die Slow,” a drum-free, guitar-driven, essentially spoken-word track that finds Thugger ruminating on painful experiences from his past. The plaintive song quickly found a spot in the Top 10 of Genius’ Top Songs chart.
Thug has been talking up Punk since 2019, when he promised an LP of “touching music.” “It’s music that the world is going to embrace,” he told Fader. “[Punk] means brave, not self centered, conscious. Very, very neglected, very misunderstood. Very patient, very authentic.”
“Die Slow”—which Thug debuted at Rolling Loud in July and performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert a few days later—certainly qualifies as “patient” and “authentic.” The song opens with Thug in a penthouse suite in Italy, giving us a running commentary on what’s happening as the song is being recorded.
Yeah, on tour, I done missed my son’s birthday, it’s July the 15th
Nah, I lowkey, like, really see people ridin’ past on boats right now out the window (Die slow, die slow)
Thug remains mellow and contemplative in the first verse, where he seemingly references his brother Unfoonk, whom he helped avoid a life sentence.
Told the lawyer that my brother ain’t goin’ back to prison
I don’t give a fuck if I gotta turn that nigga to Jehovah’s Witness
In the second interlude, Thug describes a pair of harrowing incidents that apparently happened in his youth. The first is a shooting that occurred after his father found his mother messing around with a deputy sheriff. The other came eight years later, when his mother tried to break up a fight involving his sisters.
My mom came outside to goddamn stop the fighting
And the lady got in the car and just pulled off doing like sixty miles per hour, ran my mom over
She had a stroke and shit, but she alright, yeah
At the start of the second verse, Thugger seems to deflect long-standing rumors about his sexuality by boasting about his early prowess as a ladies’ man.
I always knew I wasn’t gon’ be gay
I had her sendin’ pictures to my mom’s phone when I was like eight
Later in that verse, Thug reflects on his rags-to-riches story and all of the hard work that got him where he is.
If you want it, you gon’ get up earlier than anyone
Put on my socks, grab my Glock, the stick under the couch
Tie all my shoes, you wearin flip flops, and it’s top of the top
You can read all the lyrics to “Die Slow” on Genius now.
great artwork, gotta admit.