Young Thug Can't Stop Rapping About His Glasses
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I’m gonna let you guys in on a little secret, the most successful posts on this website aren’t the long-form dissertations, the nostalgic countdowns, or even the loving album reviews. No, the reality is, the most viewed articles on this site are consistently the most stupid ones. I’m talking about that time that I compiled every time 21 Savage talked about food on his debut album. I’m talking about the time I analytically broke down every reference Lil Pump has made to the elderly. I’m talking about when I listed out the (shockingly-high) number of times that Offset has name-dropped Patek Philippe.
I don’t know if these posts succeeded due to some unintended SEO magic on my part, or I have a silent sleeper cell of fans who enjoy what essentially amounts to long-form hip-hop shitposts. Either way, my brain can only handle so much of that intentionally-stupid writing style before it starts to self-immolate in protest, so I tend to do it in very select bursts. That said, every once in a while I like to take a break from “serious posts” to talk about something abjectly stupid, and today is one of those days because I have important news to share with you all: Young Thug is obsessed with his glasses.
Yes friends, shocking, I know… world-shattering even, but I’ve listened to enough Young Thug over the years to pick up on this startling phenomenon. Whether intentional or not, Young Thug has made spectacles an artistic throughline in his music the same way that some other rappers might rep their cities or romanticize their drug of choice. Sure, glasses are essentially an extension of bragging about expensive jewelry or other fashion accessories, but it’s the consistency with which Thug relies on this device that’s notable here. Below you’ll find no less than a dozen references to glasses penned by the artist born Jeffery Lamar Williams. I hope your vision is good and you’re ready to be called a nerd, because we’re through the looking glass here, people. Let’s begin.
“Stoner” (2013)
Fittingly, Young Thug’s first recorded reference to his glasses can be found on the song that initially put him on the map: 2013’s “Stoner.” I’ll be honest, I have no idea what this line means, but that doesn’t stop it from going any less hard.
“Tell Nobody No” (2014)
Gucci Mane’s co-sign was an important milestone in the early stages of Thug’s career. While Young Thugga Mane La Flare legitimized Thug as an up-and-coming trap star, it also marked the beginning of Thug’s optical obsession: marking the second instance of this lyrical crutch. With this line, Thug manages to allude to his wealth with a fashion-forward Chrome Hearts name-drop (glasses that typically run about $1,000) and doubly-flexes with the fact that they make him look like a nerd but elaborating that he doesn’t particularly care.
“Can’t Tell” (2015)
One is an example, two is a coincidence, but three is a trend. Barter 6 was a landmark album in Thug’s career that finally made his style click for thousands, if not millions of people. This line, in particular, glorifies Thug’s glasses to a point where they possess an almost Superman-like quality that allows him to accurately disguise his identity.
Everything seemed to be going right for Thug in early 2015. He successfully used the momentum of “Stoner” to drop a tape with Gucci Mane, he proved himself versatile in a wildly-successful collab with Rich Homie Quan, and his major-label debut received glowing reviews from both the press and his budding fanbase alike. Young Thug was doing everything right, and it was truly shaping up to be his year.
Sometime in May of 2015, right as Young Thug seemed to be at the height of his exploding popularity, over one hundred of his songs leaked online. While leaks of any sort tend to do more harm than good, a leak of this size was unprecedented and represented a massive blow to Thug’s momentum at the time. While it certainly impacted the rest of his year, Young Thug’s indomitable spirit managed to shine through, and he decided to make the best of things. This leak led to the release of a series of fantastic mixtapes in Slime Season that allowed Thug to collect the best of this material and polish it up for public consumption. Most importantly, this leak also exposed Thug’s continuing eyewear obsession, as I’m about to highlight.
“No Way” (2015)
While this is almost certainly one of his weakest glasses-related lyrics, the phase “big-time glasses” is a hilarious (if not flat-footed) way for Thug to segue into money talk.
“Crime Stoppers” (2015)
On this early collaboration with Migos (a part of the long-rumored MigosThuggin collaborative tape), this line calls back to Thug’s Chrome Hearts purchase while also drawing a playful connection to one of the most famous glasses wearers of all time: Harry Potter.
“Calling Your Name” (2015)
It was around this time that Thug truly began to lean into the lyrical absurdity and over-the-top sexual references he later became known for. Undeniably a standout from the first entry of the Slime Season series, this line turns the lens away from Thug and onto the listener questioning whether or not they have any vision problems. Truly fourth-wall-breaking poetry.
“Scoop” (2016)
Young Thug is nothing without his glasses. Not only do they help him see, they’re practically a source of power, confidence, and self-worth. They help him accomplish his goals and pursue his dreams, whether that be money, women, or success. When Thug breaks out his glasses, that’s how you know things are about to get serious.
“Far Away” (2016)
Almost more of a checklist than a flex, these lines allude to Thug’s gang affiliations and taste for expensive glasses all in the same breath. A breathtaking economy of words.
“Say” (2016)
Much like “Scoop,” in this line Thug’s glasses are a conduit to an almost superhuman ability, serving as the psychological framework through which he views the world, or in this case, judges someone’s character to be untrustworthy.
“Daddy’s Birthday” (2017)
It appears that Thug has moved on from name-dopping his Chrome Hearts to his new Celines. Here the ad-libs support his fixation with glasses as he pleads with some unknown force that all he wants are his glasses. Here we see Thug in his raw, most spiritually-crushed state as he recognizes the one thing in this mortal world that genuinely brings him pleasure.
“Three” (2017)
Much like “Can’t Tell” from two years prior, this collab between Young Thug and Future finds Thug shaming himself for feeling like a nerd for wearing glasses. Maybe he’s a self-hating glasses wearer, motivated by some deep-seated shame or psychological trauma, or perhaps he’s saying his outward nerdiness doesn’t even matter because he’s still achieving success in life and finances regardless of that fact.
“Anybody” (2018)
In a double-flex, Thug gives us a fashion-forward fit check from the Maison Margiela shoes on his feet to the Farrakhan glasses on his head. It’s a clever way to give a quick overview of his high-fashion choices while also tossing off two quick references to how much his average outfit would cost (allowing the listener to fill in the blanks with equally-priced pieces).
There you have it, folks; one dozen references to glasses stretched across half a decade and nearly a dozen releases. Thug has always been a polarizing fixture in the rap landscape, but as his continued success paved the way for billboard smash hits, #1 albums, and new artistic heights, it’s important to recognize the successes that led him to where he is now. We simply cannot lose sight of Thug, nor his glasses obsession, lest we be just as blind as him.
