GQ: You excited about the new album?
Young Thug: Not really.
People’s biggest complaint is that you mumble. Does that ever get to you?
It don’t really get to me. When it gets to me, I’ll do it worse. I’ll make a whole fu*king mumbling album.
How would you describe where you’re from?
Like the bottom of your shoes. I’m from the bottom of your shoes.
You’re pretty weird now. Were you weird in high school?
When I was in high school I had a gambling problem. I played quarterback, and I used to have ten pairs of dice in a little bag. I never even went to the school where I was from. My dad wanted me to play football so bad he took me to Washington high school on the west side of Atlanta because they were number one. They never lost. I played for one year but then I started gambling again and going to other hoods. All the people in school probably thought I was weird, so I was quiet the whole time I was in school. But I always paid attention to every single thing.
How was it interacting with the girls? Were you popular with them?
Of course. Yeah. Girls like the cool guys. You would’ve liked the cool guy instead of the class clown right?
But weren’t you cool though, right? Cool guys usually have a lot of friends, etcetera.
Oh you mean like popular-cool. I was popular-cool because I played varsity quarterback in the ninth grade. But I was calm because I didn’t really know anyone. Every girl at school had my number spray-painted on their faces and sh*t. I didn’t know nobody so I was just kept to myself.
Why’d you decide to connect with Birdman and Cash Money Records?
Because my whole life I looked up to them. I wanted to stunt like Birdman, which I fu*king am. And I wanted to be like Wayne.
Plain and simple: did you try to have Lil Wayne killed?
fu*k no.
Does it bother you that Wayne, one of your idols, clearly has a personal problem with you?
Maybe if I was a peasant it would. But of course it bothers me some, because that’s what I always wanted. It was so weird: I always wanted to be in the studio with Wayne. I would tell Birdman to bring him over, but he never fu*king came.
The first time I saw you perform was five years ago…
That was when I was Wayne. And he’s me now.
What do you mean?
I feel like if he had the chance to be himself or me, he’d be me. If I had the chance to be myself or him, I’d be him. That man is the greatest. If we had the biggest problem in the world I’d still say he’s the best rapper in the fu*king world. Everybody knows nobody raps better than the fu*king boss.
How do you feel about the whole Meek Mill/Drake beef? Tough month for Meek, right?
Tough month for Drake, tough life for the other guy.
Why do you wear women’s clothing?
Because women’s clothes are [slimmer] than men’s clothes. The jeans I got on right now, they’re women’s jeans. But they fit how they’re supposed to fit. Like a rock star. The only thing I probably have in men’s is like briefs. T-shirts. Ninety percent of my clothes are women’s.
When did you start wearing predominantly women’s clothing?
When I was 12 or some sh*t, started gambling, getting my own money. My dad wouldn’t buy me tight pants. I had to get my own money to buy them.
It’s one thing to wear “rockstar” clothes when you’re on stage with thousands of fans, it’s another thing when you’re 12 years-old shooting dice in someone else’s hood. Did people fu*k with you for it?
Yeah, it was way more difficult. But I was so into that gangster sh*t. Dudes didn’t play.
How do you get them not to fu*k with you?
How? Shoot the sh*t out of one of them. Beat the fu*k out of them. However you have to handle it. There’s no thinking [when someone disrespects you], we gotta handle it right then. So as young men we had to do a couple things. Then people respected us.
You tote guns very openly. Are you more rock star or gangster?
Of course. I’m still a human, so of course. I guess that’s why I survive. I’m with anything. If you want me to be a rock star onstage, that’s what I’m ready to die about. But if you got a gun in my face, I ain’t gonna wimp out. I wanna die being a rock star.
What’s your biggest fear?
Not seeing God.
When you die?
Yeah. I want to see Him, I really do. And I’m afraid of my mom dying. If my mom died, I wouldn’t want to do nothing. I would die. Quit.
Where does she live now?
She’s 51, with an enlarged heart, so at any time it could just burst or stop. But she lives somewhere in Georgia. Not a peasant can get to her.
Is that the main driving force behind you making so many records, non-stop?
Yeah. I just be like I look at her smile. She has a 11 kids, I was the 10th. None of us ever had anything. So now that we finally got a little something… it’s me.