R&B/Hip-Hop

Young Thug was behind bars for the duration of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle last year, but was kept in the loop thanks to his girlfriend Mariah The Scientist.

Thugger was asked about the K. Dot and Drizzy battle dominating conversation in hip-hop last year during his interview with GQ on Friday (April 25), as well as how he was name-dropped by Lamar during his “Not Like Us” diss.

“Yeah, [Kendrick] just spoke on people’s name in Atlanta. I don’t know what that was about,” he said before making his allegiance to Drake known. “I’m a Drake fan.”

Kendrick attacked Drake’s ties to Atlanta in the third verse of “Not Like Us” by naming artists he’s worked with extensively in the past. “21 gave you false street cred/ Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head/ Quavo said you can be from Northside,” he raps.

While he didn’t address Kendrick directly, Thug hopped on X when he was in jail last year and called for Drake, Metro Boomin and Future to stop feuding. “@Drake @1future @MetroBoomin we all bruddas. Music aint the same without us collabin,” he wrote.

Speaking to Billboard in 2024, Mariah The Scientist explained that she kept Thug up to date on cultural events like the Drake and Kendrick battle when she would talk to him while he was locked up.

“I tell him everything. I might tell him too much,” she said. “I play him the [diss] songs over the phone and shit. He’s a lover of music in general. He fucks with everybody. I don’t think he would ever be able to – let me not speak for him.”

She continued: “He love music though. He thinks it’s interesting, for sure. We were listening to some of the songs. Not all of them, because now I’ve gotten lost. In the beginning, I was like, ‘Hey, there’s a tizzy going on.’ I played him some of it. I feel like those two people are both great rappers. With all of the rappers with the guy and the girl rappers, granted it’s cool for the craft, and to be able to keep up with that — because let me not lie and say there’s no competitive energy in the music industry. Because there is.”

In the past, Thug and Drake have joined forces on a plethora of hits including “Way 2 Sexy,” “Ice Melts,” “Sacrifices,” “It’s Up,” “Solid,” “Oh U Went” and more.

After regaining his freedom in October, Thugger is getting back to music in his own right as he delivered his first single of 2025 on Friday while teaming up with Future for “Money on Money.” Look for Thug’s UY SCUTI album to arrive in May.

Watch the full interview with Young Thug below.

Young Thug has a lot to say. After being released from prison in October following a two-year-plus bid as part of the YSL RICO trial, Thugger has remained quiet. That is, until Friday (April 25), when his first all-encompassing interview since regaining his freedom dropped via GQ .

In addition to his case, jail and his relationship with Gunna, Thug gave his unfiltered thoughts on the state of the rap game today.

“I think the numbers could be better, but yes,” he said when asked if the rap game’s in a good place. “I think a lot of people rapping about the same thing. Ain’t nobody bringing something that you could actually watch. You can enjoy the music and enjoy the things they do, but we used to make movies. Now it’s just quick. We gotta get back to movies to where like people respect it.”

Thug expanded on the dominance of simplicity. “It was just a big wave of nothingness running the game,” he said. “Super-simple videos, not really high-priced videos. That wave came in really strong. Even the people that was doing high-priced videos, they started doing regular videos because that’s what was popping. We did it so long where we’re comfortable with that. We don’t want to do stuff like this that takes time.”

The YSL boss also spoke on his friendship with the late Rich Homie Quan. Thug explained that Quan wanted to do his own thing and pursue a solo career, which led to them not releasing more music together.

“I think we just grew and became our own bosses and men,” he said. “We were getting bigger, so I wanted to do my own thing. I think he did. I love music, but I don’t care about songs. I’ll have a No. 1 hit record song and I’ll put you on it. Whoever go to the top with you, go to the top. I don’t care. I would’ve been OK with keep doing it.”

Even after spending more than two years away, Thug hears his melodic influence across today’s hip-hop. “Absolutely, you hear some s–t and you’re like, ‘Me, for sure.’ You never rapped like that.”

Thug returned with his first single of 2025 on Friday as well, which finds him alongside a familiar face in Future as the Super Slimey duo teamed up for “Money on Money.” Thugger is headed toward releasing his UY SCUTI album, which is rumored to arrive in May.

Watch the full interview below.

Birdman revealed some interesting tidbits about Cash Money’s rise from New Orleans street label to mainstream powerhouse.

He sat down with Nick Cannon for the Counsel Culture Show in the episode that dropped Wednesday (April 23) to talk about how he and his older brother Ronald “Slim” Williams became success stories, and some of the early label meetings they had before signing their historic deal with Universal Records. Baby said he first took a meeting with Warner Bros. and executive Sylvia Rhone, but they weren’t really into the independent label’s music. “Sylvia Rhone said our music don’t work for them, so we just left,” he said. “I just walked out.”

Cash Money then took a meeting with legendary rap label Def Jam, but was turned down because of their artwork, which still confuses the rapper and music executive. “I went to Def Jam and met with Russell [Simmons], Lyor [Cohen] and Kevin Liles,” Baby told Nick Cannon. “This n—a Russell said he don’t like our artwork. I said, ‘This some weird s—t. I walked clean out. N—a don’t like my artwork, what about my music? You don’t care for the music? So, I left.”

Baby then said that he and his brother almost had a deal with Priority Records, who just so happened to be in business with fellow New Orleans label No Limit headed up by Master P. However, according to him, things fell apart after the label flew them out to their offices in L.A. “I went to Priority — some weird s—t here — I go to Priority, they fly us to California,” he said. “Me and Slim, a couple of the homies, we go out there. N—a come in there and said, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t do the deal. They said because Master P said, ‘If we sign y’all, he’s leaving.’ I just jumped on a jet and went back to New Orleans was like, ‘F—k it, we just gonna grind with it.”

Finally, Universal came calling and the two sides were able to carve out one of the more historic deals in music history. “And then Mel Lewinter and them called and I said this my last trip. I ain’t taking no more motherf—king flights to New York or California,” he recalled. “F—k it, we’ll thug it out. I’m still making millions, they gonna come down here and f—k with me, I ain’t going back. And that was my last flight.”

Master P and Birdman have seemed to have moved past those early issues, as the New Limit founder gave Lil Wayne key to New Orleans alongside Mayor LaToya Cantrell last year. He also said there weren’t any issues between the two camps when he went on No Chill with Gilbert Arenas in 2021, saying, “A lot of people thought, ‘Oh, they got beef,’ but, man, we lived right up the street from each other.”

Watch the full conversation below.