The music on Young Thug’s Slime Season 3 is less exciting than the music it promises. This release, which marks the end of the Slime Season series, is more of the same; there’s nothing here Thug hasn’t done as well or better on a prior release.
Except for one song: “Worth It,” which is a great, gooey R&B slow jam that features some hilariously filthy sex talk (“I’ma shoot inside that pussy like a hooli on you / Goddamn, I’m sorry, B”), as well as some of Thug’s tenderest and most virtuosic singing to date. It’s the kind of thing Thug’s hero Lil Wayne might have put on Tha Carter III or IV, and if Thug intends to keep following Weezy’s career path, he’ll cap his current mixtape run with an album full of songs like these. It’s the most promising thing Thug’s done in about three mixtapes. (And don’t miss the adorable video, starring him and his fiancee Jerrika.)
But for the most part, the differences between Slime Season 3 and Slime Seasons 1 and 2 – or, for that matter, last month’s mixtape I’m Up – are negligible. It’s darker and less hooky than I’m Up, it’s not quite as weird as Slime Season 2, and it’s more consistent than Slime Season. (It’s also only eight tracks, a break from the meandering sprawl of the last two Slime Seasons.) But these differences feel too small to get excited about, and pretty much everything we’ve come to expect from Thug is here – triple-time rapping, trap beats, shrieked hooks, a lot of non-sequiturs.
All that said, Slime Season 3 isn’t a bad release. There’s no real filler, and there are plenty of thrilling moments (Thug’s deranged rant on “Drippin’ “; the Auto-Tune histrionics on “Memo”). Newcomers will likely be dazzled by how well he juggles eccentricity with no-bullshit Southern banger-craft. And thanks to its brief length, Slime Season 3 is a great tape to play for newcomers. But it’s easy to be cynical if you’ve followed Thug and heard it all before.
Down the road, Slime Season 3 will probably be regarded as either Thug’s most listenable or most forgettable mixtape. It’s so him it’s gotta count for something. But it also doesn’t do anything to expand our ideas of who he is.
Watch the video for “Worth It” below.
