Young Thug
Recommended
This event is in the past
Thu., Dec. 8, 8 p.m. 2016
Roseland Theater
Old Town-Chinatown (Portland)
$35 - $100
Wildly polarizing within the hip-hop community for his gender fluidity and blessed with an oddly compelling rhyme style, Young Thug represents the experimental mystique that permeates the current generation of young hip-hop artists. Cascades of mixtapes and LPs featuring Afro-futuristic collaborations with elite producers have built an insatiable fanbase that’s sympathetic to a melodic sensibility unencumbered by intelligible words or rap traditions. Couple this eccentric genius with a tumultuous career riddled with enough corporate drama for a season of Empire, and you’ve got a bonafide superstar vanguard in the modern age, twisting and churning trends with every tweet and abstract verse. Most importantly, Young Thug makes music that’s cerebrally infectious and challenging in all of the best possible ways. That’s rare to find in music this popular, and judging by the many devotees currently emerging from the Atlanta underground, it’s highly influential, too. CHRIS SUTTON