Young Thug’s Most Unlikely Fan: ‘Music Is Too PC’

The enigma that is Young Thug knows no bounds. He has true street cred, a possible gang association, is apparently bisexual but engaged to a woman, is the man who was molded by Lil Wayne, and was then later indicted in the drive-by shooting that hit Lil Wayne’s tour bus last April. He has an ice cream tattoo on his face like Gucci Mane, he frequently smokes marijuana, and posts pictures of him doing it on his Twitter account that he’s extremely active on. And sometimes, he wears tutus. He likes women’s fashion, but he threatened a mall security officer that he was going to shoot him. Due to that, he had a warrant issues for the search of his Atlanta apartment — at the time drugs and drug paraphernalia were found. Just the same, money seems to talk; a United States judge ordered that he could leave the country while awaiting trial in order to tour Europe.

He’s wildly popular in Europe. In fact, the rapper has granted more intense and in-depth interviews to the French press than to the American media. Although he is from Atlanta, Georgia, the European lifestyle seems to fit him like a glove. That may be odd to many, but those who know Young Thug best testify that he’s not your average thug, nor rapper. He is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional, a truly talented artist, according to those who know him well.

Elton John, another long time musical icon and at times controversial for political views, told Noisey magazine that he’s a huge fan of Young Thug, although he added worriedly, “he’s gotten himself in a bit of trouble hasn’t he?”

“I love that record! I actually asked [Universal Music CEO] David Joseph about it. I heard a track on Beats 1 and I loved it so much. But he’s got himself into trouble, hasn’t he? I love all of that, it’s unexpected… I remember when Blind Faith came out, with a nude girl and John & Yoko, you had to buy it in a black plastic bag. And you should be able to do things like that but we don’t live in that kind of world anymore. The music world is too PC. Oh it’s ridiculous. So ridiculous. I f*****g hate PC. You can’t say anything about anything anymore. I’m not really for censorship at any level. I think you should be able to say what you think but I’m afraid I’m a bit of a lightning rod for that and I’ve got myself into trouble and I can’t anymore. People just will attack you, it’s crazy.

“If Miley actually does go ahead and does it naked in front of all those people, that’s one of the greatest performance art things that’s happened since the 2000s, or since Marina Abramovic. It’s the sort of thing that would have happened back in the late 60s when there was so much bravado around. I hate censorship in any form. Jason Sellards from the Scissor Sisters, when they did Nightwork, they had the very famous Warhol picture of the guy with the crack up his tight trousers and I said, ‘It’s a f*****g great cover but it will hurt your album sales,’ and it did. It shouldn’t but it does. It drives me crazy. I’m not a conservative guy at all when it comes to things like that, I think people should have freedom of speech.”

Although Elton John has been openly homosexual for years, he hasn’t been as verbal about his thoughts on censorship until now, which he and Young Thug seem to have in common. They both enjoy Europe as well. It will be interesting to see if a friendship develops between the two.

[Composite image containing photos by Alberto E. Rodriguez & Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]