How Young Thug’s ‘JEFFERY’ Cover Changed His Career by tonymontana Lyrics
The epochal and controversial JEFFERY album cover continues to be a defining image in Young Thug’s career.When Jeffery Lamar Williams, artistically known as Young Thug, teased his No, My Name is Jeffery mixtape, fans were prepared for the unexpected. In an interview with Beats 1, Thug detailed the new sound which would come out of this era as “straight crossover,” and by gearing up for a professional name switch to simply Jeffery, the ever-unpredictable Thugger was setting the stage for something massive. It came together in the form of JEFFERY, Thug’s most extravagant and spectacular mixtape yet.
While the tracklist to JEFFERY shows tributes to his idols, from everyone from Rihanna (stylized as “RiRi”) to Harambe, the western lowland gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo in May of 2016, the cover art remains the most captivating, unique, and essential aspect of the album. In the most unexpected move of his entire career, Thug dressed in drag with a blue and white dress from Italian designer Alessandro Trincone. Naturally, this attracted all eyes in the trap music scene as well as pop culture in general, as it differs drastically from previous Thugger imagery which included cartoons such as Slime Season 3 and I’m Up as well as grimy cover arts such as Barter 6 and I Came from Nothing 2.
The surprise of Thug’s cover has led to massive revelations in his career, for better or for worse. As the four year anniversary of JEFFERY approaches on August 26, 2020, here are the most drastic changes to his career since then, as a direct result of the dress.
Personal
Since the art, Young Thug has been questioned about the dress on multiple occasions. The most interesting update came in a July 2019 No Jumper interview where Thug claimed that he stowed a large AK-47 assault rifle underneath it. Thug further touched on this in his track “Just How It Is” in August 2019:Had to wear the dress 'cause I had a stick
You know where the bag at, tell me where it isBeef
Following the release of the cover art, Thug faced massive criticisms from other rappers under the claims that he was homosexual, and that his androgynous style of dress was negative to the culture. Nicki Minaj poked fun at Thug on her August 2018 “Barbie Dreams,” where she exaggerated that Jeffery was raiding her closet and making off with some of her dresses. Most notable of his opponents originated from YFN Lucci, who has sneak dissed Thug in lyrics following the release of JEFFERY, insinuating that Thugger “ain't no man” on his March 2018 track “At My Best.” In addition, following the release of Young Thug’s June 2017 BEAUTIFUL THUGGER GIRLS, Lucci took to Twitter to belittle Jeffery:Influence
As far as hip-hop and gender roles go, Thugger was certainly not the first to gown in untraditional attire, as the first instances of the unique style can be drawn back to the early 1990s with André 3000’s unorthodox style of dress. However, overlooking Thug’s impact on the uniqueness of style in rap would be a grave mistake. Thugger has also expressed support for artists like Lil Nas X for coming out as LGBTQ+ and connections have been drawn between Bad Bunny’s February 2020 “Yo Perreo Sola” music video, where the Latin Trap king donned drag as well.
Thug’s JEFFERY cover shocked the world to its core and remnants of his outfit still remain a vital part of Thugger’s identity, style, relationships with other artists, and most importantly, his legacy. The world may never get another rapper fashion visionary on Young Thug’s level, but hopefully, his strides made and the fight against his backlash will make it more comfortable for similar imaginative artists to pursue careers.
While the tracklist to JEFFERY shows tributes to his idols, from everyone from Rihanna (stylized as “RiRi”) to Harambe, the western lowland gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo in May of 2016, the cover art remains the most captivating, unique, and essential aspect of the album. In the most unexpected move of his entire career, Thug dressed in drag with a blue and white dress from Italian designer Alessandro Trincone. Naturally, this attracted all eyes in the trap music scene as well as pop culture in general, as it differs drastically from previous Thugger imagery which included cartoons such as Slime Season 3 and I’m Up as well as grimy cover arts such as Barter 6 and I Came from Nothing 2.
The surprise of Thug’s cover has led to massive revelations in his career, for better or for worse. As the four year anniversary of JEFFERY approaches on August 26, 2020, here are the most drastic changes to his career since then, as a direct result of the dress.
Personal
Since the art, Young Thug has been questioned about the dress on multiple occasions. The most interesting update came in a July 2019 No Jumper interview where Thug claimed that he stowed a large AK-47 assault rifle underneath it. Thug further touched on this in his track “Just How It Is” in August 2019:Had to wear the dress 'cause I had a stick
You know where the bag at, tell me where it isBeef
Following the release of the cover art, Thug faced massive criticisms from other rappers under the claims that he was homosexual, and that his androgynous style of dress was negative to the culture. Nicki Minaj poked fun at Thug on her August 2018 “Barbie Dreams,” where she exaggerated that Jeffery was raiding her closet and making off with some of her dresses. Most notable of his opponents originated from YFN Lucci, who has sneak dissed Thug in lyrics following the release of JEFFERY, insinuating that Thugger “ain't no man” on his March 2018 track “At My Best.” In addition, following the release of Young Thug’s June 2017 BEAUTIFUL THUGGER GIRLS, Lucci took to Twitter to belittle Jeffery:Influence
As far as hip-hop and gender roles go, Thugger was certainly not the first to gown in untraditional attire, as the first instances of the unique style can be drawn back to the early 1990s with André 3000’s unorthodox style of dress. However, overlooking Thug’s impact on the uniqueness of style in rap would be a grave mistake. Thugger has also expressed support for artists like Lil Nas X for coming out as LGBTQ+ and connections have been drawn between Bad Bunny’s February 2020 “Yo Perreo Sola” music video, where the Latin Trap king donned drag as well.
Thug’s JEFFERY cover shocked the world to its core and remnants of his outfit still remain a vital part of Thugger’s identity, style, relationships with other artists, and most importantly, his legacy. The world may never get another rapper fashion visionary on Young Thug’s level, but hopefully, his strides made and the fight against his backlash will make it more comfortable for similar imaginative artists to pursue careers.