Young Thug – “Tick Tock”

Young Thug – “Tick Tock”

For a long time now, the once-transgressive Atlanta rap star Young Thug has been talking about making an album called Punk. Last month, Thug debuted a bunch of tracks from the album in a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, and he ended it by teasing an October release date. Travis Barker was involved. It seemed pretty bad. Today, Thug has released the first proper single from Punk, and the good news is that he’s not trying to go Machine Gun Kelly. The bad news is that he’s not trying to do much of anything else, either.

Thug’s new single “Tick Tock,” which Thug debuted onstage at Rolling Loud a few weeks ago, is flat, uninspired Atlanta trap — the kind of track that Thug could probably make in his sleep and maybe already has. It’s not terrible or anything; Thug’s got that endearing squeak in his voice, and he makes effortless melodic left turns. But there’s nothing much notable about the song other than a hook that feels like a ploy to go viral on a certain social-media platform. Maybe it’ll work.

The “Tick Tock” video, however, is a lot more memorable. Director Emil Nava shoots Thug hanging out in an office full of models and tarantulas, and then it becomes a CGI psychedelic vision about purple trees and a flying Lamborghini. Check it out below.

Punk is out 10/15.

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