Atlanta rap visionary Young Thug has returned with the 7-minute “Miss My Dogs,” released ahead of his much anticipated album, “Uy Scuti,” via his label, Young Stoner Life Records, and 300 Entertainment.
In the wake of a slew of controversy surrounding leaked jail phone calls, album delays, and public fallouts, Young Thug has released “Miss My Dogs,” a 7-minute plea of desperation for the world and those around him to understand the intricacies of a situation wrought with delicacies that salacious headlines either refuse to highlight or lack the details necessary to do so. It’s an apology letter to those that stuck with him in his rise to prominence, and a longing for simpler times before beefs, allegations, industry politics, and Thug’s own mistakes tore them all apart.
The song begins with painfully sorrowful crooning from Thug over piano chords and a strings section, immediately curating an energy akin to that of an emotional ballad. “Either with us or against us / Get down to lay down / Made it from the trenches / Now we makin' toasts / Celebratin' n****s business / Y'all don't really get it,” Thug’s reverb-drenched vocals cry out in the song’s intro before transitioning to a more traditional trap beat which samples Thug’s cries from the intro, utilizing them throughout the duration of the song. The sampled vocals almost sound like wailing guitars and provide an appropriate backdrop as Thug dedicates each verse to a different person in his life that he feels he needs to personally apologize to.
The first verse is dedicated to Thug’s longtime girlfriend, Mariah The Scientist, in which he addresses leaked jail calls where he claimed to have cheated on her. Thug explains that he was “playin’’’ on the call, and would never trade her, before going on to say that she did the most to hold him down while he was in jail and that his aim daily is to make her happy. The verse concludes with Thug apologizing for contributing to the “madness” that they’re going through currently and for being a primary catalyst in the development of such madness.
The second verse directly name drops Drake, and sees Thug giving the Canadian superstar his flowers by rapping “Drizzy, you my brother / You know I ain't goin' against you, I got manners / Everything you did for the rap community, can't ban you,” before outlining attempts he’s made to squash the ongoing feud between Drake, Future, and Metro Boomin’ which ultimately contributed to the substantial Kendrick Lamar-Drake beef from last summer.
Verse three is for Lil Baby and sees Thug reinforcing their relationship. “Taught you everything you know 'bout this shit, we for lifers,” Thug croons before going on to take a subtle jab at Gunna, urging Baby to not let the “rats” divide them. This is followed by a verse for Future, and gives the trap pioneer his flowers, with Thug seemingly looking at him as something of a mentor with spoken-word lines like “We foundation of men, bro, we learned that shit from n****s like Pluto, you know I'm sayin…'” or “…I had one mission, that's to make you proud of me.”
Verse six praises 21 Savage for his realness, staying in touch with Thug throughout his stint in jail and squashing his own beef with Lil Baby at the behest of Thug himself. The drums are stripped away from the sixth verse onward as Thug apologizes to Gucci Mane after a leaked call in which Thug called him ‘soft,’ and sees Thug referencing a 2005 beef between Gucci Mane and Jeezy which ended in not only in the death of one of Jeezy’s men after a supposed ambush, but also with many declaring Gucci the winner of the beef overall.
The final verse, and arguably the most personal and introspective, sees Thug addressing his family. In the accompanying music video, Thug intercuts performance clips with family home videos spotlighting his sisters and his mother as he raps about sharing his first million dollars with them to express his love and gratitude. The verse ends with a somber observation as Thug addresses his mother directly saying “Made some mistakes, now the game tryna ban me / They don't want your child no more, now they tryna plan B me."
Ultimately, while it is refreshing to hear Thug so full of passion and vulnerability, the context is hard to ignore. The leaked calls, Thug’s incessant desire to throw shade, and the constant reminders of interpersonal philanthropy, leave some of the sentiments feeling hollow at best, and manipulative and self-deprecating at worst. The feelings may be genuine, but in the setting of the song, there’s a certain sense of real sincerity that seems to be lacking at times.
