“Slime Language 3” sees the newest release of yet another Young Thug project, this time being a collaborative album between Thug himself and members of his own record label, Young Stoner Life (YSL). Born Jeffery Lamar Williams, the Atlantan rapper kick-started the “Slime Language” album series back in 2018, essentially serving as a compilation project for YSL-signed artists. And now, after two releases in, “Thugger”, as fans affectionately dub him, is back as ringleader of the third project.

Even on paper, the album’s whole premise sounds promising: after all, Young Thug’s an influential rapper from the beginning, and there’s plenty of room for young artists to showcase their rap talents on a mainstream playing field. However, the album’s so-called “promises” also reveal that quite a lot in an album can crash and burn, structure-wise.

The most glaring issue with “Slime Language 3” is right there in your face before the music even starts. It’s a two-disc, forty-one song (!!) amalgamation with little to no cohesion at all. The first disc is focused on direct rapping while the second is more oriented towards rap-melodic ballads, but when you hear how horrible the music is at its core, the structure hardly matters. An unfocused Young Thug, a pitiful rap roster, and a biblical-length album—what could possibly go wrong?

The opening track, “Gotta Love Us”, instantly answers this question from the start. What’s supposed to be a tone-setter to build excitement for the rest of the album quickly devolves into an excruciating seven minutes of squeaky Auto-Tuned vocals from Thugger and his YSL crew. “What’s Up Mami”’s droning vocals from rappers Tezzus and Biggs money are almost unintelligible, and the childlike beat for “Function” sounds like it was ripped straight out of a nursery rhyme. Every minute that passes so far is utter agony, with listeners desperate for each passing song to end quickly in the hopes of hearing something better down the tracklist.

By track nine, “Eaters”, it looks like fans have something worth waking up to—it’s a star-studded lineup featuring rap titans Travis Scott, Future, and Yeat! Unfortunately, even the sheer amount of star power on this track can’t save it from utterly crashing and burning. Thugger’s lyrics are incoherent, Travis and Future sound bored, and Yeat gives up rapping entirely to hoot ad-libs throughout like a chimpanzee. Thanks for the effort, but for the sake of my eardrums, I hope you guys never collaborate on the same track again.

However, not all of Disc One’s tracks are completely unredeemable. “Myself” sees Biggs Money actually delivering a somewhat impressive flow over a horn-heavy instrumental, and even if Bslime’s rapping on “Crocodile Skin” isn’t too great, its buzzy beat is catchy enough to keep your head nodding. Not exactly the greatest work from YSL, but it’s still passable.

Thankfully, by Disc Two, listeners will acclimate easier to its softer sound, which is a welcome change of pace from Disc One’s subpar rapping. At least this half of the album bears some obvious highlights, most notably “Believe That”, which sees Young Thug’s signature laid-back flow in top form. The beat on “Say Dat” may be the album’s most impressive, with its bouncy, upbeat synthesizer keys making the song an enjoyable experience.

Unfortunately, Disc Two’s melodic approach doesn’t get much better from there. Rapper Diamond* (yes, that’s his actual name) sounds comatose on “Snakes On My Collar”, and “Losing Sleep” is a pitifully lazy nightclub pop song that shouldn’t even be on the tracklist.

Now, even among the many disasters that this album contains, the biggest issue by far is Young Thug himself. Unfocused and pitifully lazy, he’s just kind of there, lingering in the background of every song, cushioned by the comfort of his sleep-inducing vocals. It’s also important to note this album is pretty much dictated by Thugger’s every word, and it’s obvious that he doesn’t even know which direction to take this project.

There’s no doubt that “Slime Language 3” is a disaster in every way. Every single aspect of this album, from its appalling two-hour run time and miserably weak performances from YSL artists is just an insult to modern rap music. Even the album’s biggest highlights manage to sound passable at best. “Slime Language 3” just goes to show that as long as Thugger stays in his little bubble of laziness, his music won’t be going anywhere or improving anytime soon.