Drake took a moment on his upbeat new album Honestly, Nevermind to seemingly reference a serious and pressing matter: the ongoing incarceration of Young Thug.
“Hey yo Eric, bring them girls to the stage, ’cause/Somebody’s getting paid and/Free Big Slime out the cage,” the 35-year-old opens his second verse on track six, “Sticky.”
Assuming Drake’s talking about his friend and collaborator Thug—who has been locked up in Georgia since May 9 amid a RICO case involving 28 YSL affiliates in a 56-count indictment—he’d be far from the first to use “free Big Slime” as a rallying call for the Punk artist’s liberation.
While it seems like a safe bet this is a straightforward Thugger nod—ditto “dedicated to our brother V” in Drizzy’s poetic statement accompanying Honestly, Nevermind all but certainly meaning Virgil Abloh—it’s worth pointing out the Atlanta MC has been affectionately using the term slime in his work since time immemorial. This includes his Slime Season mixtapes, tracks like “Slime Shit,” “It’s a Slime,” and “10,000 Slimes” plus the Future collab tape Superslimey and 2020’s Chris Brown team-up project Slime & B. That record’s “Big Slimes” also features Gunna, who is currently locked up in the same YSL case and shared an impassioned letter this week proclaiming his innocence.
At Hot 97’s Summer Jam last weekend, Young Thug made a video appearance to show his gratitude to supporters and direct them to the recently launched “Protect Black Art” petition, which calls for legislation limiting the usage of art as evidence in trials.
“I just want to say thank you to all my friends and my family for coming out and supporting us. You know, your support during this time means a lot to us. … This isn’t just about me or YSL,” the 30-year-old said of the imperilment rappers in particular face when it comes to lyrics being misleadingly and erroneously used in court. “I always use my music as a form of artistic expression and now I see that Black artists and rappers don’t have that, you know, freedom. Everybody please sign the ‘Protect Black Art’ petition and keep praying for us. I love you all.”
Drake and Young Thug have connected three times since spring 2021 alone, on Certified Lover Boy’s “Way 2 Sexy,” Punk’s “Bubbly,” and Slime Language 2’s “Solid.” For the 6 God’s birthday last October, Thugger gifted him an impressive custom double-sided charm by Elliot Eliantte on Instagram. Some thought clearly went into the present, with one side showing the OVO owl and the other sporting an image of Drizzy and his now-4-year-old son Adonis.