With Them

With Them: Young Thug and the Slitherman Tape's Street Anthem

Young Thug released "With Them" in 2016 as part of his Slimeball mixtape series, a period of extraordinarily prolific output that saw him releasing multiple projects in rapid succession and cementing his status as one of Atlanta rap's most innovative and unpredictable figures. The song exemplifies the qualities that made Young Thug such a polarizing and influential presence in hip-hop during the mid-2010s: an idiosyncratic approach to melody, unconventional cadences that bend and stretch over the beat in ways that other rappers were not attempting, and a confidence in his own aesthetic vision that bordered on the imperious.

Young Thug, born Jeffery Lamar Williams in Atlanta in 1991, had risen through the city's rap ecosystem with remarkable speed after the early 2010s, attracting the attention of Birdman and Cash Money Records before establishing his YSL (Young Stoner Life) label as an independent power in Atlanta's scene. By 2016, he had accumulated a devoted following and significant industry credibility, and his mixtape releases during this period were treated by fans and critics alike as genuine artistic events rather than promotional filler. The Slimeball series in particular demonstrated his ability to sustain creative momentum across multiple releases without a significant decline in quality or inventiveness.

"With Them" was produced in the lean, bass-heavy style that characterized Young Thug's preferred production aesthetic during this era, featuring a sparse trap beat that gave his vocal performance maximum room to operate without competition from a cluttered sonic landscape. The production approach was characteristic of the broader Atlanta trap sound that producers like Wheezy and London on da Track had developed alongside Thug over the preceding years, and the song slots naturally into that sonic context while still highlighting his individual peculiarities as a performer.

The track circulated widely on streaming platforms and mixtape hosting sites after its release, contributing to Young Thug's sustained presence on streaming charts throughout 2016. His approach to releasing music during this period, flooding the market with quality material at a pace that traditional album cycles could not match, made him one of the most streamed artists in hip-hop even before he had released a formal studio album on a major label. "With Them" was among the tracks that helped sustain his streaming numbers during a period when his name recognition was growing substantially but his formal discography was still being assembled.

Critics who covered Young Thug's 2016 output frequently cited his vocal approach as genuinely novel, describing his singing-rapping hybrid style as something that had influenced a younger generation of Atlanta artists who were building on the sonic territory he had opened. His influence on artists including Lil Baby, Gunna, and Lil Uzi Vert was widely acknowledged in music journalism, and songs like "With Them" provided concrete evidence of why that influence had been so pervasive. His cadences on the track demonstrate the flexibility and unpredictability that had made him a reference point for a new generation learning how to approach rhythm and melody in rap.

The song also reflects the tight communal bonds that characterized Young Thug's artistic world in 2016. His YSL collective was producing music at high volume, and the creative energy generated by that collective effort is audible in the recording's loose confidence. Young Thug has consistently positioned himself as a community builder as much as a solo star, and "With Them" sits within a body of work that reflects genuine artistic solidarity and mutual influence rather than the isolation of an individual genius working alone.

Young Thug's status as a Billboard presence was growing steadily during this period. His collaborations with artists across genres, from Camila Cabello to Future to Elton John, demonstrated the breadth of his appeal and the respect he commanded across the industry. His collaborative single "Digits" peaked at number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016, the same year as "With Them," indicating that his mainstream chart profile was ascending alongside his cult credibility. "With Them" represents the underground, mixtape dimension of that same creative moment, the work he was producing for his core audience even as his commercial visibility expanded.

The song stands as a document of Young Thug at a specific and important transitional moment, energetic, prolific, and still operating primarily within the mixtape economy that had shaped him, before his later formal studio releases would bring him into more conventional commercial frameworks. For listeners who followed his career from the beginning, "With Them" captures a rawness and immediacy that formal album projects sometimes struggle to replicate.