Paul Thompson left ten bands in the motherfucking cab.
I imagine that somewhere in America—probably in the upper midwest, probably in a frigid, decaying mining town—there’s an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese, shuttered and rotting on the outside. Townfolks drive past, lamenting the recession, the President, maybe immigrants. There are no phone drives to save a children’s birthday parlor, just a dormant building inconveniently located off of the bad freeway. High schoolers loiter in the parking lot, occasionally coughing up smoke from bad weed and hand-rolled cigarettes. It’s distasteful, but it’s not dangerous. There’s no one behind the blacked-out windows, nobody keeping the anthropomorphic animal band company on the inside. Except Young Thug.
This is where he lives, bouncing from table to table, from stroller to pussy. “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” wills a party into existence by way of, well, voodoo. We played this song a few weeks ago on POW Radio and I got my tax return back in those novelty gold coins Scrooge McDuck dives into. Walter Payton is shoehorned in between unspecified pills and diamonds that can’t stand still. Young Thug’s parties don’t sound like yours do, they squeak and crack and bend under the weight of his voice, his jewelry, Atlanta. Frozen cheese pizzas are probably more nutritious than anything Thug actually ingests, but “Good Times” is preposterously warm comfort food—as long as your aunts and uncles know they can only have fun if Duke and Yak Gotti are taken care of.
“I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” will appear on Jamie XX’s forthcoming In Colour, reportedly with a contribution from Jamaican dancehall artist Popcaan.
