Born Jeffery Lamar Williams on August 16, 1991, Young Thug had a very rough childhood. He was sent to juvenile prison for four years for breaking a teacher's arm in sixth grade, resulting in him getting expelled from his school. Despite that, it didn't stop him from pursuing his music career that he began in 2010, when he debuted as a guest appearance on rapper TruRoyal's song "She Can Go".

Thug went on unleashing several mixtapes after that, before he finally caught the attention of Gucci Mane, who signed him to his label 1017 Brick Squad Records in 2013. His first mixtape under the label, "1017 Thug", was met with positive reviews and was included in a number of year-end lists. Thug himself only released his debut commercial single in October 2013. Titled "Stoner", the song peaked at No. 47 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. He also released another single titled "Danny Glover".

Both singles helped him gain mainstream recognition, leading him to sign to 300 Entertainment in June 2014. His first release for the label, "Barter 6", hit the stores on April 17, 2015 following a series of controversy as the project was initially titled "Carter 6" in homage to Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter" series. The latter, however, wasn't too pleased about that and threatened a lawsuit. Thug eventually changed the title of the project to "Barter 6". Despite the controversy, "Barter 6" was still well-received by people, peaking at No. 22 on Billboard 200.

In that same year, Thug also released two mixtapes titled "Slime Season" and "Slime Season 2". Featuring mostly leaked and unreleased material dating back at least a year, both projects received positive reviews from music critics, though they didn't really do well on music charts.

2016 was also a busy year for Thug. Besides being featured on Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo", he also released a mixtape titled "I'm Up" and the final installment of the "Slime Season" series, "Slime Season 3". Later in August, he released another mixtape, "Jeffery", which charted at No. 8 on Billboard 200 and received positive reviews from music critics. In addition to that, the mixtape was named among the best releases of 2016 by several publications.

While working on his own music, Thug lent his vocals on other artist's music such as Calvin Harris' "Heatstroke", Diplo's "Bankroll" as well as Camila Cabello's mega hit "Havana". The latter song topped Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 2017, becoming his first No. 1 hit on the chart. After that, he joined forces with Future to release a collaborative mixtape entitled "Super Slimey". It debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200.

Thug kept a low profile in 2018, only providing background vocals on Childish Gambino's (Donald Glover) "This Is America" and releasing a compilation album "Slime Language". In the following year, he released his debut studio album "So Much Fun". Released on August 16, the album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200 and marked his first chart-topping album.