For many, a tenet of the Young Thug listening experience is completely misunderstanding what he’s saying as he whimsically does whatever he wants to the English language. However, someone has apparently committed a common misreading of a Thug lyric to their body in permanent ink. On April 7, on X, Young Thug reposted a photo of the massive back tattoo based on the incorrect bars and noted that he’d aim to rap more legibly on what may be his next album. “And that’s y I’m talking with more clarity UY SCUTI… dam bro…[sic],” Thug wrote.
At this point, “Horses don’t stop, they keep going,” as the tattoo reads, replete with three horses majestically mid-gallop, is an often-memed misunderstanding of the lyric “Hustlers don’t stop, they keep going,” from Thug’s popular 2016 single “Digits.”
In an Instagram story, a Madrid-based tattoo artist who goes by Infrababy claims to have done the work. “It was 100% intentional, I promise,” they wrote to Young Thug with a crying emoji and white heart. They did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
In 2016, The Fader even sought to get to the bottom of the confusing “Digits” lyric, reaching out to the sound engineer who worked on the song, Alex Tumay. Even he was confused, but after taking apart and slowing the track, he settled on “Hustlers.” Thug’s close friend and collaborator, London on Da Track, was confident Thug was saying “Hustlers,” too. “I just understand everything Thug says,” London said. “I’ve been around long enough to know exactly everything he’s saying.”
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Young Thug has gotten notably easier to understand to the layman over the years—there’s a stark difference in his enunciation on a song like “Lifestyle” with Rich Homie Quan compared to tracks like “Tick Tock,” “Hate The Game,” and “Die Slow” on his 2021 album Punk.
Lately, Thug has been gently teasing Uy Scuti as his next endeavor, like when he debuted a custom jersey bearing the words at a Miami Heat game. In June, he’ll headline Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash festival in Chicago. It will be his first concert since being released from jail after pleading “no contest” in Fulton County’s extensive RICO case against him and several associates of his label Young Stoner Life last October.
