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Even though he’s living comfortably now, Young Thug didn’t always have it easy growing up with 10 other siblings. In a new interview with PAPER magazine, he’s opening up about how his family’s financial struggles in the past compelled him to join the fight against poverty now that he’s found fame.
“”Where I’m from is real poverty,” Thug says. “My mama had 11 kids, and when you have that many kids, you’re going to experience hard times. We all got it though, my friends and I were robbers. We were bad ass kids that took everything we wanted.”
Now of course, the Atlanta rapper doesn’t have to resort to crime since he’s found success. “I never want my kids to feel like they don’t have anything,” he says. “I had my first child at 14/15, so you can only imagine [what it was like in the beginning]…When you’re poor you do anything to survive. You rob and take… Now I can give my kids anything they want…”
With his family in a better position, Thugger is always seeking ways to make sure he uses position to help people who may not be as well off. “I think people only care about what affects them,” he says. “It’s selfish, but I think it’s the truth. If they are not affected by being poor, they don’t typically fight for it. I remember not having anything, so I want to always stay involved.”
He continues, “Whenever I go back to my side of town — Cleveland Ave [in South Atlanta] — I know I have to bring money, because there’ll be friends or cousins or people I knew from 6th grade who are going to ask me for money. My fiancee always says I look like Santa Claus, because I’m just giving everyone something.”
Read the full interview and see the photo spread with Thug and fiancee Jerrika Karlae over at PAPER.
