Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.Nothing sounds like Rich Gang: Tha Tour Pt. 1, a melody-driven spirit bomb that is an ode to partying, getting laid, getting rich, Atlanta, and, most importantly, brotherhood. The only official mixtape by one of rap’s all-time great duos, Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan (with lots of pep talks and hand rubs courtesy of Birdman), Tha Tour is a 20-track odyssey of bluesy duets and luxury-goods flexing by two artists with chemistry so intense that it’s a little bit romantic. When I first heard the tape, in 2014, as a teenager, I didn’t even know rap could sound like “Tell Em (Lies),” where Quan’s ragged croons curl around Thug’s hypercharged shriek of “I’ma pull up eat on that pussy and dip.” Or “Freestyle,” which is some of the hungriest rapping you’ll ever hear, as Thug and Quan trade their dreams and ambitions while stretching their sung flows like taffy. (The historic video, directed by Be El Be, makes their bond look sacred.) “Thugger pulled up, that’s my brother/Same mother, different daddy,” Quan lilts. Not even their near-decade blood feud since Tha Tour will ever get me to believe that they didn’t truly share that feeling in the moment.Almost 10 years later, Young Thug is caught in legal purgatory fighting a RICO case brought on by the state of Georgia, and, now, Rich Homie Quan is dead at the age of 34. (A cause of death has not yet been made official.) Another gut punch. It feels like a gaping hole has been left in Atlanta, the tragedies just keep coming. Lil Keed. Rico Wade. Trouble. Bankroll Fresh. Marlo. Shawty Lo. Takeoff. All gone since 2016. Even outside of Atlanta, grief has become one of the defining traits of hip-hop culture. When the news of Quan’s death floated across my timelines Thursday afternoon, I thought not again and immediately began passing YouTube links back and forth with friends, all too used to the routine. Texting one person, “We went crazy to ‘Lifestyle’ in 2014,” lifelessly responding “GOAT duo” to Pitchfork head honcho Mano, who sent me a URL to Thug and Quan’s Slime Season 2 link-up “Never Made Love.” Another friend summed it up sharply in a group chat: “So much music that meant the world to me that I won’t be able to hear without thinking about death.”
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