“Beat the Boy”: Did Young Thug Really Just Hint at Buying Streams to Try and Surpass Morgan Wallen?

New leaked audio has surfaced of Young Thug reportedly implying that he wants to buy streams to surpass the figures being posted by Morgan Wallen's One Thing At A Time.

The clip begins with a member of Young Thug's team discussing the album rollout for Business is Business, which arrived back in June 2023 while Thugger was incarcerated. The Atlanta rapper was serving time as part of a Fulton County RICO indictment.

Just a few months earlier, Morgan Wallen had dropped his opus, One Thing At A Time, which ended up spending a staggering 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

As a result, when Thug was readying Business is Business for release in June - which was the ‘Digits’ hitmaker's first comeback project since going to jail - One Thing At A Time was still holding firm at the pinnacle of the prestigious all-genre ranking.

In the leaked audio, a man can be heard telling Young Thug that, regardless of whether Lil Uzi Vert releases his eagerly awaited album, Pink Tape (which ultimately dropped a week after Business is Business), their real concern should be Morgan Wallen's One Thing At A Time, “And even if Uzi moves, we still have to deal with Morgan Wallen, because he's doing 100,000 every week, no matter what”.

Thug responds in disbelief, questioning, “Who?”, before the team-member clarifies, “Morgan Wallen, the country guy”. Thug then rants, “What the fuck is this n**** doing? Why the f*** didn't we think to put him on the album? Like, what the fuck?”.

Thug then tentatively asks, “You think we gon’ beat the boy?”, with the man then reassuring him, “Yo, my man, I'm not going to sleep until we beat him. Whatever happens...”.

Then comes the bit that has fans convinced that Young Thug is instructing his team-member to go to a ‘plug’ they've used before to buy streams - although this isn't 100% clear.

Thug suggests they should team up with Wallen, before musing, “Beat the boy, then tell the boy, ‘Can't beat me - join me’. Get on this song, young boy...Yeah, let's try to beat that n****. You still got that plug, right? That s*** we do with them, that plug, yeah?”

If this is indeed as it seems, then it's another testament to just how dominant Morgan Wallen has become on the charts in recent years. Thug's Business is Business was a seismic moment for hip-hop, with fans yearning to hear new music from the rapper after he got locked up, and it was dropping over three months after Wallen.

But even so, as the team-member outlines, Wallen's One Thing At A Time was still posting incredible numbers on the charts. His latest album, I'm the Problem, has achieved similar levels of success, notching 12 weeks at the peak - and counting.

Thug's comments bring fresh attention to the issue of stream manipulation and bot-fuelled chart metrics, something one of Wallen's good friends, Drake, has been attempting to spotlight in recent months, following his feud with Kendrick Lamar last year.

Drake alleges that UMG used nefarious tactics, such as bots, to inflate the streaming presence of Lamar's diss, ‘Not Like Us’. Many commentators speculate that UMG - Drake's own label - were trying to damage his reputation as he approaches the end of his deal, with the Toronto titan widely expected to sign with Sony Music.

Whatever Thug and his camp tried - and again, there's no proof that anything underhand went on - it didn't work. The album debuted at No. 2, behind One Thing At A Time.

Young Thug's suggestion that Morgan Wallen should join him on a song will have no doubt piqued the interest of the latter, who has always been a rap aficionado and an admirer of Thug's. On One Thing At A Time, the Sneedville native interpolates Thug and Rich Homie Quan's 2014 track ‘Lifestyle’ on his anthem, ‘180 (Lifestyle)’.

What's more, Morgan Wallen has collaborated in the past with a number of Young Thug's musical allies, such as Lil Durk - another link-up that arose after Wallen blocked the artist from No. 1 - and Moneybagg Yo. While he might be a little disgruntled at first at the apparent intention to outpace him using bought streams, we wouldn't be surprised if Thug gets his wish and recruits Wallen for a feature before too long.

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: