Here's how Reggie Ossé, a former music industry lawyer turned podcast host known to many as Combat Jack, described Thug to The FADER: "He's definitely interesting, and he's polarizing because what he's doing goes against what the very core of people from my generation who are rap conservatives grew up on. He's not rhyming couplets, so it's hard to get into it," he said. "I'm not a fan but I'm curious about the phenomenon."

Ossé has been a reasonable voice in hip-hop over the past few years, known for giving younger, less conventional artists a chance, despite his own perspective being rooted in golden era rap. His household is an example of the universal generational split, he pointed out: while he's on the fence about Thug, his teenaged sons are fans. On one side, he said, there are those checking for so-called real hip-hop, #bars, and other aesthetic markers that once ruled the genre. On the other, there are the youngers, to whom Illmatic is a boring relic of their parents' youth, and who grew up in the melody-driven glory days of the aughts. In the middle, there's everyone else, curious to watch Young Thug's career unfold and eager to give him a chance, even when we're not able to decipher the content of his melodious hooks or the yawps of his singsongy flows.

Music aside, though, Ossé's larger issue with Thug is one that I've seen widely echoed across the web and in IRL and the one that brings me the most pause: "I'm all for self-expression. I lived through the '80s, the whole androgynous thing, but this is where the lines are blurred," he said, referencing Thug's style and penchant for referring to his male friends using terms of endearment like "bae" and "hubbie." During a since-squashed dispute with Game, the L.A. rapper took issue with the same thing: "You paint your nails like a fucking girl and you call your niggas bae," he said in an Instagram video.

"As a father of three black sons, messages are very powerful. There's a dearth of black male role models, and there's more acceptance of the weaker black male image. It's just a little off-putting. Are we going to continue to see an effeminization of black men? Take Jaden Smith, for example," he said, referencing an existing (and questionable) theory about society's desire to see black men in dresses.