Young Dro Unwraps New Album

Seven years after the success of Best Thang Smokin’, Young Dro is back on top. His sophomore album, High Times, is a celebration of the moment, a joyful toast to the Bankhead MC’s rejuvenation in the game. Out October 15 through Atlantic and Grand Hustle, High Times builds on the excitement created by Day 2, Dro’s recent DJ Drama-hosted mixtape, as well as his contribution to Hustle Gang’s G.D.O.D. (Get Dough Or Die) mixtape. The 14-track LP finds Dro’s colorful personality filtered through the blunt intensity of trap rap, as evidenced by the project's visceral lead single, “F.D.B.” Under the song’s polished and pristine finish, there’s a sticky truth, a previously unsung realness blurred by black comedy and raucous punchlines. To learn more, we asked Dro to open up about five of his favorite High Times tracks, and he blessed us with a taste of the sticky icky.—Peter Marrack

"Free Fall" Featuring Blu June

Produced By: Stroud

Young Dro: “Free Fall” is my number one favorite song on the album. “Free Fall” is like the ballad of a kid from the ghetto. Showing what I would do. Being from the projects, being shot at, my life. It felt like I was falling through the sky at that point in my life, and who wants to fall through the sky?

"F.D.B."

Produced By: Stroud

Young Dro: You could say that ["F.D.B."] about all my baby mamas. It was just at this point I got fed up. And hearing them talk about you. The bitch talking about “fuck me.” Well, “fuck dat bitch.” It came out naturally like that. It wasn’t rehearsed or nothing. I say that shit all the time.

If I really felt like it was a track for me to go straight to the studio and do I would have done so, but that right there was me having fun, making people laugh, and swagging, talking about $1000 shoes. It wasn’t nothing I had to go and put my brain to. That was light work. The album is way more serious than that.

"Corner Boys" Featuring Miloh Smith

Produced By: Stroud

Young Dro: “Corner Boys” is for hustlers on the block. We look at the life of a hustler, that you look at on the corner like, “Shorty be getting it. He got the Benz.” But there probably been no Corner Boy who hasn’t been robbed, taped up. His mom just got shot about some dope. He just got out. He broke up with his girlfriend. He gives up love just to be a Corner Boy. But shout-out to the Corner Boys. They’re who everybody likes.

"Djuan & Spodee" Featuring Spodee

Produced By: 6 Mile JP & Ensayne Wayne

Young Dro: It’s a pattern of flow. It’s me reentering the game. It’s me telling you, “look how I got up again.” I don’t know if they really heard it or not, I haven’t had an album since 2007. It ain’t fun. It’s cool doing mixtapes. It’s cool to do that, but that wasn’t my dream. I came to make music, man. It’s just letting niggas know I’m back at it. I call it refreshing your memory, because my introduction [“Shoulder Lean”] was a No. 1 hit in the country. So I’m just refreshing your memory. The introduction was glorious. Everybody was shoulder leanin’. This is refreshing your memory, like, “hey, you got to let these niggas eat. Y’all got to let me eat because I’m spittin it harder than half these niggas. So I need half the check.”

"Odds" Featuring Forgeeauto & Mac Boney

Produced By: Stroud

Young Dro: “Odds” is a serious track. “Odds” features some young cats I’m bringing up in the game. Forgeeauto and Mac Boney. They’re part of 3Krazy Music Group, a little thing I got going in Atlanta, 3Krazy Click. We just talkin’ about the odds. We don’t do what everybody do. We do it different. So we looking at the game like stockbrokers, watching that Nasdaq sheet, pumping that cash money. That’s the first track on the album. It’s dope.

"High Times"

Young Dro: There’s not a “High Times” track. That title is old. It’s personal. I didn’t want to single out that shit. I would rather let you know that this is the point in my life when I need high times. I walked through the jungle, my nigga. I had to come up on the streets, through the robbing and stealing and killing.

My lows were when they weren’t putting out my album. Sorry that you didn’t get a chance to hear that. I would have told you about them but I couldn’t drop an album. I went back to the street and the street fucked with me. But shit, I’m up now. My attitude different, my approach different, these are my high times. It would be a lie if I told you I felt bad right now. I don’t. Shout out to the whole west side!