Young Thug Wins His First MTV Video Music Award

Young Thug is such a legend he can win a music video award for a music video that he infamously didn't show up to be in. Last night (Aug. 27), Young Thug's visual for "Wyclef Jean," directed by Pomp&Clout, won Best Editing at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.

Thugger's visual won in a category where Future's “Mask Off,” Lorde's “Green Light," The Chainsmokers' “Closer” and The Weeknd's “Reminder” were all nominated. But apparently nobody told Thug he won, because he hopped on Twitter on Monday and said, "So no one was going to tell me I won an award??"

The "Wyclef Jean" visual went viral in January of this year. When Thug skipped the video shoot, the directors had to get creative. "Wyclef Jean" became a meta experiment in the modern music video, as viewers were taken behind the scenes to observe how the project fell apart. The video was funny, captivating and odd, like the artist who was set to appear in it.

"Wyclef Jean" was featured on Thug's 2016 release, Jeffery. The mixtape saw Thug paying homage to his idols through the naming of tracks like "Floyd Mayweather," "Kanye West" and, weirdly, "Harambe."

In an XXL cover story, Thug explained the thinking behind changing his rap name to Jeffery around the time of the album. “I guess I’m just getting mature. I’m getting older," said Thug. "I don’t want my kids to grow up and be like, ‘My dad’s name is Young Thug’ or ‘I want to be a young thug because my dad was a young thug.’ I want to be who I really am. I’m really Jeffery. I’m not no lame or anything, I’m kinda cool. I’m a cool person. So, Jeffery…I feel like I used to hate that name so much, but now I’m understanding the name. My dad gave me the name. The name is who I really am.”

You can watch the video for "Wyclef Jean" below to see why it won the VMA for Best Editing.

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