Slim Thug, (born Stayve Jerome Thomas on September 8th, 1980) is an American rapper from Houston, Texas. He is a co-founder of the label Boss Hogg Outlawz and once was a member of the Southern hip hop group Swishahouse. Most of his lyrics are aimed towards life in the Southern United States, including Houston, Atlanta and Memphis.
Slim Thug grew up not knowing who his father was. His mother worked hard for her seven kids, and he was the youngest of her children. His grandmother took care of him while his mother worked until he was about 13 or 14 years old. His oldest sister and uncle raised him, too.
When Slim was in middle school, to kill time, he joined the basketball team, which determined his identity and who he was. He didn't play basketball for long, though. Sports have never been an enjoyable pastime for Slim. Instead, he established his passion for music when he got older. While growing up, Slim spent more of his free time outside fixing and working on bikes or cars, working on anything that had potential to ride or start again. He became more and more uninterested in school and never stayed after for other extra activities, mostly because he was so easily distracted on what was happening around his block. After all, he was living right across the street from his school at the time.
Around the age of 14, Slim began a downward spiral, since he was the youngest, he was more impressionable. He looked up to his two older brothers, who allegedly stole cars on occasion and sold them. Unfortunately, Slim got caught up in this attempt to steal cars, and went to jail. Stealing cars meant one thing to Slim at this time: he could fix them up and turn around and sell them for a good price. Slim constantly tried to find a new way to hustle.
Besides minor run ins with the police over petty curfew laws, Slim never got into deep trouble. After getting caught up during the theift of a vehicle, he spent some time in jail and decided that would be his last time running into the law, and can proudly admit he never caught a felony charge or spent hard prison time.
Slim Thug's mother and family had hoped he would pursue a college degree after high school. Slim had other plans though; he accepted the fact that school wasn't for everybody, and never attended college.
Slim started moving towards his dreams of music, branching out to meet people who shared his passion. He bonded with Stecil Hopkins, and they challenged one another through rapping, becoming freestyle partners that developed into a friendship. Unfortunately, in 1997 Stecil's life was cut short after being involved in a car accident, prior to shooting a music video earlier that day. Stecil was a passenger when the driver struck a light pole killing them. When Stecil died the tragedy affeted Slim greatly, his first experience with loss.
When Slim Thug put more time and effort into his music career, he recorded his first single ever. His brother, Tayday, wrote the single. The two recorded their collaboration on a homemade karaoke machine.
Death reared its ugly head once again. A good friend, mentor, and role model to the crew that Slim hung around, passed away suddenly. Sleepdawg was what he went by, and was the first out of the friends that began making money off music. Despite his friendship towards his group being short lived, his unfortunate death from simply being in a holding tank hit everyone extremely hard.
Slim Thug's career as a rapper began to take off when he was 17 years old. While freestyling at a high school party, Slim Thug's raps and style caught the attention of Michael Watts, an influential producer of the Swishahouse label. Watts invited him out to his studio the next day, and after working together for some time Watts offered him a job on his label.
The first freestyle by Slim, j dawg, and lil Mario was in Swish '98. The freestyle was the beginning of Slim's success, and the freestyle spread quickly through the south like wild fire. Fans responded enthusiastically to it, and they felt satisfaction like never before.
Slim began growing his fan base pretty quickly after Swisha '98, resulting in the need for growth, and with expansion for growth took money to make it all come together. Micheal Watts already explained that he would not give Slim a free handout, or invest in any cash for his upbringing, instead Watts encouraged them by supplying all the blank tapes and CD's they would need to become successful. Slim saw his window to shine and do something he's always been extremely good at, hustle, getting his opportunity to make serious cash.
The biggest point of Slim Thugs career followed after his contributions to hit single "Still Tippin'" created by fellow rapper Mike Jones. This accomplishment gained mainstream attention to Slim's career in a major way, and still today, the single is a well known classic that reached the 2005 MTV 2 Awards and was nominated by fans.
In July of 2005, Slim Thug finally releases his big Debut album, "Already Plantium", (while delayed multiple times) and got promotion from StarTrack Entertainment and Interscope records. His first album was a huge success, premiering #2 on the Billboard 200 album chat. Selling 130,000 copies in it's first week. The album included singles like, "3 Kings" that featured T.I and Bun B, "I ain't heard of that" featuring Pharrell and Bun B, the hit "still Tippin'" with Mike Jones and Paul Wall.
Slim became the face of the North, and fans quickly picked up his new form of rap music, as popularity blew up for him and Swishahouse they quickly became booked up with shows and concerts. The Swishahouse manager during that time, found difficulty planning and scheduling their shows due to the high volume of demands wanting Slim Thug to preform. Looking for quick solutions to the problem, he suggested a split performance from the Swishahouse group, meaning different artists in different places performing, fans declined this suggestion and really only wanted Slim Thug in person.
The "Kappa '99" mixtape was released in 2005, and was performed by Swishahouse during the yearly beach party called "The Kappa" taking place every year in Galveston, Texas. The traditional beach party attends guests across the nation once every year, and let's fans party, attend concerts, and support their favorite artists. Houston's very own Swishahouse would go and sell their shirts and CD's, spreading their names and to gain more hype. This also took place during a time of battle between the south and north side of Texas. The battle between rivals, rapper battle of Swishahouse and Screwed up click, with Slim Thug and Swishahouse being on the North side of Texas they affiliated with the color blue, and screwed up was the Southside of Texas which was known for adopting the color red. The southside became very envious of the north, and would even steal from the north. The beef the two rivals had devided Texas severally.
The heat the two sides carried around became heavy and was said that if either side was caught on the wrong end of town that they would most likely get jumped. Causing a high concern in regular civilians and their property.
A member from the South side reached out to the ambassador of the North, calling from the phone lines from which he was serving out his remaining jail sentence was Southsides, ESG. After many failed attempts to get Slim Thug on the phone, he was finally successful and offered up the white flag, an offer for a collaboration towards an album between the two. Slim agreed to the collaboration album, after thinking about all the potential fans it would bring in he just couldn't refuse. The streets of Houston calmed down and tensions were no longer high after the two created their first single together.
While Slim was working with Swishahouse and the Screwed Up Click, he was growing more and more restless. He began to feel trapped, realizing he could make his own money by disturbing his own mixtapes. Unable to shake his feelings that he was falling short of what he might accomplish and his talents being held up from not only Micheal Watts but also from Swishahouse, he Ultimately, had just outgrown Swishahouse; it was time for him to move on and do something new. With so much creativity, it was pouring out of him constantly and this led him sneaking into Swishahouse studio to record Slim's solo tracks. Resulting in getting caught, Slim had to face the music and come clean about feeling bored with what he was doing. After coming clean, Slim set off on his own creating new doors for his career and fame.
In 2008, Slim parted ways with Swishahouse, StarTrack, and Interscope Records on good terms. He began creating music independently and founded his own label, Boss Hogg Records. He hired his best friend from high school to be the first employee of the label, along with others such as J-dawg, Lil Ray, and C-Ward. He also collaborated with ESG (a Screwed up click member that worked well with Slim Thug). The two put together "Boss Hogg Outlawz and ESG" with hit single "Get Ya Hands Up," which featured Shawn Blaze, and first time appearance from Bun B, that helped branch Slim's music off to different radio stations. The hit single is still today, considered a popular classic.
In 2009, Slim released his second studio album "Boss of All Bosses", it was Slim's first solo album after leaving Swishahouse. Although the album wasn't as successful as his first, it still reached #15 on Billboard hot 200, and sold 32,000 copies the first week after dropping. The album also included the popular hit "I Run."
From there on, Slim established his solid ground, layed out independently, he was succeeding without any major promotions. Slim went strong in making his legacy through hip-hop, and in 2010, he released his third studio album "Tha Thug Show." Which included single "Gangsta" featuring Z-ro. Then in April of 2013, Slim released EP tited, " Welcome To Texas" features from Rick Ross, Pimp C, and Ludacris among with many others. And again in 2013, his fourth studio album "Boss Life".
Getting older and growing up, Slim's way of thinking matured, and he wasn't seen out partying as often as he once was. He started worrying more about his future man he would be becoming rather than his present reputation he lead. He started a "get better or get worse" workout motivation slogan, for not only himself, but to inspire anybody and everybody to get healthier. Slim already began experiencing health issues from weight, and a family history of high blood pressure, so he decided to get into shape, influencing more people to set a goal for a healthier way of living.
Slim continued to get rich, creating his Hogg life trilogy albums, which included, "The Beginning" , "Still Surviving" , and "Hustler Of The Year" all released in 2015. Then came the last album of Hogg Life in 2016, "American King".
Over the course of the last six years, besides 2017, Slim released a album for each year, and 2017, he put two albums out in that same year, "Welcome 2 Houston" and "The World Is Yours". Skipping to 2018, he dropped "Suga Daddy Slim: on the prowl" in 2019, "Thug Life" in 2020, "SDS Vibes" in 2021, and his latest master piece of being this year "BIGSlim" (2022).
Slim Thug father's 3 sons, Dreux, Kobe, and Stayve jr. Although he's a single parent, he makes sure his son's have a present father figure in there life's. Him and his son's mother's have a strong CO parenting relationship, and he supply's all the resources he can to make sure they are successful in whatever they set there minds to. He never wants his children to experience the hardship he faced of not having a dad in his life, and never wants them to feel the burden of what it feels to go without. Slim goes about his life humbled, frequently remembers back to a time where he didn't have much to his name, and coming all the way to the top, he truly feels blessed. Thanking God every step of his journey, he attendes church every Sunday.
Slim Thug's inspiring message to any young kid hustling in life states:
"Kids keep in mind, I don't sell drugs, everything I got is legit. Stay focused, stay prayed up, and stay making Boss moves. You could have everything you ever dreamed of."
Today, Slim invest in his long love for cars. He admits that it might be an expensive passion, but it is his only luxury way he chooses to spend his money on. Back in 2020, Slim went to release "Thug Life", following releasing the news of testing positive for COVID-19.
Slim Thug frequently gives back to Houston, feeding the needy, and building homes for homeless, you can't say Houston without Slim Thug. His hometown also dedicated February 25 to official "Slim Thug" day.
I personally encourage everyone to keep up on all of his new releases, Ive never heard anything that Slim Thug released to not be good. Follow his Instagram @slimthug and check out his website www.Bosslifeworld.com
