Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Calls Young Thug His “Inspiration”

Did you know the man who created Twitter is a Young Thug superfan? No? Well apparently, Thug didn’t either until he met the man.

In a new episode of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast on YouTube, co-founder of rap-centric music festival Rolling Loud Matt Zingler revealed the first time Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey met the Atlanta rapper.

Organizing the rendezvous at an unspecified concert years ago, Zingler says he brought Dorsey to speak with Thug backstage. However, Thug did not know anything about the man at the time.

“[Thug is] like, ‘Who’s the guy?’ It’s just [Thug] and his [girlfriend],” Zingler started off the story. “I’m like, ‘The guy from Twitter.’ He’s like, ‘Oh bluebird, bring him in.’ So I bring him in, and Thug like, doesn’t know him. So I’m in between him and Thug, I’m like, ‘Hey Thug, this is Jack.’”

Recalling the night around the 39-minute mark of the interview, Zingler says he eventually left the room because of how painfully awkward the interaction was.

“Jack’s like, ‘You’re my inspiration.’ And I’m sitting there, I’m like, ‘How the fuck is Jack inspired by Thug?’ But genuinely, Jack loves Thug on a weird level of like — influenced by music, everything, he’s obsessed with Thug… It was so awkward because Thug doesn’t take compliments that well, so Thug’s like super quiet, and then it was so fucking awkward for me. I dipped on Thug.”

While the rest of the conversation is unknown, it seems that Thug and Dorsey may have hit it off to some capacity. In March 2016, just days after the release of Thug’s mixtape Slime Season 3, Dorsey tweeted out his praise for the LP.

“Waaaay late to the game, but this is a great album: Slime Season 3 by @YoungThug,” Dorsey wrote on the app he created.

Thug caught wind of this and sent a thankful response to Dorsey, as the exchange likely happened after Zingler arranged their meet-up.

“(Praying hands emoji) Verified @jack,” Thug quoted Dorsey’s tweet with.

Since then, Dorsey has sold Twitter to Elon Musk, and Thug has gotten himself into a bit of trouble with the law. Currently, the emcee is in the jury selection stage of his impending trial, where he faces eight charges in connection to his federal racketeering case.

Photo by Amy E. Price/Getty Images for SXSW