Some musicians use cryptic social media posts or pop-up shops to hype up a new project. Others favor giant gold heads. Some opt for no buildup at all, dropping albums out of nowhere á la Beyoncé. Young Thug chose snakes.

Earlier this month, the Atlanta rapper and self-proclaimed drip god sent out several serpentine surprises to various media outlets in promotion of his new project, Slime Language. Although our own Scott Lapatine was out of the office when Thugger’s people attempted to drop off dear sweet Wave God, one skinny little green pal named Digits was successfully delivered to our friends and office-mates at SPIN, and he or she was cute as hell. The reptiles have been moved to locations better suited to their needs, and at last the new project they were promoting is finally here.

Slime Language comes as part of the ongoing snake-centric “slime” series, including several volumes of Slime Season and last year’s joint release with Future entitled Super Slimey. The release also follows Young Thug’s last EP, Hear No Evil, which, like Slime Language, seems to be thematically linked to his quote about “acting deaf for a year” in honor of his hearing-impaired brother. (He has yet to move on his other big 2018 announcement about changing his name to SEX.) Thug’s last full-length album was 2017’s Beautiful Thugger Girls, which included a song with a Bright Eyes sample.

Slime Language features Lil Uzi Vert, Jacques, Lil Baby, and Gunna, among others. The release comes on Thug’s 27th birthday, so we want to wish him a year full of health and happiness — and hopefully no snake fatalities on his watch. Stream Slime Language below.

Slime Language is out now on 300/Atlantic.