Young Nudy & Coupe Turn Atlanta’s ‘Blood, Sweat & Tears’ Into ‘Paradise’ With New Album: ‘It’s a Lifestyle’ 

March Madness had a different definition for Young Nudy and producer Coupe this year. Nudy and his “Peaches & Eggplants” collaborator locked in for a month straight, relentlessly recording in the East Atlanta rapper’s basement studio of his Georgia mansion. 

“Non-stop,” Coupe insists to Billboard of the duo’s creative process for PARADISE. “We were at his house, locked in the basement. I was sleeping in that motherf—ker every day, on the floor.”

Less than a year after 2024’s Sli’merre 2, PARADISE arrived on Aug. 8, a crowded hip-hop release day, filled with 14 tracks and features from Memphis titan Project Pat, 21 Savage, Latto and Babydrill, while also enlisting Kid Hazel on the production side.

“PARADISE means a lot for me, the good and the bad,” Nudy says. “It takes a lot to get to PARADISE — blood, sweat and tears. PARADISE gives you the Nudy world type s—t. My mindset, my people and what I represent.”

It’s a buffet of what fans have come to love from Nudy, whose consistency has become a calling card in his repertoire. Led by vivacious, sleek trap production, Nudy leans into his lothario persona while rhapsodizing about his sexual escapades. 

His honeyed flows quickly turn to menacing street tales, narrating his cutthroat rise in Zone 6. He gets from point A to B concisely, cutting the fat off his projects in an era where many of his peers are excessively bloating their projects. 

PARADISE began to take shape with the effort’s second single, “Iced Tea,” which flips a ‘70s Italian soundtrack cut into horror trap. 

Coupe took a shot in the dark when reaching out to Project Pat, thinking there was no chance he’d say yes, but the Memphis rap pioneer immediately felt compelled to breathe life into the polished track with a catchy chorus. “‘I gotta hop on this right now,’ Coupe recalls Pat telling him after playing an early version of “Iced Tea” for the Three 6 Mafia co-founder. 

It was Coupe who served as the bridge for Nudy to Latto, who connected for “What’s Happenin.” A skittering beat that he made during the Gumbo era, but put to the side, knowing there would be a proper time and fit in the future. 

“[Latto] texted me, ‘I love this song,’” he says while knowing Big Mama’s a big fan of Nudy, who lifts the track while also sending shots at Donald Trump with her braggadocio assist. 

There were brainchilds of Nudy’s as well, which he hid from Coupe like “Pull Up,” a swaggy reinterpretation of Rich Boy’s 2006 top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Throw Some D’s.” “That’s my s—t right now. That’s one of them ones Coupe didn’t know about,” Nudy says with a beguiling smirk. “It was a secret.”

The 32-year-old believes this is a project for every type of Nudy fan he’s acquired over the years. “I feel like it’s for everybody type s—t. They could kinda relate to it. Sometimes I make s—t just for myself, sometimes I make s—t for my fans and sometimes I make s—t for everybody,” he adds. “I like to do me. If I can’t do me, then I can’t do it at all.”

Coupe agrees that when looking back, PARADISE will be a project that best encompasses Nudy’s artistry. “It’s a lifestyle. That’s where he comes from,” the producer claims. “It captures everything, the whole essence of who he is.”

While Nudy tends to be reclusive in an oversaturated Atlanta rapper market, he knows there’s still work to be done. “Staying out the way as much as I can, but still be in the way,” he says of the future. “Gotta stay sucker-free.”