It’s easy to dismiss up and coming young rappers in the British music scene. In a way, many of them are hard to relate to for the average person – most come from council estates and paint a violent and aggrandized picture of life on the streets. While I’m not discounting this artistically, it does make it easy for the average listener to dismiss the music as an exercise in wistful bravado, or as an inferior take on gangsta rap. Yungen offers something different; when I was introduced to his debut release, Project Black and Red, I found an interesting approach, with Black representing a take on life on the streets, while the Red offers a more personal exposition. It shows the 21yr old rapper as something different – he mentions his family a lot, especially his mother, and talks about taking care of his family and friends before himself.
With this in mind I interviewed Yungen to discuss his music. When we meet, he’s dressed simply – the lack of bling stands out straight away. “I’m not saying I’ll never have chains,” he says to me when I bring it up. “I’d rather sort my family out – putting my mum or myself in a big house is more important to me than a nice chain or watch.” It’s unusual to hear this from someone so young, and as we go deeper into the topic he offers more insight. “I don’t want to be the guy that says ‘that’s not cool’. I do like those things, but people’s situations and experiences are different. I just want to say that there is something else out there.’
When I ask him what brought about this mindset, Yungen becomes more personal. Generally with rappers from the estates, they always talk about gang life. “When I first started rapping, if was the first thing I wanted to talk about,” he reminisces. “It’s natural to want to talk about the streets and beef”.
“I wasn’t involved, but I was involved,” he asserts. “My parents were always on me to take school seriously, and stay away from gang life. I knew when to say no, and to stay out of trouble”. We talk about how many MC’s glamourize the gang lifestyle and Yungen becomes more passionate. “I’ve grown up now, and I’m trying to get across to the younger generation that the life isn’t cool. It’s never cool.” As we go deeper into the topic, its clear that this is something he feels very strongly about.
“It’s because I’ve lost three close friends who I grew up with,” he reveals. “Two were from gang related activities, the other was killed in a crash when he was being chased by police. That was a changing point for me.” This leads us to talk about one of his songs ‘Too Real’, where he raps about this subject.
“When I wrote ‘Too Real” I was touring in Australia.” At this point I can see him becoming more emotional. “I got the news about my friend, and I realised that I was getting adjusted to losing friends, and becoming resigned to it. That isn’t how life should be. I have younger relatives and I want to them to know that there’s more out there.”
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Moving on from this, we discuss the influences for his music. Hailing from a council estate in South London, he grew up in a house with his mother and three sisters. “I grew up listening to 90s R&B – my sisters played it 24/7. I love rap, but in my car I’d much rather listen to someone like Aaliyah,” he tells me. His first introduction to hip hop was an older cousin who used to MC. “ I was only 12, and I looked up to him and wanted to be like him;” he says, laughing. “Then I got into Eminem and 50 Cent. ‘The Real Slim Shady’ was the first song I memorised.”
“I think Eminem was my biggest influence,” he follows on. “He talks about his mum a lot, and so do I. My music has to be real.”
I press him further on that last statement. “The best music comes from people being real. Even if it’s a club song or a happy song, it still has to be real. I experimented with gimmicky stuff, but that helped me to discover who I am as an artist. I’ll never make music for the sake of making music.”
The journey started for Yungen 3 years ago when he released his first track ‘Hometown’. “I made that song for myself,” he tells me, “I just found the beat on youtube, which was a sample of Adele’s ‘Hometown Glory’. I’d never even heard of Adele at that time!” The track garnered a huge positive response, which took him by surprise. “One of my friends had just died, and I wanted to make a song for my ends. I didn’t get it at first because it was about me and my estate. But when I started to think about it, I realised that other people could relate – if they were also from the ends then they could understand what I was talking about.”
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It’s clear that ‘Hometown” will always be an important song for him. “Every time I get writer’s block, or if I’m struggling a bit, I always think back to ‘Hometown”, and why I made it. It reminds me to be real.”
It was from there that he started to look at music as a career. In fact, Yungen was a promising footballer, having been on Charlton’s books as a youth, and also had trials at QPR, but a serious injury in his teens had curtailed his aspirations. Following on from ‘Hometown’, he started to get more involved with music, working with artists like Sneakbo and Konan. In what now seems like a characteristic move, he signed with a manager who he’d known for many years, and they started working together. “I had a lot of offers from managers who were working with big acts,” he tells me, “but I didn’t connect with anyone. Isaac (his manager), had approached me a while ago – he was a tour manager for Tinie Tempah at the time – and had told me that he wanted to get into artist management. He’s like a big brother to me, so I decided to work with him.”
“We argue all the time!” he elaborates, jokingly. “We’re friends too, and that’s really important to me. We have an understanding and we go through everything together. The arguments help us – I don’t think I could have that kind of relationship with anyone else.”
Project Black and Red dropped this year, and was a surprise entrant in the charts – no26 in the UK, and no11 on the iTunes charts. Considering Yungen isn’t signed to any music labels, that’s a remarkable achievement. Following on from this, he’s doing his first Black and Red show at the O2 in Islington in November. “I’ve always wanted to put on my own show, so this is big for me.”
Although Yungen already has some impressive achievements to his name, he admits that he has a lot to learn. “When I made Project Black and Red I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just recording and making music and seeing what happened! After this I’m just going to carry on recording. I want to grow and develop as an artist.”
I wouldn’t expect anything else.
Project Black and Red is available on iTunes now. The Black and Red Show will take Place at the O2 Academy2 Islington on Thursday 6th November. Tickets can be purchased here
