NEWS
EVENTS
Introducing South London rapper YJ
RnB/Hip Hop | Wednesday 12th March 2014 | Oxford
Coming straight out of Peckham YJ has had 2 sold out shows and released a greatly received EP "the message EP" and the highly anticipated latest release, mixtape "Deal or No Deal".
YJ has a big following and rightly so! His musical talent is evident and gets better and better! At the start of his career he performed at Bow Wow's concert and Rnb singer Mario. He has also performed at Nigerian artist 2Face's concert. From the start his talent was acknowledged and these opportunity's lead to a loyal fan base and support from big Dj's in the game such as Semtex and Target of BBC Radio 1Xtra.
YJ's latest single "Where do we go?" Is a true reflection of his talent. With a catchy soulful melody and a deep, relatable focus, it's one to add to the collection! If you like rap with substance and an artist that can deliver it in a way in which you want to listen, YJ's the guy!! He is part of creative collectives Orphgang. The guys refer to Orphgang as "an artistic/creative/social-expressive movement, a metaphorical place where, the socially, musically and artistically ‘unwanted’ reside. The people who are not a part of, or in any stereotype or group, so to us an orphan is a person who socially, musically, mentally, artistically has no parents to there style." The group consist of members
TINYMAN
DRAHMAH
MG
ZULU (singer)
BMONI
INTALEKT (producer)
KOJEY RADICAL
R Kay (Producer)
Here's what the South London rapper had to say when I caught up with him;
On latest release Deal or No Deal
YJ: deal or no deal represents where I'm at. Deal, or no deal I'm gonna keep making the best music to my ability, you know? For the people that can feel it. It has a lot of live instruments with a hip hop feel, a neo-soul feel with some up tempo's.
On his favourite track
YJ: I don't know about a favourite, I mean everything's personal to me. When it comes to picking a favourite, I don't really have a favourite. It depends on which day and how I'm feeling on the day. If I was gonna say my favourite today it would probably be "where do we go" cos that's out right now.
On his favourite rapper
YJ: I would say my favourite rapper right now is Kendrick Lamar. There's a lot of people I listen to. There's Wretch (Wretch 32) as well. I'm a big fan of Wretch as well. Anybody doing there thing in a big way is inspiring to me. It's the content, the message. Anyone can make music but only a few can convey the message and pull it across to make the people relate to it. They appeal to the masses. Like J. Cole as well. Even Vick Mensa, he's dope as well.
On who he would want to collab with
YJ: I would love to collab with Wretch.
On what his goals are in the music industry, what the ultimate achievement would be
YJ: right now more exposure really And being respected for what I do, my art. Everything we do takes time. Obviously people just see the end result, they don't see the whole writing process and all the studio time. I just want to share it out to more people and hopefully it reaches them.
On what we can expect from YJ next
YJ: I've been working on Deal or no Deal 2, so that will be coming out soon. I won't say when but in the meantime there will be more visuals from Deal or no Deal. We released "where do we go?" The other day and we've got another one on the way.
Take a look at YJ's YouTube page to see his latest release among other visuals.
YouTube channel- officialyj
Twitter- @thelifeofyj
Web- officialyj.com
