With National Day 2024 coming this month, danamic. is spotlighting the lives of Singaporeans with unique perspectives. This is the story of YAUNG, a musician and rapper.
We’ve grown up to hip-hop and rap legends like Eminem and Snoop Dogg, aching for our own to spit bars and light the stage on fire like these icons do. Well, he’s in our very midst. His aura, his passion, and his talent are like no other. We introduce the next up-and-coming hip-hop artist in Singapore to your playlists. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s YAUNG!
YAUNG is a musician who fell in love with creating first and rapping second. Donned in his best outfit, with confidence as a critical accessory, and clenched in his fist a microphone not ready for his powerful voice and relaxed flow, YAUNG takes any stage and any room by storm. He’s a hip-hop artist who debuted in Singapore’s music scene in October 2022. Close to two years in the industry, he’s an artist finding his sound and sharing his stories beat by beat with his unparalleled love and passion for the art.
I had the pleasure of speaking with him, and we learned so much about his music style, the journey that has led him to this moment, and everything the universe has to offer him beyond. Today, I lay bare his journey so you can feel as inspired as I did after our lovely chat.
The Beginning
Every hero (or even a villain!) has their origin story. It’s the moment that forever changes the trajectory of their future and the path they’ll carve for themselves and those around them. YAUNG’s origin story dates back to his school days, back when he and his friends would jam out to Eminem’s Beautiful every single day. Well, that’s how it started, anyway.
From jamming to it, he got around to memorising it, even mouthing the words and revisiting the lyrics while his teacher was teaching in class. As a listener, he fell in love with the song. But it was when he dug deeper and delved into the words and the way Eminem perfectly engineers them to tell a tale to his listeners that really struck YAUNG. He said, “There were so many rhyme schemes, so many cadences, flows, and everything. I started to appreciate the art. To me, I think that’s what’s missing, like, in the modern music world right now. The power of lyrics.”
This was when he realised that not only did he want to do it, but he could. “The way that he expresses himself through the lyrics, the passion and the energy and everything, the message, it all comes together, and it just kind of punched me in the face, and I was like, you can do it, too,” YAUNG reflected. As time went on, this dream sat in the back of his mind, gnawing at him as he continued studying like every other student in Singapore did.
It was after he finished Polytechnic that he took the step to put his dream into action and create the world he’d been dreaming of for years. Despite admitting that he was starting in a terrible place financially, with little to no musical knowledge and a poor command of English (which you’d never be able to tell now!), he worked hard and got to it!
That’s when he created his first song and released it for the world to listen to—Dying to Live. This song is literally him on a piece of paper transformed into a song, and we hear a raw and authentic voice in a sea of conformity. It’s also a song he’d want all his new listeners to listen to first to get a taste of who YAUNG is and what he represents.
When we asked about this song, YAUNG shared, “Life is like a simulation, just kind of, like, follow, the structure of life. You grow up, you study, get a degree, you work and stuff like that. And then as you grow up, these dreams you had as a child just kind of get taken away, you know? And that’s what I fear in myself. That’s why I always kept, like, the dreams as a child in me.” He never let his younger self down, as he carried that dream within him till he finally found the courage to bring it to fruition. All this is cemented in his debut single, Dying to Live.
But why hip-hop? What made YAUNG go head over heels for this specific genre? It’s everything he loves about music and its creation packed into one adrenaline-pumping genre. He loves the beats, the lyricism, and the boundless realm of creativity that accompanies this whole ‘do-it-yourself’ kind of genre. It’s with all these things that he’s able to connect with his listeners on a deeper level and make an impact.
Songwriting
Evidently, lyricism is a massive part of the job when it comes to hip-hop and rap. Even more evidently, it’s part of the job YAUNG has an endless appreciation for and even a knack for. After all, it was Eminem’s genius lyrics that forged yet another listener-to-artist convert in YAUNG.
He shared that songwriting has no real structure for him. Rather, it’s more of a go-with-the-flow process where he lets the beats drive the mood and vibe of the lyrics. Hip-hop is a genre that offers an endless creative landscape, which means that there are infinite ways for a song to unravel and come to life. With lots of trial and tribulation, YAUNG lets his mind and heart feel the emotion of the music and dictate the story of the song.
For beats that sound a little more emotionally fuelled, we hear more soulful lyrics, like in Dying to Live and I’ll Be Okay. When the beat feels a little more sassy, so are the lyrics, just like in Go Stupid and That’s Crazy. He lets the empath in him feel the song and drive it, and we get hard-hitting tracks like these!
In fact, the idea of telling the story from the words to the beat doesn’t stop there. It goes down to the cover art! Every cover art you see captures the essence of the track and lures the listener into his entrancement. The creativity dripping from YAUNG’s cover art goes hand in hand with the mood and energy of the song, making it a harmonious product of YAUNG’s songwriting engine.
His Influences
Eminem is unarguably one of YAUNG’s most humongous influences, considering his origin story that we talked about earlier. But YAUNG’s artistry is inspired by another artist he hopes to emulate – NF, an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer.
The way he spoke about NF was so special; his eyes lit up, his face aglow with excitement, and he spoke at length about the parts of his career that he felt so moved by. He loves everything about NF’s style of rap, where he really embodies the emotions he wants to deliver through his tone, flow, and cadences, right down to the production. He loves how NF never tries to fit in with everyone else, goes for what he wants, and aces it.
A song by NF that YAUNG mentioned that totally encompasses everything YAUNG praised about him, was How Could You Leave Us?. It’s a track documenting his emotions about the passing of his late mother and is the only song that has ever moved YAUNG to tears. Listening to the song myself, I completely understood what he meant. It’s a geniusly created song, and it’s the type of soul-stirring music we surely foresee YAUNG creating for us as well.
The Future for YAUNG
With his thirst for creation and passion for performing, we know YAUNG has so much up his sleeve to blow us away. In fact, we know a little secret that we were especially privy to, and we’d like to share it with you now! Remember, you heard it here first!
An album is in the works for YAUNG! Yes! An album! This will be his first-ever studio album, and we’re so pumped to see him through his journey of doing what little YAUNG had always dreamed of. While we don’t know much about it, all we can say is that it’s on its way, and we’re in for a ride like no other!
Apart from an album, YAUNG also revealed that he’s looking to connect with the community a lot more. At the end of the day, putting out music is his job but also an honour he takes very seriously, and he has vowed that he will continue to do that. We cannot wait to see his journey take course and to be up-close with his efforts! We might be well into the second half of 2024 but, oh, is the year just beginning for YAUNG!
As YAUNG continues to rise through Singapore’s music scene, his journey is just getting started. With every beat and lyric, he brings fresh energy and a unique voice to our realm of hip-hop. His passion and talent promise an exciting future, one that we will eagerly follow.
This new kid on the block is here to stay, and we can’t wait to see where his music takes us next and how his artistry unravels. So, keep an ear out and get your playlists ready. As we eagerly await his debut album, it’s clear that YAUNG is not just another artist—he’s a game-changer. Stay tuned Singapore, because YAUNG is just getting started.
YAUNG
Stay tuned to YAUNG’s journey on his Instagram and TikTok pages for more music content and all the fantabulous things he’s up to! Check out YAUNG’s official YouTube channel, Spotify and Apple Music for all his past works to become a diehard fan before the album drops.
Photos by Brendan Tan of the DANAMIC Team.
