Young M.A
There is no doubt about it, Young M.A. is the truth. She is another
perfect example of how brilliant these new young rappers really are
when it comes to lyricism for her generation of artists. Young M.A.
(M.A stands for Me Always) is a 24 year-old female rapper born in East
New York Brooklyn. It is an undeniable fact that once you listen to
her music ; that she represents the streets of today. She gained
notable recognition when her YouTube video "Brooklyn (Chiraq
Freestyle) went viral. This occurred in late 2014, when Dr. Boyce
Watkins, a known social commentator released some comments in an open
letter to the artist; criticizing how she promotes a lifestyle
saturated with drugs, guns and genocide in her lyrics and videos.
M.A. started writing lyrics at the age of 9 years. She was raised by
her single mom, older brother and younger sister. Unfortunately, her
brother was murdered when she was a senior in high school. When she
first started rapping, people would say she was not feminine enough
and that she didn’t fit the image of female rappers so she ended up
putting the pen down for a few years. Not until, her brother’s murder
by a gang member, did she decide to pick up the pen again to release
her feelings on paper. Writing became a form of therapy for her and
helped her to release her pain. It wasn’t long thereafter, that she
started releasing tracks and gaining recognition for her music. Once
the freestyle Chiraq went viral, she knew that things were about to
take off.
To date, her sites are over “80K followers on Instagram, 5 Million
plus SoundCloud streams, along with several music videos receiving
over 500K views.” (1. About Young M.A) She has received invitations
from Funkmaster Flex of Hot 97 to perform at Webster Hall’s Thursday
night “House Party which draws a huge crowd, and to perform for
Thisis50 on the Jack Thriller’s show. Now, this is quite impressive
for an artist who is fairly new on the scene. Some of her idols
growing up were 50 Cent and Eve from Ruff Ryder which I can see
influenced her style. In her music, you will hear M.A make references
to Red Life throughout her songs. “Red Life, it’s a movement and a lot
of people think we gang members and s— and that’s not the case at all.
Red stands for Repent Everyday Life, so it’s repenting every day in
life for this lifestyle. And we’re a spiritual movement so red is
[also] for the blood of Jesus. It’s a spiritual thing, we believe in
god so we try to put that first and after that we just do what we do.”
(2. Young M.A Talks ‘SleepWalkin’ Mixtape, Tackling Adversity and 50
Cent’s Influence [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW).
So, as I noted above, it’s apparent that this artist is on the rise
and that people are definitely paying attention. She can without a
doubt bust out freestyles without hesitation. But as I watch her
videos and listen to her music; I can’t help but to reflect back to
some statements from Dr. Boyce Watkin’s open letter. There are
definitely some other issues going on with the promotion and
glorification of street life that needs to be addressed. But, I do
realize that she is young and can only rap about what she knows but
I’m going to stay tuned to see how grows within her music. But one
thing for sure is that her movement is serious. She’s versatile,
edgy, and honest in her flow and without a doubt; she is doing it the
Brooklyn Way!!!
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