"Look... All I need is a pad, pen, mic, and God's direction then I can do wonders"
Is what the young emcee says as he continues to write for his next album. Yungtown who was born in Birmingham, Al in 1990 has come a long way for an emcee and especially at the fact that he is only 16! Of course he was never known as "Yungtown" his whole life, because he took on this alias only three years ago. That's exactly how long he has been seriously perusing in his Christian Hip-Hop Career.
Originally it wasn't about the ministry it was about purely just making music under a name people would one day recognize. Yungtown never started his writing at a considerably mature age; he wrote his first verse in the 5th grade in 2001 when he was only 11 years old. Influenced by a Christian lifestyle as well as household, was defiantly something that lead him on to what he is today. At age 12, only his first year at middle school he picked up on freestyling which he did constantly anytime he got the chance. At this time he had no current name, just "Luke the kid who could freestyle".
Well his 6th grade year came to an end with some tragic news to him. He was moving to Alabama because his dad got a new job. His dad is a youth pastor, and their church at that time went into bankruptcy and had to split his salary in half. Having two younger brothers, a little sister, as well as a loving mom, the 6 of them couldn't live on just that. They then had to take action, and search for a new church to attend to elsewhere. That whole event broke Luke's heart, because he thought they finally were in the place where he would grow up until his graduation. God had different plans for his family and they moved from Lawrenceville, GA to a small town in Alabama during the summer of 2003. Still young at time (no pun intended), Luke didn't fully understand why God wanted him their. He then brought his freestlying abilities back to release the sadness that filled his heart from moving from the place he loved.
It was a successful move that summer, and they are blessed with an amazing church which the attend to this day. Recording wise all Luke had was a simple computer mic, sound recorder, and their speakers which fed him beats. He would freestyle on new tracks every night he felt sad. Soon his younger brother Jake who is only a year apart from him, picked up on it as well. Through out time they continued to do record new material until un-expectantly one night their dad bought him a new C.D. "BeatMart's Best Of The Submissions Vol 1". Having no idea that Christian hip-hop even existed he picked up on it immediately, and follow the contest for BOS Vol 2 on the forums. At the time he still wasn't called Yungtown his alias back then was simply "New Epic", stating a new era in the hip-hop game. The contest still went on with so much inspiration filling within in him to submit something for Vol 2. He sadly didn't get the opportunity but something else happened. While following the contest he met up with this person through the BeatMart Forums that has helped him more then anyone through this hip-hop game. Spiritually Anointed also known as S.A met up with Yung through a simple message sent through the forums. Yung saw that he had his own label and checked it out. Not looking to join it exactly, but just seeing what was also going on in this Christian Hip-Hop world he has been so na•ve about till now. The two of them later exchange screen names on AIM and continued to keep in touch.
During that summer Yung found out that one of his closest friend's had a natural talent to rap. Being so tight eh and ChristianCrackr hooked up and formed a group to release a future C.D that summer. Their first track "Intro-duction" which was later on sent to S.A, got him hooked to immediately sign the too young rappers. C.C is 3 years older then Yung but regardless they made tracks together delivering two complete different styles that made their sound authentic. Though they were real close friends they were both perfectionist as well as beginners to mixing and such. It took them forever just to do one track. Yung knew this wasn't going to last long, and started planning ahead for his future Solo Album but still pulling MarzBeatz (their producer at the time) along with him. ChristianCrackr eventually stopped spiting for personal reasons, and Yung continued on to work on his new album alone. MarzBeatz and Yung were extremely tight, but the songs Yung wanted to do couldn't be done on the beats that were given to him. Though the beats were extremely ill he just couldn't do much with them. Yung then dropped the deal with Marz in search for his own style of free produced material. On the new album "The Renaissance" you will hear two original tracks he did from Marz that satisfied him personally.
The young rapper then went through a period of time where he would make new material, but every single song was missing something. It was driving him insane trying to figure it out. He would talk to S.A as well as his new pal Clint Baird about his problem, which he sent all his material too for critique.
Clint also agreed along with him that something was missing. Yung prayed about it then realized that he was missing something so important. He realized that he was a Christian that was rapping with clean material, while throwing God's name in there every one in a while. Which Yung's motive was just to give people something that they would love to listen to. At that point he surrendered his whole talent, and ability to God. After that point he sat down and wrote a song that would be remembered as his best hit at the time, "My Spirit" is easily his best known joint, which can be found on his new release, "The Renaissance".
"People tell me a lot how much that song inspires them to do whatever they are meant to do. I just wish all my songs could be exactly as powerful as that one"
Yung quotes, though all of his songs for his new album are powerful in their own way. He continues to write, record, perform, in hope that he will be heard by someone one day. He currently fulfilled one of his younger dreams by submitting into BeatMart for the new BOS Vol 4. Though it hasn't taken place yet he sees God working in everything he does.
"Whether I get signed or not by some big time Christian rap label I will still be doing what I do regardless. D2S Records is such a huge blessing to me anyways. S.A is always there for me whether it has to do something with my music, or just my spiritual walk with Christ. I'm so thankful as well as blessed with all that God has given me. So their aint no way I'm stopping now... *laughs* not even Satan can put a finger on this"
