Atlanta rising star D.G. Yola knows his city streets like no one else. From living on them as a homeless teen to combing every corner of the A-town with his music, this determined ghetto youth knew no boundaries in his grassroots campaign for regional recognition. Embodying both the natural talents to make us move our feet along with the necessary drive that warrants longevity, Yola crafted his career like a strategic game of chess- carefully calculating each move two and three steps ahead.
After starting his own independent label, Power Hitter Records, and capturing the Southeast with one of the summer’s hottest down South singles,”Ain’t Gon Let Up,” Yola’s undeniable buzz landed him a deal with Atlantic Records. Now carefully plotting his next plan of action, he awaits the release of his major label debut,”GUTTA WORLD.”
“I didn’t need anybody’s record label ’cause I can sign myself and get my own record label,” says the 21-year-old Yola.”I never wanted to work under somebody, so I did it myself.”
A hustler to his heart, Yola was instructed on the game of life on Atlanta’s rugged West Side. Born into an unstable household, Yola, his older brother and younger sister were constantly uprooted from living in one relative’s home to the other. While most children his age were enjoying their carefree teenage years, Yola went from living with his aunt to his grandmother to his father to crashing on friends’ couches to sleeping on the floors of crack houses.
By his sophomore year in high school, Yola quit school and later that year partnered with a neighborhood friend to start their own label, All Out Records. Together the duo released Yola’s independent debut album,”RISE AND SHINE,” and created a small following with the local favorite”All Out Rider.”
“I was doing talent searches around town-going here and there performing the song, passing out CDs in hoods, taking over the streets like a movement,” Yola remembers.”You can’t help but like it. It was hard at first ’cause didn’t nobody know me. When I started making my statement, I had them.”
Realizing that he was more of an employee of the label than an actual business partner, he parted ways with his former colleague and went on to form Power Hitter Records. After assembling a team of street promoters, consultants and producers, Yola and his network lit up the city with his mix tape,”REALLY REALLY IN THE STREETS.”
“I was like, ?If they can do it, I can do it’,” Yola explains of his decision to head his own label. “I got a whole lotta stuff that I want the world to know- motivation, inspiration, struggle, ways to avoid all of that. ‘Cause I done shook it.”
Now with his newfound recording contract, his message will be spread to the masses. On the breakthrough single,”Ain’t Gon Let Up,” he adequately expresses his tireless determination atop up-tempo, club-ready production and spellbinding steel drums. Layering words of wisdom over an energetic beat accented by deep tuba chords and rolling snares, he spits with conviction on the inspirational,”Ain’t No Body.”
He rhymes:”I’mma motivate my generation to get major money/ Fuck them 10s and them 20s/ I’m talkin’ all hunnids?/ Ain’t no time to press rewind/ When your time is running up/ So I’mma make the best of my situation no matter what.”
And offering keys to success like the racy, Midnight Black-produced”Hustle,” Yola’s Atlantic Records major label debut,”GUTTA WORLD,” will be less than a trunk rattling collection of hot beats and tight rhymes. Consider the album a handbook for self-determination.
“I classify myself as something that the game needs right now. I’m the dope of the industry,” says Yola.”My music is gutta. I’m not a gangsta rapper. It’ll get gangsta, but I got something to talk about. Real music is missing-like how Pac did it.”
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