Hyde13's Source

Probably one of if not the sickest rapper around right now.

 

 

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" Who would have thought that hip-hop's next fresh thing would be a white boy from Alabama who shreds dirt roads with his skateboard? Yet after meeting Yelawolf, it all makes perfect sense. Yelawolf's breakout debut album, Fearin' and Loathin' in Small Town, USA is the result of a lifetime affair with hip-hop, deep Southern culture and what Yela calls the "fifth element" of hip-hop - skateboarding. With influences that range from Lynrd Skynrd and Eightball & MJG to Kurt Cobain, Digable Planets and N.W.A, the depth of Yela’s musical expression is profound to say the least. Yelawolf transcends trends and defies easy categorization. On a party track he can sound like a more lyric-literate Beastie Boy riding a bass line so hard it's beyond dirty, more like muddy. On another he's as abstract and free as Andre 3000, yet when he chooses to be, he's as adept a storyteller as Eminem. In a single song he easily weaves images of meth-labs, Johnny Cash, single mothers, ski masks and recently arrested new fathers into a comprehensive narrative. "I don't mind comparisons in the beginning,” Yelawolf explains, “I know it helps people place me, but if it's still happening two or three years from now then that's a problem." Any comparisons will be short-lived. Yelawolf is unlike anything you’ve ever heard and is truly his own creation. Though he moved to big-city Nashville with his young single mother in fifth grade, most of Yela's life has been lived in Alabama . His mom had him at fifteen and had to leave him home to cook and care for himself as she worked to support him as a waitress. "When I wasn't in my own head, creating, painting, writing or watching weird science channels, I was running the streets. But when we say streets down here, it's a little different; a lot of it is just roads." As a kid, he used to tag as Koma when he was a graffiti writer and has a lay-up on a whole block in his hometown of Gadsden , Alabama . While he moved around a lot as a kid – changing schools over 15 times – and lived with more than one step dad growing up, he doesn't resent his childhood at all. "Life and hardships with my mom gave me my soul." His mom blesses the track "On Your Own," remembering how well Yela handled the responsibility of independence. The track is an elegant tribute to his unconventional childhood. Being on his own so young allowed him to pursue his other major passion; skateboarding. "I've been skating for 20 years, skating influenced me music-wise too. When I was a kid, some of the music that wasn't being played down here, stuff like Souls of Mischief and Group Home, was on all the underground skate videos." The exposure was a revelation for Yela. "In Nashville , I saw that my life could have turned out a few different ways. I could have been a dope boy or a gangster or who knows? I've always been a deep thinker but when I started getting into Digable and Souls it was some soul-searching shit. Hip-hop gave me my spirit." If hip-hop gave him his s