Features : With Blackout, Youngworldibi Makes His Own Way Into Hip Hop Universe

With the upcoming release of his second album, Blackout, set for global distribution on July 14, Youngworldibi hopes to break out. He already has 40 or more songs out, including his first album, Taking The Throne, but with this new one he wants to get his music to a much wider audience.

“I started writing at 15, and then I got locked up,” he said, and the locked up took place at age 17. “That's when I really took this serious and did a whole lot of writing, to the point where I don't have to write much now. It was just, you know, for hooks and stuff like that.”

Another motivating factor for him is to quiet the doubters: “When people say you can't do something, if you are a competitor, that drives you,” he said.

Youngworldibi (he pronounces the ibi as separate letters: Eye-Bee-Eye), was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and now lives there and in Camden, New Jersey. His music has always been hip hop. It’s what he listened to as a kid, when he “used to blast it all the time.”

“I just love that style,” he said.

When he started writing, he wrote hip hop. His influences were The Notorious Big, Jay-Z, Juelz and Cam’Ron and the Diplomats and Lil Wayne.

“It was Big that actually made me want to start,” he said. 

He has been putting his music out in front of the public as a professional for two years now. About Blackout and its 13 tracks, he says, “Honestly, I think it's the best tracks I've put together thus far. And this is not just one style, one style of beat. I switch it up.”

Rapping to different beats is important to him. He chooses the beats for his songs based on whether he likes them. He doesn’t want to get stuck in just one style, and he takes professional pride in going for his own unique style and, with no major label backing him, trying to forge his own career and audience.

He describes that audience as “all those true hip hop heads out there looking for something different.”

He says he can’t explain his own style. It is “just different.” But he is heavy into the lyrical aspect of music, yet the sound of rap, the beats, has changed since he was 15.

“So I gotta try to find a way to blend in while still being different.”

He plays with music. On his Facebook page, he has a little video of him rapping freestyle to Jay-Z and Cam’Ron’s “Welcome to New York City.”

“I just like that beat,” he said. “To me, personally, that's a classic,” so one day in the studio he played that beat and freestyled his own rap to it.

“As a writer, you write so much sometimes stuff is just in your head. So when you play the beat you start rapping and it just kind of comes out.”

Now there’s Blackout.

The best track for him is “Blue Pills.”

“It's got a a club sound to it. At the same time, my style’s hard, gritty. I'm lyrical with it, and I kind of go in on it. I talk kind of greasy on it.”

The album also reflects his desire to change up styles, to find what he likes and mix them up.

“You’ll hear some beats,” he said. “I'm trying to expand, trying to grow as an artist. It’s real lyrical, and it just speaks my truth. You know, everything I've been through.”

The album has his struggles – growing up, prison, and the hard work of trying to break through professionally with his music.

And, he adds, “It's definitely a good listen.”

The pre-save for Blackout
“Taking the Throne”

Be sure to stay connected to Youngworldibi and follow him on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

Websites: 
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