mp3′s: Young Fierce (finally you get to hear what he sounds like)

By Chris Mills | January 21, 2009 at 1:57 am | 3 comments | Uncategorized

With the winter/spring issue of Demencha Magazine due out on February 1st, I figured while I’m staying in workaholic mode, I might as well do a post on Young Fierce so you guys can get a couple of his tracks and see why I think so highly of him as an artist. Feel free to read the cover story we did on him for the print version of the magazine, or just skip to the bottom of this post and download his music. But it is a good story.

Fierce Dialect
Chris Mills
Demencha Magazine

Legend has it that in the 1700’s many slaves in the American South made their own vernacular and even created their own songs known as “spirituals,” to communicate with one another so that their owners couldn’t understand. I can’t understand half of what our featured, 28 year-old, farcically-talented hip hop artist, Young Fierce, is saying in his raps, either. But the story of his slang goes beyond Ebonics, African-American Vernacular English, or whatever you want to call it.

Many believe that this Black offshoot of American English is the direct relic of slavery, with a strong correlation to African-American people being denied the education that their white counterparts received.

Young Fierce’s speech impediment, which has given way to his distinct style of rapping, has been with him since birth. Both Ebonics and Fierce‘s wicked style show it’s possible that some styles of music – in addition to different forms of slang – often rise from the ashes of oppression and are linked by the unlikelihood that neither of them are meticulously formulated with the intent to be unique. Coincidentally, Young Fierce states in this interview that stuttering is “like you put chains on yourself.”

A stuttering problem is the kind of thing that can scar an individual for life. It’s also the kind of experience that can manifest itself later in adult life, used as fuel, for better or worse (a friend of mine, who is a practicing speech pathologist, agrees).
Thankfully, Kansas City hip hop talent, Young Fierce, has used his speech impediment, what he once thought was a “curse,” and flipped it into a bizarre but irresistible style of rhyming all to his own, unlike anything I’ve ever heard in my ten years as an avid hip hop listener.

I first came to familiarity with Young Fierce one night last winter at an open mic night hosted by Kansas City hip hop group, Heet Mob, at the Embassy Bistro on Main in Midtown Kansas City. While watching basketball on the big screen at the bar, my ears perked up at a contingent of females in the next room voicing their obvious gratification for whatever was happening in front of them.

I poked my head out into the main room and saw someone on stage wearing a KC fitted cap and a hoodie, performing what appeared to be some kind of acapella-spoken-word bit. I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying, but his body language was animated and his facial expressions complimented the spirit and vigor by which he was delivering his words. He seemed to be putting on a one-man play, dramatizing different roles, bouncing around the stage and imitating different voices.

DJ Hylanda, who was hosting the open mic session on the turntables, made it clear before the night began that if the crowd really likes the person performing on stage, he’ll give them an extra sixty seconds to perform. Nearly every Monday at Embassy since then, Young Fierce has almost always been granted the extra minute to rock out.

I had to meet this guy. And sure enough, his stuttering took me by surprise. Later in this interview, you will learn that stress (i.e. meeting new people) triggers his stuttering problem even more.

Another thing I remember from that first time I talked with him was that he told me about an album he put out in Sacramento with Luni Colleone several years ago (and it did numbers that most rap cats in KC would drool over, as you’ll read later). This is important to note because before going to print with this fall issue, we heard whispers from people around town that echoed things like, “Yea, Fierce is good. But does he even have an album out?”

So yes, Young Fierce does have an album out. And it’s damn good, too. Released in 2002, it was called Sinful Living with Righteous Intent. Fierce had a gang of Bay Area icons featured on the album like San Quinn and the aforementioned Luni Colleone, and his own catchy-but-grimy verses and choruses proved that he could not only hold his own while surrounded by Bay Area rap titans in the studio, but outshine them at times.

To help paint a picture for you, his manner of rap is part Brotha Lynch, part Devin the Dude, part pissed-off preacher (for lack of a better term), and part outright beast, with spiritual and uplifting messages pushed out by enthralling stylishness, disregarding pressing swagger for effortless individuality.

Furthermore, his delivery sounds like a normal person speaking in complete sentences with a beat playing in the background, but with someone speeding up the pitch in their voice and then slowing it down every other couple bars, but somehow, amazingly, staying with the beat throughout. This is the deceptive, full-grown fruit of his stuttering habit and the materialization of Young Fierce’s own one-of-a-kind use of the freedom of speech.

Other messages in his music are fulfilled from more of an every-man outlook, like “Backstreet Ridin,“ wherein he speaks upon riding through Kansas City’s backstreets, avoiding main roads because his license is expired.

Other songs like “Spark a Revolution,” give way to his fanatic ability to write and perform butter-smooth choruses with ease. This is another thing that separates him from any local hip hop artist that I‘ve heard thus far. In my opinion, chorus writing is what most rappers in Kansas City struggle with most. See the music player at his myspace page for further justification of his music at myspace.com/prince2tutimen (Prince 2Tutimen is his alias).

As you can tell, we’re gassing this dude up and his upcoming solo album, Let Me In, quite a bit. Because after all, since when did speech impediments keep anyone from making a dope hip hop record? Plenty of rappers out there have gone platinum by obstructing the English language. In the 90’s, East Coast artists unknowingly taught young, impressionable, Midwestern hip hop listeners to say “Word Is Born,” instead of “Word Is Bond,” due to their geographical slanguage. Lil’ Wayne, a Southerner, sounds like he has four doughnut bowls in his mouth.

We’re not here to diagnose Young Fierce’s speech problem, nor do we wish it would simply go away. And we’re not sure if the Ebonics metaphor used to relate Fierce’s style in this article came out right or not. But what we do know is that Young Fierce may be the most talented up and coming hip hop artist in this city. And no, I didn’t stutter.

Chris Mills: Tell us about your first album that you put out in Cali.

Young Fierce: My first album was Sinful Living with Righteous Intent. It was released in early 2002 through Outta Bounds Entertainment. I was 21 years old when that record came out. Big Hollis produced the whole album. I was presented through Luni Coleone. I just happened to meet Luni at a concert that we were having here in KC. It was Luni, Juvenile, Mystikal and some other cats. Me and my hood, we’re a family from 39th to 47th and Woodland to Paseo – we call that 4 Blocc. 39th is still 3-9, but the love is extended. It’s not gangs, it’s hoods.

My homie Rob, he was starting a rap label. He was at a good point in his life where he was financially able. It just so happened when Luni came in town for that concert, my homie Rob (Rob Hubbard, CEO of Bomb Records), was connected with Luni to where Luni went over to Rob’s house. When Luni came over to his house, Rob sent the message through the hood: “Tell Fierce to come down here.” I went down there and I had holes in my Nikes and my braids were halfway done because I didn’t care, you know. But I can rap though, you know what I’m saying? I slipped in the house and they’re all partying. By the grace of God, they started rapping. The circle started to form. Devious started rapping too (no relation to DVS Mindz from Topeka). My homie Paul Mussan started bustin’. Then my big homie Rob was like, “Fierce, you ain’t gonna rap?” I did my thing, and that’s how Luni and I got connected. Luni told me, “You could have an album out in a month messing with me, dog. You ready to go to Cali?”
I was gone in two days. We did my album (Sinful Living with Righteous Intent) in seventeen days. So I’d sit at home with my good cheeba, write something, wake up the next morning and lay it down (in the studio). Everything was moving so fast. There were different artists that were coming in town, and that’s how I got San Quinn, Marvaless and J Cat on my album. Artists who just happened to be in town recording just hopped in and showed love. San Quinn is a pioneer out there. Him and Messy Marv and JT the Bigga Figga – they all came from the Get Low Posse, I believe. I got mad respect for them. That‘s why I speak highly of their names. We completed the album and it didn’t drop (until) probably a year later. It dropped in early 2002, I believe. Like January or February. Yea, because it was cold up here, and it blew my mind for the first time, for real flying somewhere where it was hot when it was cold here (in KC).

It was just the perfect setting for recording an album. But I didn’t have any business sense, at all. I didn’t ask to fill out anything, I didn’t ask about any paperwork. I didn’t care. I just thought if you rap tight, you’re gonna be rich. As long as you’re cold, you’re good. That’s what I thought, you know. But there ain’t no friends in this game. Your best friends will be the one’s that will hurt you the most. I can’t really get intimate with the details, but it gets deep. My interior is scarred. But that’s everything I put into my lyrics now. That’s where Prince 2Tutimen came from. Young Fierce, that was like my (hyphy alias). That was me and my adolescence, learning who I am.

Prince 2Tutimen comes from me believing somehow, just through dreams, that I’m connected to King Tut. Maybe through reincarnation or whatever. I believed from when I was 16 that there was something inside of me that was supposed to be heard by mass audiences. I felt supreme at a young age. You know what I’m saying? That’s what drew me to King Tut. I’m the second Tut of men. That’s where Prince 2Tutimen comes from. That’s the evolution of Young Fierce, and I try to bend my lyrics the same way. Back in the day I just rapped for the oohs and ahs. But now when I rap, I’m trying to tell you something. I’m trying to illustrate my pain, so you can taste it with me.

Basically, to get on with a major deal today, you’re going to have to have that hot-party-bounce-bounce-groove. My aim is to do that same type of music, but disguise it with some realness, ya dig? That’s what I felt like ‘Pac did. ‘Pac brought you some real music, but you could party to it. I don’t want to make party music. I want to make real music that you can party to. If someone is playing a certain song in their car, that song can make you look at that person a certain way. Say a brother as dark as me, (wearing) a hoodie, in a Cutlass was bumpin’ some Dolly Parton. You’d be like, “Hold up!” Say the average, everyday white guy rolls up bumpin’ some Brotha Lynch. He’s crazy, dog! He’ll probably cut you up and put you somewhere. I want to make that music that anybody can bump and it’ll fit them. That’s what I want. I want to be heard worldwide.

Chris Mills: How many copies were sold of Sinful Living…?

Young Fierce: I think it was somewhere around 13,000. And (that number came from) like 2003, I believe. I just had no business sense at all. No matter how hot you are or how wack you are, if you got that paperwork right, that’s gonna give you an edge.

Chris Mills: I noticed on your myspace page that you have a number of affiliations with different labels. What are Omegalistic, Team Sicctype and TBG Eternal?

Young Fierce: People ask what kind of music is that. Is it gospel? Is it hardcore rap? Omegalistic Music is my label, music for the last days. Team Sicctype is Luni Colleone’s label (Sicc-a-Cell Entertainment). Team Sicctype is the group family name. TBG Eternal is my origin. That’s my love. That’s my brothers. My fellow Spartans. That’s The Jok3r, Mr. Taccy, Deciph4 Da Sniper, Brulos, Scrimmage, Shank, Young Cali, and Killa Boi. The thing about TBG Eternal is we’re not all necessarily from one spot. The Jok3r, he’s with Midwest Side Entertainment. Decipher, he’s with Non Stop Entertainment. Cali’s label is out in California. But all of us rap. But the origin is me, The Jok3r and Mr. Taccy. TBG means True Ballin’ Gangstas. We believe that true wealth is the belief in God. Which makes it eternal. (Hence, TBG Eternal).

Chris Mills: Are a lot of people in KC familiar with your music? Do you get a lot of people asking you about your upcoming projects?

Young Fierce: I don’t feel like a lot of people know me as a rapper. But I know a lot of people here in Kansas City. But I don’t really feel like people know me like they should. I feel like I got more of a fan base in other cities than I do here at home. But that’s my fault because I didn’t push here the same way I did in other cities. You know, when you’re out of town you got that extra drive, that extra swagger about yourself. Because you’re bringing your town to that town, so you go even harder. When I’m here in town, I’m more just happy to be home with family, but I’ve got to bite down and push here the same way I do everywhere else.

Chris Mills: The first time we spoke at Mic Check Mondays at Embassy on Main Street, you said that you’ve had a speech impediment throughout your life. Was it an easy transition for you to get into rap?

Young Fierce: Rapping was the greatest gift that God could have ever gave me. Even when I was young, I knew I could say my ABC’s because I’m singing them. I could say it to a rhythm. But if I try to break it down in pauses I would (stutter). I realized that I could take what I want to say, rhyme at the end of it, and I can say it then. That’s why my style probably bleeds through so strongly. I thought it was a curse as a kid. Like if I wanted to talk to a girl…I hated myself for it. I would stutter in class and everybody would laugh and that would make me stutter even more. I still stutter to this day. I’m 28 now. Now I’m just quiet and wait for it to come out, instead of (speaking too fast). In high school, that’s where my rap (skills) really hit off. I would hop in sessions when people were beating on tables in the cafeteria and just listen to different styles and swaggers. That’s when I developed my own. My rapping allowed me to be heard through my own speech. Once I rapped in front of a female, she’d look at me differently and I had a different confidence. Then it was easier to talk to her. When you stutter, it’s like chains you put on yourself.

Chris Mills: Talk about some of your influences in hip hop.

Young Fierce: Every time I rip a verse, people say, “Dang, Fierce you sound like Tech N9ne!” I guess I really couldn’t help it. I love Tech so much. I love Tech’s creativity and uniqueness and how he would take a beat, swim in it, jump out of it, go run around the pool, hop on the diving board and jump back in it, you know. That’s how Tech gets down on a beat, and that’s what I wanted to do. Tech N9ne is a legend in my eyes here in Kansas City. Him and Young Rich (Rich the Factor). (I’m influenced by Rich) because that’s also the street side, the hood in me. Young Rich, Tech N9ne and Vell Bakardy (are my influences) from the town. They’re the ones that gave me that hunger and thirst. I wanted to be part of the elite, because I thought they were. And also the Veteran Click, because they’re icons.

Chris Mills: What are some other comparisons that you hear from other people?

Young Fierce: Andre 3000. I heard Ludacris. But with this next album, I’m just trying to separate myself from all that. I feel like what I’ve become now is different and never before seen. I don’t feel like the world has bred a Young Fierce before. I’m trying to push that so strongly in my sound.

Chris Mills: When you perform do you prefer to rhyme over your own vocals or do it all live?

Young Fierce: I always feel like it sounds better if you just rap over the instrumental, with maybe the hook playing. I believe it sounds better like that. But the past few shows I’ve been doing, I’ve been rapping over my vocals because it might just be spur of the moment where I didn’t really have time to get the show disc right. That’s the type of shows I want to do. I want to have dancers and all of that. I don’t have money to pay anybody so it’s just whatever I can make happen now. You know what I mean?

Chris Mills: Tell me about your other crew, Do Dirt.

Young Fierce: They took me under their wings at a time when I was low. I’ve been knowing my homie Lunatik for probably five or six years now. We live and breathe together. They took me in and now we’re orchestrating the Do Dirt Hustlaz album, Playin’ For Keeps. Then we’ll be following that up with my album, Let Me In.

Chris Mills: You told me at one point a couple of weeks ago that you’re getting to the point where you’re getting “hotter beats” from other producers. Could you talk about that some more?

Young Fierce: The first four or five songs I recorded on my album (Let Me In, due out before the new year) were beats that I made (including “The Love I Got,” “Backstreet Ridin” and “The Decontamination.”). I went to the Fruity Loops demo, made some beats, exported them over to Windows Media Player and burned them to a CD and recorded songs to them. But now I’m meeting real producers. People who got that sound as soon as you press play it’s already a hit. Then all you’ve got to do is just dress it. I believe I write hits and I deserve beats compatible with that, as modestly as I can put that.

Young Fierce – Spark a Revolution (“That’s him on the hook?!” – Reggie B of INnatesounds Crew)
http://www.divshare.com/download/6364269-47a

Young Fierce – Let Me In
http://www.divshare.com/download/6364281-fbb