“The world just has to meet me,” is how Newark, New Jersey lyricist Yah Yah describes himself. And meet him they will. Rapping for more than 15 years he describes his style as meaningful and serious. “I take my audience to a different place,” said Yah who is signed to and a co-owner of independent record label Lion Clan Music. His journey in music and life has made him into the man he is today and as the saying goes, he wouldn’t take anything for his journey now.
Born Shakir Nur-al-din Abdullah, “Yah Yah” was given the nickname by his mother, who he says began calling him that while she carried him during pregnancy. The name is Swahili for God’s gift to a Mother. Yah tells this piece of information with pride describing how his mother, a single parent instilled values in him such as staying true to his word. A young Yah Yah and his brother, now rapper Young Zee, started rapping sitting on their beds in their room. Their bad behavior led them to a love of music. Often on punishment, they would freestyle and see who could write rhymes the fastest. Always competitive, Yah strived to out rhyme and outwit his older brother with lyrics. “It made me want to put more into mine, so mine could come out better than his. It inspired me to work harder,” he says.
Yah grew up in 1980s in inner city Los Angeles, CA., where he became involved in gang life and spent most of his teenage years behind bars. Once back out in the real world he wanted to find a way to stay away from crime. Looking for a new start, Yah relocated to Newark, N.J. and linked up with his brother Zee and joined the underground hip hop crew, the Outsidaz.
While with the Outsidaz, Yah experienced some success as the group’s debut went gold, affording the group and him the opportunity to tour around the globe. The taste of success in spite setbacks only made Yah hungrier and fed his urge to become a solo artist. To embark recording his debut album, Yah moved to south first to Orlando, FL and then to Atlanta, GA. Along the way he teamed up with fellow Newark native and friend, Malik Myers. He and Myers began recording, copywriting and licensing their songs. During his time there, he made a library of more than 100 songs. All the while he was focusing on becoming a better businessman and professional in the music industry. He founded Lion Clan Music (arising from Yah’s New Jersey neighborhood where he and a group of friends, all with dreadlocks, had their dreads compared to that of a mane from a lion) with Myers, Jerome Baker and Armond Brown rounding out his team and began applying the finishing touches for his debut release ‘Plates” to be released summer 2009, witch remaind unreleased.
A fan of hip-hop, reggae, rock n roll and gospel Yah’s musical influences are spread as far as the Atlantic. As a youngster he remembers being so much a fan of rapper Ice Cube he confesses “I even had a jheri curl like him.” He remembers a conversation with legendary emcee KRS-1. The hip hop legend urged him to not to rely on free-styling alone if he wanted to sell records. Instead, he encouraged him that people want to spend money on something you put your heart and soul into. Today, addition to his earlier description Yah says his style is fun, hardcore and tricky (as in putting words together differently). He displays this style on tracks such as “Come Down!!” on his latest mix CD Cannabis Saliva, rhyming “the streets infected/so its henny with the haze/ while the semi spit the remedy for 28 days/Renovate space by your hairline/Try to stay humble but the jungle fear me like Shere Khan.” “That’s my sound,” he says, “I want my audience to grow with me.”
You won’t find chains and bling on this rapper. The Muslim and a father of nine don’t let his childhood growing up without a father’s influence that of his children. He says his young ones are what made him get away from gang banging. Yah said he wants to do things with his children, things his parents didn’t do with him. His love for his family inspired his move to Colorado where the children’s mother lives with them. He says the move is good for his career, saying his fan base has doubled there and credits hip-hop’s acceptance everywhere to his success.
