Digital Cover: YT is Riding His Wave

It’s a month before the release of YT’s new mixtape, OI, and I find him in a spot of bother. Sitting in NOTION’s glam room, zipped-up to the nines in a vintage Moncler puffa jacket, the anchorite of this wave of alternative rap music is telling me about the crazy journey he’s been on to making his highly anticipated project; if you’ve been on TikTok lately and have an interest in London’s underground creative sphere, you’ll have seen him posting snippets of unreleased music with captions like, ‘Currently trying not to lose my mind while my entire catalogue on streaming is being nuked’. Is he being dramatic? Not really. “For the last two months, most of my music has been down on streaming services.” In some ways, the adversity has worked in his favour. For every pushback on the release of OI, his following grows exponentially. Take a look on YT’s TikTok and you’ll find posts swarmed with comments like, “#OI next month? I’ve played these games before,” and “Just drop #OI already, bro”. The people want it, and you can tell he’s relieved the uncertainty is finally over.

“I’ve never worked on a project for this long, it’s gone through so many forms,” the rapper from Romford explains. Musically, it’s a refined version of the jerk-infused SoundCloud trap he’s become known for since #STILLSWAGGIN. Released in October of 2023, the project was somewhat of a revelation for its abrasive beat selection and YT’s Y2K one-liners. Upon your first listen, the cacophonous and claustrophobic approach is difficult to wrap your head around. But singles like ‘#PURRR’ – sampling Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ – soon morph into nagging earworms you can’t ignore.

Jerk music has become an integral component of YT’s evolving sound. Not only has it allowed him to tap nostalgia and reinvent the 2010s swag aesthetic, but it’s aligned him with a growing number of artists from the UK making the genre. Emerging from metropolitan Los Angeles in 2009, its playful energy was popularised by artists like New Boyz, whose single ‘You’re a jerk’ is credited as the scene’s original anthem. Characterised by bouncy 808s, cybernetic claps and unusual snare patterns, despite its early success, the sub-genre was rendered unfashionable by the mid-2010s, and it wasn’t until years later that American artists started picking it up again.

“We’ve definitely put our stamp on it. It’s interesting to see a song originating from Cali over a decade ago having such a big effect on the UK. I’d say we’re representing the scene the most,” argues YT. Alongside artists like fakemink, EsDeeKid, Fimiguerrero, Len, Rice Ace, 5EB and SINN6R, jerk music’s convergence with British rap has found a home on social media, lurking in the algorithmic corners of TikTok and Instagram. A byproduct of this has been the unusually early adoption of the scene by America, where UK rap has historically struggled unless you’re Central Cee or Skepta.

“I see myself as an international artist. I love the UK, but in rap, I feel like there’s a ceiling here. My vision has always been beyond that,” he says. “Usually, you have to conquer the UK before approaching the US, but our scene is engaging with America on a grassroots level. For years, I’ve been going back and forth to make connections. The internet makes everything more global now.” Being persistent has broken down the fourth wall and allowed YT to perform on viral platforms like On The Radar Radio. “I’ve always been tapped into underground American music, I feel like you can be ahead of anything in the UK by being tapped into America. I was making Jersey club, but I didn’t think the UK would get it; I was too shy to release the music and then it just blew up. From that moment on I was like, ‘I’m never gonna be too shy to release something again.’”

Looking back on the last two years, YT can count #STILLSWAGGIN as a defining influence on UK rap’s current direction. Although, when asked whether he thinks he was the originator of this jerk wave, he responds cautiously. “I’m reluctant to give myself that title, I just have a genuine love for the sound,” he asserts. What’s undeniable though, is that the Lancey Foux featuring ‘Black and Tan’ was another key factor contributing to the genre’s rising popularity. As a fellow east Londoner, he has an almost biblical status among this new generation, flying the flag for a glitchier interpretation of the dark rap aesthetic popularised by Whole Lotta Red-era Playboi Carti. After sharing ‘Pocket Full of Money Got My Trousers Falling Down’ to his Instagram Story, Lancey came to one of YT’s shows and they instantly hit it off, exchanging numbers and eventually locking in a spontaneous studio session. Producer Ambezza laid down the beat and the rest is history.

“This whole UK underground or whatever people call it, this whole space that now exists, Lancey is the one that facilitated it. Everybody making alternative music in the UK growing up was listening to Lancey,” he says, “this space wouldn’t exist without him, so when I woke up to everyone texting me about the repost, I found it crazy. I remember sneaking into one of his shows back in the day, so yeah, that’s the goat!” 

Ending up on many end-of-year lists and a contender for song of the summer ‘24, the single packs in frantic percussion and jarring melodies that you can barely hear over the grating autotune. A song with so many conflicting sonic ideologies has no right to be this listenable, and yet you find yourself tuning into playful punchlines that brag about everything from shopping in Lagos to graduating from Oxford – more on that later.  The track holds up a middle finger to anyone with expectations of what UK rap should sound like. “People hate new things, people hate change. I feel like there’s such a high expectation of what music should be coming from the UK,” he says, swivelling in a leather chair having just had his glam done.  “I think we’re the ones who are trying to bring something different to the table. Art is about expressing new perspectives and challenging what people are used to. I want my music to challenge people.” Beyond grime and drill, there has been little room for innovation. Look at the quote tweets on YT’s various teaser snippets and you’ll be met with a lot of resistance from traditional hip-hop heads.  

“People hate what they can’t understand. That’s why I love what I make. Sometimes one of my snippets goes crazy on Twitter but there are a bunch of negative comments from people who are maybe reluctant take it in. Then when I drop a song six months later, I see people like, ‘Yo, this is the same guy from that snippet. I was hating on him but this one goes hard.’ The unfamiliarity makes people reject it at first but then over time they get it, and that’s a sick feeling, feeling like you’re bringing something new to the table.”

‘Prada or Celine’ certainly won people over, with the LAUZZA-directed music video offering fans of a certain age a playful form of escapism. The visuals document YT hitting up an arcade with a date and playing Just Dance, nailing a choreographed routine in Prada cups with an audience of on-lookers sporting everything from boom boxes to neon shutter glasses and New Era snapbacks. Alongside videos for ‘Black and Tan’, ‘#PURRR’ and his collaboration with Fimiguerrero, ‘MVP’, he has built out a visual universe that’s an extension of the vibrant and unfiltered music he’s known for.

The opening phrase is perhaps the single’s most poignant. “This a vision, not a dream,” declares YT before asking, “What you want girl, that Prada or Celine?” Luxury brands aside, the line hits back at anyone who doubted him. “I’ve always felt like an underdog. I know I’m good enough to make this a reality, but it was hard to convince people.” When London’s alternative rap scene started to make noise at the turn of the decade, YT put himself in the conversation with the semi-viral ‘Arc’teryx’. Released while studying Philosophy and French Literature at Oxford University, the single attracted six-figure offers from record labels. If it wasn’t for an intervention from his parents, he would have packed academia in all together. Passing with a 2/1 and crowning himself a “generational crammer”, on reflection, he recognises the importance of that period and how it made him hungrier. “My parents understand now that I’m not just some kid running around and dropping silly songs on SoundCloud,” he smiles, “They’re with me. The first time they saw the zeroes on the paper they were like, ‘Okay, this is something that he can make money from.’”

Although it might be coming in now, money was never the motivator for YT. He met his tribe early on, connecting with rappers kwes e, CMillano, phil and Namani through SoundCloud. YT would travel to Kent to make music with the collective, who went under escape plan, forming a bond that became key to his artistry. He was attending Boarding School, growing an isolated figure to pursue a vision that his classmates could never see. “When I went to uni, nobody cared for the music I was making. It wasn’t the cool thing to do there,” he says, before acknowledging, “COVID was a terrible time for everybody, but it meant I had an excuse to be stuck in my room. Me and my friends were on Discord, sharing music and eventually ‘Arc’teryx’ blew up.”

It’s been over four years since then, and you get the feeling that YT is coming into his own. The music has changed but his vision remains the same and now everyone is finally starting to take him in. As he has one final look in the mirror before hitting the shoot, his thoughts naturally trail back to the release of OI: “The process has been hard and discouraging but I’m excited and feeling inspired again, I’m happy that the project can finally take on a new life,” he explains. “The key word that kept coming up while making it was ‘fun’ and that’s how I want people to feel when listening to it. I want people to party; the goal is to shake the world with it.”