You’d be forgiven for saying “bless you,” if someone brought up the name “YG Hootie” in casual conversation.
After all, rappers come and go with alarming frequency these days. But not every rapper is on a track with King Kendrick Lamar, as YG Hootie was on his recently released “The City.” The cut features a West Coast, minimalistic beat, and Hootie alternates between a staccato delivery in his verses and what is sure to be a catch phrase for millennials on the hook: “I get love in the city.”
All of this brings up the question of who in the world is YG Hootie, where did he come from, and how is he different from a certain other West Coast rapper with a forceful flow and 90% similar name?
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This Bompton, Homie
Just like YG 400, Hootie also hails from Compton, California and proudly reps his city and home state on songs like “Sunny California.” Also like YG 400, he’s affiliated with the Bloods, and can be seen sporting red on his album, Young Compton.
Hootie & Kenny
“The City” isn’t his first collaboration with K Dot. YG Hootie and Kendrick go way back — they’re actually childhood friends. In 2013, Hootie featured Kendrick on “2 Presidents,” a track which imagines the two as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The song ended up on Hootie’s 2014 album, Destroy & Rebuild.
Brickkkkk Squadddd
YG Hootie is signed to Brick Squad Monopoly, which was founded by Waka Flocka Flame and is a subsidiary of Gucci Mane’s 1017 Brick Squad Records. He has released several singles and four full-length projects, starting with 2013’s Interstate Trafficking. He dropped Destroy & Rebuild and Young Compton in 2014, and his last full-length release was Red Zepplin in 2015. His sound combines West Coast sentiments with a modern-trap feel, such as on the catchy single “Cholo.”
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Pardon His Presidential
Hootie is here to remind you that Dubya is from Compton. The cover art of “The City” features George W. Bush in Compton as a child. “Compton gets a lot of bad press which shapes the perception of our city, but most never know George Bush and his family once resided here,” YG Hootie told Complex. “They even went as far to suppress the fact, but you gotta give it up for The City.”
YG Hootie’s next project, Hubris, is due out Nov. 11.
