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28 March 2024

New kid on the block

(SUPPLIED)

Published
By Olivia Griffiths

"Yes, I'm a loser. 'Cos I don't look like everyone else round here. Yes, I'm a loser."

The opening lyrics from thumping tune Loser set the tone for my interview with up-and-coming Dubai rap artist Young Vaughn. Somewhat unconventional, this 20-year-old Filipino prides himself on retaining core hip-hop values, while embracing new genres and creating his own unique sound.

Having released his first mixtape – The Green Screen – this January, and with the recent free-download release of his album, The New School Cool, he's been steadily making a name for himself on Dubai's underground scene. He is performing live with some help from his rap collective The Recipe, which features six MCs, a beatboxer and a DJ.

For one so young, Young Vaughn has an invaluable attitude that sets him apart from his peers; being yourself is one of life's most important lessons, despite the critics. With the emphasis on individuality, he's been sure to spread the word, setting up his own free summer school for kids across the UAE, hip-hop 101, with fun, educational classes from graffiti design to learning to write hip-hop rhymes and the opportunity for martial arts and basketball.

This interview proves Vaughn is an ambitious rising star; the only way is up for this so-called "loser".


You've just released your debut album as a free download; what can people expect from The New School Cool?

Different stuff. The evolution of music, but still basically hip-hop. Just me trying different things, crushing different genres of music: new rave, electro, heavy metal, but still bringing the hip-hop thing. It's called the The New School Cool but I'm trying to bring that old-school vibe back. Not necessarily to the music but the energy that rappers – back in the day that I listened to – brought.

What made you decide to do this instead of taking the traditional record label route?

Well, I thought it'd be what my fan base wants, because a lot of artists here release albums from, like, two labels when no one knows them yet. I feel like this is my little, you know, when people go around with banners or posters or whatever, just basically promotional, free music.

How did you raise the money to record?

We did it with no budget really, we just did it. We did it at a studio with basically no budget at all. That was our aim, just to make a good album.

With the current economic climate, people are looking to invest in the music industry; have you witnessed this? Is it easier for artists to break through nowadays?

Yeah, it's like a catch 22 thing because commercially, in terms of CDs, it's gone down but now everyone's really looking at digital sales. I think young artists like me should all take advantage of the internet because you can make your own video station and be your own promoter, everything. You can set up your own TV show on YouTube now. I say take advantage of it because most of the artists that I find, I find on the internet. Even artists like Lady Gaga, she started out doing burlesque shows in New York and doing her own TV shows online, and built a fan base from that.

What kind of reception did your first mixtape, The Green Screen, receive in January this year?

It was pretty good. I expected like a thousand downloads but by the end of the month, it had about 3,000 downloads. It's still going now; in fact, the download count has started growing again, because after The New School Cool everyone got more interested about what was before that. The day after I released it, I went through a lot of blogs, because I feel like I'd rather be talked about in blogs than be played on MTV; blogs are real people talking about you and how they feel about your music. I was reading a French blog where they reviewed my mixtape, which is pretty cool.

Your Myspace page says you no longer look to music artists as inspiration; do you think that mainstream hip-hop has gotten stale?

That's a pretty tough question because the mainstream nowadays has a lot of mainstream hip-hop like Flo Rida and T Pain but I feel like the underground guys are rising and starting new trends. Like when Kanye West came out, he was this kid that no one understood and now everything he does, everyone does. A lot of underground guys have got big because of the internet.

What particular prejudice have you faced as a young artist such a tough industry?

Being young, people don't really understand you, they look at you like maybe you don't know what to do when you're signing a deal or something. At first they don't really take you seriously. Another thing is that I wasn't signed and there are a lot of artists around here, there's not quite a stigma, but they look down on you. So basically, I said to myself – "Okay, I'll sign myself, do my own thing" – and started releasing free albums online to show that I actually know how to make music and I'm a real artist. Everything then kind of turned 180 degrees.

With the release of your album, you're also running a free summer workshop for kids, Hip-Hop 101. What's that about?

I'm trying to show kids what hip-hop has done for us and we should all be our own individual – just choose what you want to do and do want you want to do. We want to make the kids feel they are a part of hip-hop, because what the media is feeding us about hip-hop, is violence and we want to defeat that stereotype.

 

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