YongeFame Original Interview

Welcome Yongefame to the studio, upcoming Toronto artist, please tell me a little bit about your song 3vil 3ye…

3vil 3ye is just about people evil eyeing me, evil eyeing other people that are trying to reach success right? So that's what I wrote the song about cause I was feeling like a lot of people in my life didn't want me to reach a certain level past them, but to me it's just me versus myself there's no competition out there with anybody so yeah.

How has your creative process changed compared to your first single?

It’s changed a lot. I feel like I developed as an artist in a lot different ways. I've kind of taken control over most aspects actually, I produce, I engineer, and I also ghost write here and there a little bit. So that's kind of cool, at the beginning it was just for me but now I'm able to do more for others, so I guess it changed in the way where I'm able to be more valuable in the industry.

Where does most of your inspiration come from?

Depression…Depression because when I was younger when I was roughly 16 or 15 I was going through a lot of depression and I didnt have any coping methods the only coping methods I had was weed, alcohol, sex, and music but music was the best one out of all of them Im just keeping it real thats just how it was.

So when did you realise okay music is what I gotta do?

Honestly, I tried a lot of different things, like I was in school for, I went to Humber actually and I was studying being an electrician and it didn't work out for me got my ass shocked off a latter and I was like fuck that I am not doing this anymore and I stuck to just music cause I feel like thats what I’m passionate about I could wake up spend 12-15 hours in the studio and be fine with it vs me spending 12-15 hours working elsewhere, its just my passion something I truly love.

Who is your support system and how important are they to you as an artist?

My support system would be my artist friends, but mainly CRZ which consists of Cruz, Mez, Simba, which is my closest, friend I met him in highschool and my girlfriend. Those are my main support systems for my music they’ve always motivated me throughout most of my music career so I do appreciate them a lot.

What role does your upbringing play in regards to your self expression and music style?

Lifes always been hard from the beginning. my moms a single mom, my dads been around and stuff but like my moms the one who raised me mostly so I've always had to see her struggle and I've always wanted to give back to her in a bigger way than just you know give back, I wanted to do everything, I wanna give her the life she’s always wanted so that's kind of my motivation I guess.

She's a PSW. She took care of a lot of people during the pandemic and she's the strongest person I know.

What would you say your demographic is and how do you hope to influence people with your music?

My demographic I believe is ages from 18-35. I guess just wanna help people cope with whatever they’re going through and I make a lot of songs that are relatable to a lot of people because I feel like a lot of artists just talk about turning up and all this other shit-it’s cool and all it’s nice to turn up and vibe out with your friends but it's also good to kind of get in touch with how you’re really feeling and I feel like a lot of artists that I listen to just help me out through a lot of hardship like X rest in peace X, rest in peace Juice, rest in peace to all the crazy amazing artists that made an impact on my life and the life of millions. I just kind of want to make an impact on people’s lives in a positive way.

What makes you different from the other artists emerging out of the Toronto scene?

Learning how to do everything myself, learning how to be a one man show. Obviously it's great to have other people involved in your creative process, but it's good to learn as much as you can for yourself so you can be valuable in this industry. The more you learn the more valuable you become.

My music is a little different, I love Toronto’s own flow, but I don’t talk about gun violence, I don’t talk about women too much unless it’s a lovely dovey kind of feel. I try to stray away from the city and kind of work on my own craft.

Do you feel like you’ve gained any inspiration or motivation seeing people like The Weekend pop off from Scarborough or even our own Drake who's been around for like forever?

Yeah, honestly, I gain a lot of inspiration from them because they were literally in my position. I remember The Weekend being poor, literally on the streets, and now look at where he’s at, right so, it gives me hope I can one day be at that level.

What’s your favourite thing about live performance?

Ill be real with you, I love live performances but I get very nervous before a live performance but I just like when the crowd engages with me and hypes me up, it makes me wanna stay on stage and give a better performance.

What is the main message you hope to bring to the table with your music?

The main message that I bring to the table, to the people who listen to my music is they’re not alone. You’re not alone, you know you may be going through whatever, not too sure, but you're not alone cause I’m going through the same thing and a lot of successful people in life are probably going through the same thing. So, I wanna tell my audience they’re not alone, we’re all in the same fuckin boat.

Correct me if I’m wrong but Truth is one of your first songs, do you feel like you’ve changed as an artist since that song or the meaning behind the music has changed?

Most definitely. I changed a lot, I kind of just realised the truth behind myself and behind my music and what I wanna do and what message I wanna put out there. Before I was kind of just experimental, I would like make pop, reggaeton, and make different types of music and I love that type of music, nothing against that music but I feel like this is more my style and my sound so I stuck with it.

Can you explain a little bit more about what you’ve done for other artists?

Well I’ve collabed, I’ve also produced for a couple artists, and I engineered for a couple artists, just a little bit of everything

When you do give back to other artists, what is your favourite part?

Seeing them enjoy whatever I put out, whatever I’ve created. It’s nice to have a creation be valued.

Any new projects on the horizon?

I wanna surprise everybody with what I got coming out. Expect to go on a journey with me.