Tag: YUNGMORPHEUS

YUNGMORPHEUS’ Lush and Dusky “Playin’ the Same Game” is a Depiction of a Day in the Life of a Hustler in the Rap Game

YUNGMORPHEUS, photo courtesy the artist

YUNGMORPHEUS creates a distinctive mood on “Playin’ the Same Game” setting the scene with a narrative of a world of striving in the black market economy. The beat is like an after hours jazz vibe with what sounds like some choice Hammond B3 work in the background and detailed cymbal sounds. The vocals are almost hushed in relating tales of being a hustler who is producing joints for other artists and juggling other income streams and living the life of someone making music from an authentic place, trying to be an artist with integrity while seeing plenty of wannabes come and go with their image in place and people trying to undermine each other in the way that happens too often in a social scene where some people think they’re not succeeding unless they’re climbing successfully over someone else and at times denigrating and underplaying their skills and achievements. But in YUNGMORPHEUS’ voice he’s seen this all before and he’s maintaining and sustaining through the low times and those that may seem like things are going well when the entire time the carpet can be yanked from underneath you. Listen to “Playin’ the Same Game” on Spotify and follow YUNGMORPHEUS at the links provided.

YUNGMORPHEUS on Bandcamp

YUNGMORPHEUS Contemplates the Virtues of Keeping an Even Keel in Life’s Storms of Highs and Lows on “Sonny’s Triangle”

“Sonny’s Triangle” by YUNGMORPHEUS is a little like the inversion of the standard hip-hop song arrangement. It begins with a voice sample of an older man giving some dubious advice to a younger person that has some harsh truth about basically not being able to completely depend on anyone else but yourself so take care with your actions. Then the song eases into a loop like a downtempo production on late period Sly and the Family Stone funk sample all while there’s a leisurely rap opining introspectively on how trying to take short cuts in life didn’t really get him ahead and how discerning between what’s real and what’s performative and boastful. The contemplation further offers how all the choices one makes come with conditions and consequences and how being involved in anything important can put pressures on you that can push you to the breaking point but that if you weather these highs and lows and try not to believe too much in how either will be ongoing and reliable. It’s a song about being realistic about what happens in life and staying focused on doing what matters and keeping an even keel rather than being too caught up in the high of success and the despair of perceived failure. Listen to “Sonny’s Triangle” on YouTube and follow YUNGMORPHEUS at the links below.

YUNGMORPHEUS on Bandcamp

YUNGMORPHEUS Chooses Integrity and Living According to One’s Moral Compass on “Distant Place”

“Distant Place” finds YUNGMORPHEUS dabbling into the similar realms of intuitive musical spaces that Flying Lotus dipped into in terms of the seemingly casual flow of jazz samples and tightly syncopated drums with impressionistic vocals that seem to tell the story of a guy who had to get out of realms of work and life situations that required compromising one’s integrity. It sounds like the kind of music you’d want to hear if you got off a New York subway late in the evening but not ready to go home and stumbled into a residency of a hip-hop crew that’s doing something rooted in classic style and experimentation and inspired by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest and Cannibal Ox. Listen to “Distant Place” on Spotify and follow YUNGMORPHEUS at the links below. The project’s new EP Burnished Sums dropped on November 18, 2022.