North Carolina rapper Well$ is back with a new single, "Young Man," his first release since he and fellow Charlottean Deniro Farrar dropped off the bracing remix and accompanying video to "98 Juvie," one of Well$' biggest track. "Young Man" finds the forward-thinking emcee exploring a new sonic direction, enlisting the help of the NC indie duo Sylvan Esso, made up of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, the latter whom also assists on the song's production, along with Jimmy Kelso, also from NC.
From the above description, one might expect "Young Man" to be some Starbucks sh*t or something. Not even close. Well$ rips through a ferocious verse, dissecting the painful place from which his young male bravado originates. He emphatically finishes with the line, "In my hood we praise trap n*ggas and all the dope dealers," and then enters Sylvan Esso with a haunting refrain to close out the song. The dark, hypnotic production seems to sample Juicy J and The Weeknd's "One of Those Nights." This is the type of cross-genre collab that brings something special into the game. Big up NC!
Due to his musical upbringing, Well$ felt that it made sense to reach out to Sylvan Esso.
"I'm a by-product of the iPod and iPhone generation. Our taste ain't really dictated by genre; it's a big shuffle," he tells us. "I still remember when I got my first iPod Nano in '09, listening to The Cool Kids, Kid Cudi, and Pac Div, right next to Feist, CocoRosie, and Cat Power."
"I want to make music that reflects that reality," he continues, "So doing a song with Sylvan Esso feels natural to me. And it's also a way to unify North Carolina's music scene, which tends to be a little too segregated for my taste."
"Young Man" is set to appear on Well$' next project, The Way I'm Living Makes My Mom Nervous.
Quotable Lyrics
Tellin' me I struggle the same, but I don't feel it
You a knife in the gunfight, I'm prolly gonna kill ya
In my hood we praise trap n*ggas and all the dope dealers
