Yalee isn't the average rapper. He's a skilled MC who prays a lot because he's been through a lot. The Ohio-bred spitta's M.O. is to inspire and uplift anyone in need with the powerful, authentic substance within his music, especially his latest body of work.
Last month, Yalee released his four-track EP My Outside Is Different. Each song on the project stems from a series of traumatic events that changed his life. The 28-year-old not only poured his soul into his latest collection of songs, but he also brought all his uplifting rhymes to life in his short film.
"The short film is basically me telling my story basically 10 years ago," Yalee says during his visit to the iHeartRadio office in Miami. "So I have somebody playing me. But yeah, so 'God Stay With Me' is the first song. So it's like the setting of what the hood vibes were. And then the second one is ‘Candles’ That's when you go in the house and the lights cut off and there ain't no heat. So you got to use the oven for heat and candles to see, and then I'll show you when I watch my friend get killed in front of me."
In one scene in "Candles," you can see Yalee's younger and present self covered in blood after he discovers his friend was shot in front of his home.
The film continues with the project's title track where he deals with the aftermath of the shooting. Yalee croons about how he felt after he witnessed the shooting over the somber piano keys. He stirs up an array of emotions when he indicates how fragile his mental state after he asks why nobody is checking in on him when he cares about every person in his life.
He concludes with his song "Mental Health," in which he reflects on the day he learned his grandmother was killed. He details the toll her death and all the other tragic events in his life impacted his mentality. It even features a heartbreaking message from his late "Mimi."
“I feel like with a song, it's like my story,” Yalee tells iHeartRadio. “So it's like me trying to paint a picture with my words and make you feel it. And then the movie part is really without the music, but the music is there because it's a music video, but you want to try to act it out so you can get more of the emotion. So it's two different things. I can get my point across with just the song, but having the video is the icing on the cake.”
Yalee has been making music for the past eight years, but it wasn't until 2019 when he finally began to deliver music with pure substance. In his eyes, the "substance" consists of inspirations lyrics in songs like "Just Love Yourself" or dark verses that are inspired by some of the most grueling details about detrimental events from his childhood like his latest project. It's his first collection of songs in three years following his 2020 project Hood POP.
The Ohio native recently performed a mixture of his new and older hits when he recently opened up for Lil Xan during an intimate show in Los Angeles. Throughout his set, he interacted with the crowd and got them to open up about some the worst things that's happened to them in an effort to help them heal.
"You going to feel vulnerable," Yalee said. "Because I like to talk about the pain that I went through and I know that somebody else in the crowd went through something. So just therapy… therapeutic and warm, happy to feel included. You come to my show, you're going to feel real included."
Listen to Yalee's new EP My Outside Is Different on iHeartRadio now!