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Young MC boomeranged to the Billboard charts for the first time in more than 20 years with the October release of “Fun Part.” The track, released through his Disco Theory label, debuted at No. 38 on the Rhythmic Airplay chart, breathing new life into a stellar yet somewhat subdued career—at least compared to the late ’80s. For the uninitiated, Young MC is the pen behind the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop classic “Bust a Move” from his 1989 Stone Cold Rhymin’ album as well as two of Tone Lōc’s biggest hits, “Funky Cold Medina” and “Wild Thing” (to name a few).
While studying economics at the University of Southern California, the London-born, Queens-raised polymath met Delicious Vinyl co-founders Michael Ross and Matt Dike, who wound up delivering a contract to Young MC at his dorm room after hearing him rap on the phone. He never imagined he’d be performing to massive crowds and charting nearly 40 years into his career.
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“I’m blown away that this is all happening,” Young MC tells me. “I honestly didn’t think I could make relevant music at this point of my career. I discovered that it truly was a labor of love for me. No label was rushing to sign me. No money people were rushing to back me. I put my heart and soul into the music and let the marketplace decide. The success of ‘Fun Part’ is a promising start for me.”
The I Love The 90s Tour—which features a revolving lineup of artists like Young MC along with Vanilla Ice, All-4-One, Tone Lōc, Kid ’N Play, Color Me Badd, Tag Team, C+C Music Factory, and Rob Base—evolved into Young MC’s “cheat code” to writing music that would resonate loudly with a live audience.
“My performance actually informed my production and writing,” he explains. “It used to be that I would sit and come up with an idea for a song, create the whole song, and then hope that it would sound good on stage or have elements that would appeal to an audience. At the very least, I would take the song as it existed after the studio and then craft it in a way that it would perform well for the audience.
“After doing so many shows, I literally was going into the studios knowing that if I put this pause here and put this place for crowd response there and put this space to yell out the city here, that that would work live and that helped make the song even fuller as I was producing.”
Young MC not only has the advantage of experience but also modern technology—including artificial intelligence—which he has fully embraced. In particular, “Teresa,” his A.I. assistant, was introduced in the video for “Loose” released earlier this year. He’s integrated the character into his next single, “Kinetic.”
“There’s elements of the technology that I think are really effective,” he says. “Teresa will be giving a glossary at the beginning of the song and then also helping me through the song. It’s pretty cool. It was a great challenge to say, ‘OK, this is the technology that’s available to me. These are my songwriting and lyric-creating instincts. Let me marry the two. Let me get some synergy between the two and let’s see what comes out.’”
Young MC has decided to take a different approach with the “Kinetic” release after noticing “Know How”—one of 13 tracks on Stone Cold Rhymin’—saw a resurgence over the summer, becoming the No. 14 most Shazam’ed song in the U.K.
“‘Kinetic’ will be released just in the U.K. initially and I’m gonna put my Disco Theory spin and 57-year-old Young MC experience into it,” he says. “I’m gonna push that while ‘Fun Part’ is still doing his thing here in the States. My hope is that I can get some momentum going in the U.K. and then pull that over to be my next single in the U.S.”
If anything, Young MC defies the old adage that hip-hop is a “young man’s game.” It doesn’t have to be and, frankly, isn’t. Recent album releases like Ice Cube’s Man Down, Rakim’s G.O.D.’s Network (Reb7rth), Common and Pete Rock’s Grammy Award-nominated collaboration The Auditorium Vol. 1, LL COOL J’s The F.O.R.C.E., Tha Dogg Pound’s We All We Got (W.A.W.G.) and Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) also prove otherwise. Each of those artists, who are all in their 50s, are still rhyming at top-tier levels. Eminem’s album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 when it arrived in July with more than 281,000 total album-equivalent units sold in its first week, debunking the theory that nobody listens to rappers past their perceived (and often imaginary) “prime.”
“Maybe certain levels of contemporary hip-hop are a young man’s game, but that young man’s game is not listened to by people over a certain age,” Young MC offers. “You don’t see people really over 35 to 40 listening to a lot of contemporary hip-hop.
“I may be wrong, but it seems like once people get to 30 or so, they start outgrowing it. Or, at the very least, they hold on tighter to the stuff that was out when they were younger. Or even some of the young kids, they get a chance to listen to some of the more classic stuff, and they like that better than what they’re hearing now. They like that better than the contemporary artists.”
Young MC gets a chance to introduce younger fans to classic hip-hop every time he hits the stage, plus with the ease of streaming, many of them are digging into older catalogs.
“It’s so easy for them to access,” he points out. “It’s literally just another button push. I’m hoping if they like ‘Fun Part’ enough, they can go back and search. With YouTube, Spotify, and everything else, it’s a lot easier to track down music.
“It’s not like a label gives up on a record so it’s dead now. There are resurgences; you get the right placement or attention and all of a sudden what’s old is new again. I pride myself on making sure that every time I make a record I truly like it. It could be the last thing that I may make, so if it’s the last thing that people hear from me, I want it to hopefully be the best thing that people hear from me.”
Young MC (who is technically still “young” considering he was born Marvin Young) has weathered the myriad of changes in the music industry for five decades—and with that comes loads of lessons.
“I’ve learned that industry people use fickle opinions to play on the artist’s insecurities,” he says matter-of-factly. “Historically, well over 95% of releases don’t recoup the artist advance. So over 95% of releases can be called a failure. And make no mistake, that release is a direct reflection of the artist’s vision.
“The artist feels bad enough, but that feeling gets compounded by unsolicited opinions not only from the label but even from their own team. ‘Link up with this producer, this songwriter, this remixer…work with my friend and you’ll have another hit record. I guarantee it.’ In other words, if you don’t take the advice, you won’t have that hit record.”
But Young MC has shown multiple times he knows how to make a hit record but these days, he doesn’t have to bow down to a label or other outside entities when crafting his next song.
“I’ll take constructive input, but I always remember that these absolute opinions are formed in an industry with a success rate of less than 5%,” he says. “I’ve written four multi-platinum records over the course of three different decades. I have helped create success for myself as an artist as well as for other artists. I know my talent. I know my strengths. I could’ve been doing something else with the last 40 years of my life. There’s a reason I chose to do this.
“So the best advice that I can give to an artist from what I’ve learned is to know your talent. Know your strengths. Know what you have to get better at, and know how you need to do it.”
And like the music industry, Young MC has also witnessed the various iterations of hip-hop over the last 50 years. He could easily shun today’s current climate but instead, he retains a positive outlook.
“I have always felt hip-hop is in a great place, especially now,” he says. “It’s an established genre like rock, country, or any other genre and everyone knows it’s here to stay. That wasn’t always the case. In hip-hop, I can express myself in any way I want and bring joy to people. When I started rapping, there were no hip-hop artists with a 40-year career. Now, there are tons of us hopefully serving as examples to young artists who want to start making hip-hop music.
As for the future, Young MC is finishing a new album, working with other artists, and performing live: “I’m looking forward to 2025 more than any new year in decades. I’m excited for what’s to come.”
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