Directed by Jay Mavaz
Wow. If this joint doesn’t hit you in the chest, you may not have a heartbeat.
I’ve known YP for close to 10 years now. He’s been around since the inception of FSD — one of the first artists we really got behind in our early days. He supported us from day one. Literally. He’s one of the most talented and hardest working artists I’ve met during my time — not to mention just a good dude I’ve always enjoyed supporting and keeping in contact with.
His career, like most people in this business, has been a roller coaster. Peaks and valleys. Incredible highs and unbearable lows. He signed a high profile deal with Universal Records in early 2012, just as the Chicago market began to take off in a major way. But this tale didn’t have a storybook ending. Far from it, in fact.
The messed up thing about the music business, is that hardly anyone talks about this losses. The lows don’t exist in public. In this social media era where everyone’s lives are carefully crafted and displayed online, very few people tell you the real. You see the good, but never hear about the bad. Today, however, YP bucks that trend by giving us some truth serum on “Dear Life” — a reflection into his career and what really happened on his journey for the good life. It’s not all glamour and glitz, and all that glitters isn’t gold.
This is probably the most honest record we’ve ever posted on FSD. It’s YP pouring his lifetime in between the paper’s lines. He’s giving you the real. You wanna know what happened in his career, and what got him to this point? Then press play on this record. This is honest, and this is what hip-hop should be. This is subject matter that everyone can relate to. Life isn’t always easy, but just know there are others out there going through the same thing — YP just chose his platform to share his journey. I thank him for that.
I hope you listen. You need to. It’s imperative you do. YP would appreciate it.