The YBN crew is taking over the rap world, joining the A$AP Crew, Brockhampton and TDE as one of the biggest rap crews around. It’s only early days for the crew in terms of success with their debut mixtape YBN: The Mixtape only released last year but they have been in existence since 2014.
YBN actually didn’t begin with rap on the mind, in fact they were a gaming crew. Nahmir met Almighty Jay while gaming on Grand Theft Auto V. From there, Nahmir introduced Almighty Jay to his friend Glizzy who he'd’ met through Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.
The crew began by gaining notoriety on the internet as gamers. They would upload gaming videos to YouTube and stream via Twitch.tv garnering a pretty huge following. Nahmir and Almighty Jay were the first to change direction, eventually recording a song together in 2015 and the rest is history. The whole crew is now signed and they are catching some huge success on the charts right now. Before they’re household names, we thought we’d give you a crash course in some of the most notable players in the crew right now.
YBN Nahmir
As the founder, it’s only right that Nahmir was the first to catch success in the group. Back in 2017, he nabbed a viral hit with Rubbin Off The Paint. He crashed into the top 50 of the Billboard charts and used the money to move to LA with some of the other crew members too. That song now has over 160 million streams on Spotify but it’s been eclipsed by Mixtape song Bounce Out With That.
Last year, Nahmir was named as one of the XXL Freshmen for the year and went onto have a pretty big year. He went big once again with Almighty Jay and also collaborated with Bhad Bhabie on the remix for Hi Bich. He’s started off this year right with Baby 8 out today and also has world tour plans. In May, he’ll tour Australia for the first time.
YBN Almighty Jay
Following in Nahmir’s footsteps, Almighty Jay is currently pitching to be an XXL Freshman for 2019 and he might just do it. The 19-year-old was also one of the founding members of the group and featured prominently on the group’s debut mixtape.
He’s now kicked off the year on a strong note with his new single Let Me Breathe. The song deals honestly with his newfound fame and touches on everything from his newborn son to featuring on gossip sites.
YBN Cordae
21-year-old Maryland rapper Cordae used to be known as Entendre, releasing three mixtapes under that name, before becoming a part of the YBN crew. He gained initial notoriety by releasing remixes of songs like My Name Is by Eminem and also went viral for an LA Leakers freestyle. Following that, he made his debut on stage with YBN Nahmir and Almighty Jay at Rolling Loud in Miami and has toured with JuiceWRLD on a massive US tour.
2018 was a landmark year for Cordae as he released his biggest hit to date Kung Fu. Kung Fu is currently sitting at close to 60 million streams on Spotify. It was produced by Take A Daytrip, the NY production duo who also produced songs for Sheck Wes, 6lack and JuiceWRLD last year. He’s already followed it up strong this year with Locationships and Have Mercy. It’s going to be a big year for Cordae.
YBN Glizzy
Glizzy was part of the original gaming squad with Nahmir and Almighty Jay. He’s yet to officially release music to streaming platforms but has had some huge hits online. Last year’s Glizzy Hella Geekin raised 4.4 million views on the World Star Hip-Hop YouTube. By the end of this year we’re probably going to be hearing a lot more about Glizzy.
YBN Day Day
It’s difficult to pull up a lot of information on Day Day but he managed to appropriate B.I.N.G.O into an actual rap tune so he’s automatically got our full attention.