Young Lit Hippy
Los Angeles, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2019 | SELF | AFM
Music
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From Portland, Oregon, Young Lit Hippy has an uplifting catchy soul vibe to his music, along with a very unique voice and lyrics. He has built a buzz throughout the city by opening for artists such as Snoop Dogg, Curren$y, Riff Raff, Camron, The Underachievers, G-Herbo, Smoke DZA, Nyck Caution and more under his alter ego “Mic Mar”.
During that time Young Lit Hippy released his most popular music video “Good Morning” which has reached about 15k views from purely the local buzz. After that the music kept moving, and fast.
Young Lit Hippy took a hiatus after his last project he released summer of 2018 “The Bird EP”. Focused on creating a better structure and sound for his music he has been out in Los Angeles working in the studio.
August 8th, 2019 Young Lit Hippy dropped his first song since his hiatus called "Adding Up" featuring the very unique producing duo ED1T. Since then the song is now his most popular one to date racking up over 60k plays on Spotify. He has also recently released another track "Can - Not" in October that has around 3k plays at this time. He also had his first show in a year on November 1st, in Los Angeles at the Blackbox Theater. According to some of his latest posts on Instagram it looks like he will be dropping some visuals soon as well. We hope its to "Adding Up".
What does the word rebel mean to you?
To me it means someone that does things their own way, and isn’t pressured by society to conform.
Who’s your top 3 rebels?
I would have to say Edward Snowden, Martin Luther King Jr. and Tupac
What’s the most rebellious thing you’ve ever done?
It’s hard to say for sure, but one time I did break into my school after hours and vandalized the gymnasium. It was nothing permanent but definitely was a pain in the ass for the staff. I was never caught.
Website: www.younglithippy.com
Facebook: @younglithippy/
Instagram: @younglithippy/
Twitter: @younglithippy - The Rebel Buzz
Sometimes the old adages still apply. In particular, the saying that “you can’t judge a book by its cover” continues to resonant through the centuries. I was recently reminded of this fact when I was fortunate enough to come across Young Lit Hippy’s new single “Superman” and decided to go against my knee jerk reaction of dismissing it as some mumble rap madness that I’m not really trying to hear right now.
Once I pressed play on the single, I found myself nodding along to a very expressive, mid-tempo hip-hop spark that was completely constructed by the enterprising Portland artist. On the cool-out single, Young Lit cautiously tests the waters of his growing success and finds himself holding even tighter to what keeps him grounded as a person. Showing a musical aesthetic that’s more in line with a performer like Rapsody than it is with someone like Young Bans, Young Lit Hippy showcases magnetic relatability on “Superman”. He avoids getting wrapped up in an overly self-loving (or self-loathing) mire on the aspiring anthem. And the production is a stripped-down combination of chunky, SP-1200 styled drums, some ghostly keys that phase in and out of focus, and an occasional jazz-flute scale.
A recurring theme of "Superman" is YLH's desire to see through the facade and expectations of others with superhuman clarity. In his own words, he explains " 'Superman' is about having an open mind to seeing the true reality instead of your own personal reality. People, especially in my genre of music, are pressured to be flashy. In the song I explain, they’re telling me to wear this, I should get that... but in my heart I feel that’s not my desire so why should I do it?"
Those are some wise words indeed, which not only apply to a young rap artist on the rise but also to an "old head" rap critique looking to keep his love affair with the ever-changing genre alive and thriving.
"Superman" is available now on all streaming services. - Marvin Twiggs
Discography
I don't want to talk about it, I'm all about that action yeah/ look for satisfaction until I do I keep on adding up/ stack it up and build it up until I feel it's real enough/ fall in love with things and at the same time they be killing us/ Get it it's the perfect time/ perfect time for getting mine/ learning how to minimize so my life can be supersized/ I know that they be mad at us, all these things be adding up/ I know that they be mad at us, all these things be adding up
Verse 1 (Young Lit Hippy)
Not doing this for the fame
next level is super saiyan
balling like a shot caller swerving on them like I'm Dame
when I'm in the neighborhood I realized that I had it good
but I took advantage until now I never understood
I felt I had to make it up, and that's why I had to change it up
they showing us the way but dammit they ain't making us
Fucking with my conscious When I'm listening to nonsense
I don't live on a promise I just get what I want that's why I got it
That's real, I put that shit on everything, everything, that's how I learned to cherish things/
Word of mouth is how I got me where I'm at/
I'm tired of putting a lot in where I never get back and that's a shame/
yeah, yeah that's a shame/ (yah ooh)
Chorus
Get it it's the perfect time/ perfect time for getting mine/ learning how to minimize so my life can be supersized/ I know that they be mad at us, all these things be adding up/ I know that they be mad at us, all these things be adding up
x2
Second Verse (Young Lit Hippy)
All these things be adding up
Life’s just like a movie get the camera
Trials and tribulations could’ve brought me down
Instead it made me better with a newer sound
Real or fake tell me what’s the difference
Cause lately I can’t tell what their intention is
Refuse to be controlled by a system
No longer feeling sorry as a victim
Show only through action you can count on us
Big difference from a rookie to an amateur
The plot thickens this god given its prewritten
I needed distance from people wanting the Wrong attention
Things in life seem old but new
It’s seems like life repeats itself
And I just noticed the loop
Run it up I double up I can be the one too
If you around fake people then truly that’s on you
Photos
Bio
Young Lit Hippy was born in Ventura, California and after his parents divorced he moved to the Northwest at the age of 8. For the next couple years there was a period of moving around going from Vancouver, Wa to Phoenix, Arizona then back up to Vancouver where he was raised into adulthood. During that time living in Vancouver, his Dad lived in Portland, Oregon so he would bounce back and forth from his mom’s to his Dad's house on weekends until he was old enough to drive, being able to go back and forth as he pleased. Young Lit Hippy went to Skyview Highschool where he mostly focused on sports and his main passion until senior year. During senior year he started getting more into creating music. Creating beats on fruity loops and taking beats from soundclick, and writing songs he would burn CD’s and hand them out to people in school. He also joined a videographer class where he created his first ever music video.
Going to college directly out of highschool Young Lit Hippy decided to drop out and work full time and focus on music. During that time period Young Lit Hippy went under a different alias and was working on music and partying. Most times while throwing a party at his apartment he would be working on music at the same time. During that two year span he created over 80 songs and released a few projects through Datpiff and hard copies. Nothing was very successful but he was consistently working on his sound and growing as an artist. Everytime he would release a new project it was clearly way better than the last one.
Around his third year of creating music he started doing local shows in Vancouver and Portland. Through that he was steadily gaining a local buzz through the community. He decided to quit his full time job to work for a local radio station where he would film podcast episodes and do intern work. During that time he met a lot of other local artists which ended up putting him right into the Portland Hip Hop scene. From those connections he ended up doing bigger shows opening up established artists such as Snoop Dogg, Curren$y, Riff Raff, and The Underachievers. Also he landed a feature with Keak Da Sneak which he put on his album, but under a different alias, lost into the abyss of the internet.
In 2016 he released his first official music video under his current name Young Lit Hippy which gained over 16k views. Shortly after that Young Lit Hippy set up and organized his own independent tour through 5 states including attending the festival SXSW where he met the production duo ED.1T (who would end up producing Young Lit Hippy’s most popular song to date “Adding Up”). Even with this blessing the tour ended up not being successful, but was a huge learning lesson in this stage of his career. The next year Young Lit Hippy would take a hiatus from shows and release music until 2018 where he released his song “Late Nights”. With no promotion behind the song it only hit around 1500 plays. Feeling lost and in search of guidance, Young Lit Hippy decided to leave the Northwest and go to the music hub Los Angeles.
During the first 8 months of living in Los Angeles Young Lit Hippy was living in his car. Living off $5 a day and looking for a day job. Eventually he found a job working at a flower shop which he ended up living in for 3 months. Through that he found another job where he ended up meeting the rap artist Dyve (who is now known for the song “That’s my shit”) which was recognized by the pro wrestler and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and playlisted on Spotify’s Dwayne Johnson’s Iron Paradise Tour Playlist which gained 1.5 million streams.
Dyve and Young Lit Hippy clicked immediately and started to make songs together and eventually moved into a spot with other friends of Dyve. That year Young Lit Hippy released his most successful song to date “Adding Up” produced by ED.1T which has now reached over 201k plays on Spotify. Shortly after Young Lit Hippy released his song featuring Dyve called “Siked” along with other solo songs that did decent numbers comparably to songs in the beginning stages of his career. After these releases Young Lit Hippy started doing local shows in the Los Angeles area to create a buzz. Within only a few months the performing venues became shut down because of the coronavirus. During that time Young Lit Hippy decided to dive deeper into the engineering and production side of music more and ended up releasing 41 songs which included 4 projects. Within those projects his song “Superman” was recognized and posted by the blog Earmilk and his most successful project release was the last one titled “Psychological Warfare” which now has gained over 243k streams.
Young Lit Hippy’s second single of 2021 “Summer’s Over” released on the official last day of summer, September 22nd. Featuring the artist and Tik Tok sensation Audrie Powell.
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