From Sincerely Kentrell to Colors, NBA YoungBoy is ruling Billboard.
With Colors, Never Broke Again YoungBoy debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 this week. The Baton Rouge rapper’s latest album “Colors” sold 79,000 equivalent album units, including 77,000 in streaming equivalent album units (118.56 million on-demand streams of the tracks), 2,000 in album sales, and the rest in track equivalent album units. This one is NBA YoungBoy’s eighth top ten finish, all of which he has accomplished in less than four years.
But NBA YoungBoy’s journey which appears so flashy and successful is also filled with some tumultuous events & rash decisions. YoungBoy, or YB to his most devoted followers, has been in and out of jail since he was a youngster, and detained in his native state of Louisiana, awaiting trial on accusations of felon in possession of a firearm. He has been labelled a “threat to the community” by federal prosecutors. On October 26, 2021, he was finally freed from prison after posting $1.5 million bail.
According to MRC Data, Billboard’s monitoring arm, YoungBoy’s intensely gloomy music has been played more than six billion times since last September, including over one billion video views, but just 55,000 radio airplay spins in the same timeframe. He often outperforms musicians like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift on YouTube, where he has over 10 million subscribers and has released nearly 100 music videos since 2016.
YoungBoy’s last album, “Sincerely, Kentrell” — named after his real name, Kentrell D. Gaulden — achieved the rap star fourth No. 1 on the Billboard list in less than two years. In the meanwhile, he topped the charts with two more mixtapes, an indisputable run that has cemented him as a poster child for a new form of streaming-era popularity, despite his status as an industry outcast of exception.
Sincerely, Kentrell (2021) was released from jail in September 2021, and it immediately hit the charts, giving him the third rapper, after 2Pac and Lil Wayne, to record a chart-topping album while imprisoned. “Sincerely, Kentrell” finished its first week with 137,000 total units, just beating out Drake’s fourth-week sales of “Certified Lover Boy.” That debut also outperformed the much-anticipated debut album “Montero” by Lil Nas X, who has been well praised for his marketing prowess. And, despite his chart rivals, YoungBoy did not include any guest appearances on his album, at a time when buzzy collaborations are regarded to be a shortcut to streaming for would-be blockbusters. That’s the effect of the NBA YoungBoy music & his fanboys to takeover Drake most awaited album “CLB”.
NBA YoungBoy rose to prominence the year he was arrested back in 2016. Before the month he got arrested in connection with an alleged drive-by shooting, on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, NBA released a series of mixtapes featuring “Before I Go”, “Mind of a Menace”, and “Mind of a Menace 2” that made him popular among the teens.
YoungBoy’s mixtape 38 Baby, released in October 2016, was an instant sensation, including fellow Baton Rouge locals Boosie Badazz and Kevin Gates, as well as other artists Stroke Tha Don and NBA 3Three. His smash hit mixtape ’38 Baby,’ which has amassed millions of youtube views. Following that, he engaged in a “song-for-song rap beef” with another Baton Rouge rapper Scotty Cain.
YoungBoy released the smash hit song ‘Untouchable’ within a week after his release from prison in May 2017. On the Billboard Hot 100 list, the song reached number 95. He then released a video for his song “41.”
YoungBoy’s career shot off like a rocket with the release of his single “Outside Today” in 2018. The song went on to become his career’s highest-charting tune, debuting at number 35 on the Billboard Hit 100. YoungBoy’s debut studio album, ‘Until Death Call My Name,’ is set to be released in April 2018.
The completely freestyled songs, which are packed with anguish, menace, and regrets, are based on the tumultuous existence of someone trying to change – an explosive combination of street politics, unending personal misery, and unexpected wealth. YoungBoy, who was raised by his grandmother in north Baton Rouge, Louisiana, dropped out of school in ninth grade and began rapping at the age of 14 using a Walmart microphone.
NBA Youngboy’s meteoric is nothing short of a phoenix rising from ashes. Even after releasing most of his songs under being eyes of law enforcement, he is crashing the records. Backed by his loyal fanbase, the Kentrell rapper is always on the charts. Comparing his fanbase as loyal as BTS the VP of Black Music Atlantic Records he said” “I haven’t really seen something like this in hip-hop. He hasn’t always been the artist that some of the gatekeepers have let into these other spaces. That makes his fan base even more rabid.”
To ignite and magnify their current grass-roots marketing activities, label officials maintained collaborative group conversations with the rapper’s fanatical fan sites on social media. YoungBoy’s musical brain trust enlisted the cooperation of those same fans to compile the tracklist.
They also utilized fan-generated names from what is known as snippets in the rap scene — unreleased, fragmentary copies of unreleased songs that may have been played in transit on Instagram and then drooled for by fans for months, if not years.
But right now NBA Youngboy isn’t having a good time with his record label as he claims that they are blackballing him. In a YouTube Community post, the rapper addressed the subject. The Baton Rouge rapper takes to his 11 million-subscriber YouTube channel to criticize Atlantic Records for attempting to “Black Ball” him.
“I was going #1 two weeks straight with a mixtape so they took it down off the charts I don’t give a f**k you still can’t stop me,” reads the screenshot. “Don’t sign to Atlantic if you artist they not gone support you especially if you live a certain way.” In the caption of the post, the rapper said, “Why blackball me I’m the good guy. ”
Talking about his latest offering Colors, NBA is making news with his shots at Late King Von, NLE Choppa & Lil Durk. NBA YoungBoy beef between NLE Choppa and Lil Durk is heating up. The Louisiana rapper has released two songs, “Bring The Hook” and “Know Like I Know,” that many think are diss tracks directed at Choppa and Durk, since the start of the new year.
YoungBoy shared a snapshot of himself posing on the floor next to his money, which spelled out an unsettling phrase, to his Instagram account on Wednesday (Jan. 19).
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NBA YoungBoy is reportedly taking a six-month vacation from the public eye while he prepares his third studio album, following the release of his Colors mixtape.
NBA Youngboy being 22, is a promising talent as his albums show. With so much story to tell with his experiences, he is a rapper to watch out for. His latest Colors is doing well and we hope that NBA YoungBoy is bringing some masterpieces after his six-month sabbatical.
