Yella Beezy

Simultaneously street and country with an elastic, no-nonsense flow, Yella Beezy represents the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. Active since the early 2010s, he released several mixtapes before breaking through when his 2017 track "That's on Me" became a slow-burning hit. His subsequent full-length, 2018's Ain't No Goin' Bacc, hit the top half of the Billboard 200 album chart. Beezy has released several mixtapes, including Lil Yella Mane (2012), Country Rap Tunes (2015), Lite Work (2015), and Broke Nights Rich Days (2017). The second volume of Lite Work (also 2017) featured "That's on Me," a track with a video viewed well over four million times within four months of release. The track gradually picked up radio airplay throughout America, becoming a sleeper hit. Beezy's momentum continued with the March 2018 upload of an official clip for the Lil Baby collaboration "Up One," another track off Lite Work, Vol. 2. Its views exceeded 1.5 million in less than a week. In October of that year, the rapper was the victim of a drive-by shooting that left him briefly hospitalized after sustaining three gunshot wounds. Even this traumatic event didn't slow his momentum, and Beezy recovered quickly to sign with indie label HITCO and release Ain't No Goin' Bacc in November. The album included a star-studded version of "That's on Me" featuring 2 Chainz, T.I., Jeezy, and others. By the summer of 2019, Beezy had surpassed the billion-times-played mark across all streaming platforms. On the back of this landmark, he released the Baccend Beezy mixtape, another strong collection of dark and booming Southern rap with guest stars ranging from Young Thug to Too Short. Two stand-alone tracks arrived in 2020 with "Ay Ya Ya Ya" featuring Ty Dolla $ign and "Headlocc" featuring Young Thug. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi