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Ray Da Yungin: The visionary rapping to save his community
Eleven-year-old rapper Ray Da Yungin creates fire lyrics with vibe and flow but doesn’t miss his shot to speak on gun violence in his community.
The independent artist from Louisiana described his sound as “definitely one of a kind,” as he blends Hip-Hop and RnB stylings through his sharp lyrics.
Ray Da Yungin came onto the scene in 2019, with his debut single “Up Next,” and has since released his first album “Look Out World” with 8 tracks and 15,539 streams on Spotify.
All under his own self-created music label ‘MadHouse Muzik.’
An antidote to the hate-violence epidemic
Kid visionary Ray is on a path to make a change for both himself and those around him, amidst the current national epidemic of gun violence and police brutality against Black Americans.
“It always feels good to express myself through music,” said Ray.
His most recent release “Miss You” reflects on the deaths of his two school friends, 12-year-old Xavier Perry and 13-year-old Oxford “Ox” Foster who lost their lives to gun violence and a car crash respectively. Ray calls attention to how difficult dealing with loss and trauma is, especially at such a young age.
With lyrics like:
“How do I handle all this so young?/ Yeah, how do I know if I’m ‘posed to cry? Every day know I thank God we breathin’/But why I feel like all my brothers leaving…’”
Ray uses his song almost like his own personal grieving ground, giving his all to make sure he remembers his brothers and spreads the message he wants us all to hear.
That we have to stop the violence and hate that caused such tragic deaths.
Rapper Ray’s “Miss You” lyrics and music video are crucial for today’s rap game. They aren’t just a general commentary on – and protest against – the murderous environment that Black people face, like Childish Gambino’s “This is America,” Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s “Freedom,” or J. Cole’s “Be Free.”
Ray actually gets into a story of personal trauma and loss, that should drive home exactly why: gun violence, racial profiling and brutality, and the Black poverty line are problems we must solve right here and right now.
Anecdotal and storytelling rap should be at the forefront of the BLM movement right now, and Ray is taking a huge step forward to help achieve that.
He is stepping up to the plate alongside artists like Janelle Monae and her track “HELL YOU TALMBOUT,” which mentions specific tragedies at the hands of racism and prejudice:
“Trayvon Martin, won’t you say his name?/Sean Bell, say his name.”
Ray Da Yungin and reconciling hatred with music
With mass shootings becoming a daily occurrence in America (shown through record-highs of 610 mass shootings in 2020), gun violence is a serious threat to any American’s life.
Never mind when weapons of mass murder are driven by poisonous American societal norms – endorsing harmful preconceptions and racist attitudes in the country’s highest institutions.
The police, the courts, and even the White House itself have been twisted and tainted with bloodied footprints and answerable bullet holes. Ray Da Yungin takes an active stand against this in “Miss You,” leaving the listener empowered with love and commemoration for victims of such senseless gun violence.
But much more importantly, Ray is paving the way for the most powerful tools we have.
Our voices.
“Tap into whatever it is you like to do as long as it’s positive. Try to do it as much as possible and you’ll feel better.”
– Ray Da Yungin
Ray Da Yungin is breathing new life into this simple power that we all have to make a difference. Just within our reach, we have voices and hearts that can protest with more fire and power than the firing of a gun ever could, and Ray is here to remind us of that.
With his flow stressing just how bad the losses can be, alongside just how equally strong the justice for them can be:
“Oh you know imma miss you/Real life I was just ‘wit you/These memories never gone fade away/Make sure that they don’t forget you.”
His melodic bars hit us in just the right place, and all that from an 11-year-old makes you think that any notion we have of being powerless is false.
Ray demonstrates to us all that it just takes one voice to make a change
Future plans
The future is bright for the young star, as Ray Da Yungin gives himself hope each day. “In the next 5 years it’s my hope for me and MadHouse Muzik to be at the top of the game,” Ray Da Yungin said.