With over seven years in the music industry, rap crew the YoungBloodZ definitely feel like they’ve been around long enough for the world to know who they are. And this is the idea behind their song, “Ev’rybody Know Me,” which is also the title of the group’s most recent album. As the rapper of the duo, Sean Paul, explains, “we came out with our first record in 1999 so we been here from ’98 to 2006 doing our thing. So we named the album Ev’rybody Know Me [because] we’ve become a household name, you know what I mean?” he says.
All this time spent in music making has enabled Sean Paul and DJ J-Bo to learn a lot not only about themselves, but about the entertainment business itself. “We learned from everything, and now we’re on top of the business,” Paul says. With “the freedom of creativity without somebody looking over your shoulder,” the two have “the freedom to do our own music and do what we want to do,” elaborates Paul.
The YoungBloodZ’s online bio states that the Atlanta rappers feel like they are “on anotha level” when it comes to the music they make and the messages they espouse. Claiming to be “the spokesmen for the younger generation,” Sean Paul says that he feels they are now “in a position where we can talk to those younger cats and speak our mind [about] taking the business to a whole another level,” he says.
Perhaps a great example of how the YoungBloodZ themselves take things to another level is their live show. Even after so many years, they are extremely passionate and enthusiastic about what they do. So much so, that Sean Paul would describe a YoungBloodZ performance like “a big can of Red Bull shaken up and then popped.”
“It’s just full of energy. We like to have a good time – we’re not the kind of guys that just sit on stage. We actually like to entertain you know what I mean? Every song we do, we feel like we’re listening to it for the first time or from another artist, so we always have that club feel. All over the stage, dancing around, jumping around, bouncing around; a good time,” he declares.
The YoungBloodZ say they are influenced by everything and everyone. “I’m influenced just by daylight; every day looking out [at] everything I work hard for. I have my house, I have my car and I can look outside and say, ‘this is me.’ I know I don’t want to turn back, and I just wake up everyday and try to move forward,” says Sean Paul.
And J-Bo and Sean Paul have been doing just that. With a record label, YBZ Records, a production company, GMC Productions and a Cuban restaurant in the Wyndham Hotel back home in Atlanta, the YoungBloodZ are keeping themselves busy with new projects and challenges. “Everything’s been going well you know what I mean? You got to do this. We’re getting older, not younger and it’s gong to be a new generation doing this music [so] we’re going to be pushed out. That’s just reality, you know what I mean? I have other things going on: it puts your money in different places so you’re still going on,” Sean Paul explains.
Most of all though, what keeps the two men doing what they do best for all this time is family. Sean Paul concludes, “what keeps me going is my kids. I got a long life with them so I’m here to put in all the work so they can enjoy their life.”
For more information on The YoungBloodZ visit www.youngbloodzatl.com
