YG is a Campton native American rapper whose great rapping skills and awesome style soon brought him a deal with one of the biggest hip hop record labels named Def Jam.
Many people know him because they stumbled upon him on social media.
Early years
YG was born as Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson on March 9, 1990, in the city named Campton which is located in the south part of Los Angeles. He has always talked about LA as if it was a really interesting town, but he did warn everyone that a bunch of weird things goes on in LA and that young people need to watch their backs.
He was born into a very low budget family with his father as a criminal who even spent time in jail due to the tax fraud he had pulled off. This certainly left an impact on him and he decided to spend more time with his family. He tried to be a good son and a good brother, but it was hard since he wasn’t that good in school.
Keenon became a teenager who started hanging out on the streets and who joined an African-American street gang named The Bloods in 2006 when he was only 16 years old. His mother was very worried about him and he was sad to see that, but he thought that this could bring him some quick cash.
YG was a student at Paramount High School and later at Mayfair High School but never graduated from them. He didn’t enjoy spending time there and didn’t want to study because he knew that he wouldn’t enjoy spending the rest of his life working outside of the music industry.
He had been into hip hop for a long time and after he was repeatedly praised for skills he started thinking about his career even more.
His music career started growing after he started posting it on My Space. My Space used to be a big thing back in the day and he spent a bunch of time there so he got a lot of followers as well.
Career development
In 2013, at the age of 23, he released his first album „I’m 4rm Bompton”. It was supposed to be released through CTE World, a record label owned by another rapper called Young Jeezy. It was a big risk, but he was very happy that he did it because it opened up many new chances.
He was featured on a single performed by You Gotti THE SAME YEAR. It was named „Act Right“ and Young Jeezy also made a guest appearance on the same song.
This song entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the last place. He was also featured on „Boss Yo Life Up Gang“, a CTE World mixtape which was released in summer of 2013. He gained a bunch of fans from here because there were a lot of other artists on the tape as well and they wanted to know who YG was.
His first album was announced in 2013 but was eventually released in 2014. It was going to be called „My Krazy Life“ and was going to be released through Def Jam Recordings. He worked really hard on it because he wanted to present himself in a good life.
He announced Drake’s appearance on his single „Who Do You Love?“ which was produced by DJ Mustard. The lead single of his album is named „My Nigga“ and it featured his friend Jeezy and another Atlanta’s rapper named Rich Homie Quan.
This single was also produced by DJ Mustard. „My Nigga“ went up to No. 19 on the Billboard charts. It was a bit controversial because of the name, but when everything ended, it turned out to be a great single.
The second single from the album was released in December the same year and it was named „Left, Right“, again produced by DJ Mustard. The song got a bunch of attention and helped him climb the charts even more.
His album was finally released in March 2014 by Def Jam and „My Krazy Life” and the album gained many positive critics and went up to No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
The album was certified platinum 3 years later. The next single released from this album was a song „Who Do You Love?” with a guest appearance from Drake.
It went to No. 54 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The cover of the album shows YG posing for a police mugshot. This was controversial and many of his fans thought that it was a real mugshot so he had to disclose the fake picture later.
In 2015, YG announced the release of his 2nd album named „Still Krazy“ for 2016. He teased his fans with the 1st song from the album called „Twist My Fingarz“, on Instagram.
A new song immediately followed and it was a single titled „Cash Money“, featuring a member of a rap group „Bone Thugs-n-Harmony“ Krayzie Bone.
The complete version of the teaser song „Twist My Fingaz“ was released in the summer of 2015. The following single came out in December the same year.
It was titled „I Want a Benz“ and it featured 50 Cent and Nipsey Hussle. His 2nd studio album was named „Still Brazy“ and it was released even later, in June 2016.
Drake was featured on the 3rd single named „Why You Always Hatin?“ which was available for digital download, and was produced by CT Beats. It went to No. 62 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 18 on US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
The video for this song was premiered on YG’s Youtube channel and has garnered over 60 million views.
By the end of the year, he has released „Red Friday”, his new mixtape available on digital download with 8 tracks on it.
In 2017 he was featured on a song titled „I Don’t“ by Mariah Carey. The duo performed the song live on „Jimmy Kimmel Live!“ whos in February 2017. Many people brought up controversy here as well and claimed that it autotuned.
One month later he has released a remix, this time featuring Remy Ma. He released his new album „Stay Dangerous“ on his Instagram account in February but was released later in the summer.
Many guests appeared on this album: TY Dolla Sign, Quavo, 2Chainz, AND MORE. The album went up to No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart and was promoted with two singles: „Suu Whoop“ and „Big Bank“.
In the spring of 2019, he made an announcement for his „Surprise album” to be released soon but it was moved to a later date because of Nipsey Hussle’s death. This was a pretty big event in the industry and YG wanted to pay tribute to the artist.
He was a very close friend with him. He dedicated his performance at Coachella to his memory. He wanted to raise awareness about problems young artists go through as well.
Soon after YG’s career started going up he came up with an idea to start his own label. It was going to be called Pushaz Ink (Pu$haz Ink) and he was going to release it together with Ty Dolla $ign and DJ Mustard.
But the idea didn’t come to life because the Capitol wasn’t interested in helping the label come to life. He was a bit disappointed, but he didn’t have any time to spare, so he turned to other people.
After that, it was rumored that his new label will be launched in 2016 and that it was going to be titled „4Hunnid“.
Later it was found out to be true and that he made a deal with Interscope Records and Empire. YG has also released his own clothing line named 4Hunnid.
He was involved in a controversial shooting while filming his own video. This was a huge problem and he lost quite a few fans, while others were mad because they knew it was fake.
It was in January 2012 at the shooting of „I’m a Thug” video. The song itself had many dislikes at first.
He was shot one time in the hip and was taken to the hospital. He was not willing to cooperate with the police and didn’t want to share information about ht shooting. He was released from the hospital very soon.
In 2016, he had health problems which led him to be on a vegan diet for several months. He said that he absolutely hated it and that he never wants to do that again because he didn’t have enough energy to continue on with his life.
In 2014 he was nominated for BET Hip Hop Awards in three categories: People’s Champ Award, Best Club Banger, and Rookie of the Year, but didn’t win any.
One year later he was nominated for Top R&B Song on Billboard Music Awards but was not proclaimed as a winner. He wanted to spend time with other artists and create new music at this point because he felt the need to be on the charts again.
The same thing happened at MTV Europe Music Awards where he was nominated for Best World Stage Performance. He was sad and he started to think that his career was coming to an end.
He appeared in a movie titled „We the Party” from 2012, playing C.C. It was the same year (2012) when he made his first appearance on a talk show „GGN: Snoop Dogg’s Double G News Network”.
In 2016, he was visited by the police many times, by the members of the secret services. It was a consequence of his single FDT (which stands for F**k Donald Trump). They even interrupted one of his video shootings.
Personal life
His parents are both working. His father worked at a daycare business just like his mother Shonee. She later worked in McDonald’s and at the grocery store.
His personal relationship with a woman named Caatelyn was highly present in the news in 2014.
Caatelyn revealed that she is pregnant on Twitter and that he is forcing her to make an abortion. She even accused him of herpes she gained.
A little after that she started claiming that her Twitter account was hacked and that the posts aren’t hers. This was a huge problem and he knew that many people were going to be mad and start unfollowing him and he could not do anything about it.
YG later confirmed the pregnancy (in January 2015) and that she will give birth to their child in May.
She gave birth to a daughter named Harmony and YG and Caatelyn ended their arguments. They are co-parenting the daughter from that day forward. He tries to be in her life as much as he can without getting her in the spotlight, but it is very hard and he thinks that she will have many problems because of his fame.
YG also had a beef with his longtime associate DJ Mustard when DJ accused YG of unpaid bills. He claimed that YG owes him money. This was a huge problem for him because he just saved himself from the pregnancy rumors and now this was happening.
As for his personal looks, he likes to wear hats and caps. He always has trimmed mustache. He is a big fan of tattoos but has most of them on his neck. Looking nice is something that he enjoys and he often says that it is needed in the industry.
He has spent his childhood living at his grandparents because his parents lost their home because of a tax fraud they committed. He is very thankful for them and he dedicated one of his albums to them, as a thank you for everything they did for him.
In 2008 he was also arrested by the police while he was trying to rob a house. He was sentenced for 2 years but eventually spend only 6 months there.
Quick summary
Full name: Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson
Date of birth: March 9, 1990
Birthplace: Compton, Calfirnia, USA
Age: 29
Profession: rapper
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 68 kg
Net Worth: $3 million