the beat
KEEPING UP WITH PAUL
PRO TIPS Classical contemporary sextet
yMusic has performed with acts
ranging from Bon Iver to John
Legend. Five years ago, another
pop artist entered its orbit when
Paul Simon added yMusic
trumpeter C.J. Camerieri to
his band. Now, yMusic is a
central part of Simon’s farewell
tour, backing him onstage in
different combinations. Before
the trek closes in Simon’s native
Queens on Sept. 22, Camerieri,
36; flutist Alex Sopp, 34; and
violinist Rob Moose, 35, share
what they’ve learned so far.DRAW ON ALL YOUR TALENTS
After inviting the group
on tour, Simon asked
Camerieri, “‘What else
can everyone do?’ He was
so excited when I told him
Alex is also a singer.” Adds
Sopp: “With Paul, I have a
lot of room to sing out. He
really likes when people go
for it.”KEEP IMPROVING
“Often when we collaborate
with a band, the
arrangements are already
set in stone,” says Moose.
“With Paul, we’re not left
out of that process of a
song evolving over the
course of a tour. Every day,
he’s trying to be a little
more correct.”32 BILLBOARD AUGUST 4, 2018As he preps for the release of his third album —
and shrugs off a recent arrest — L.A.’s hip-hop hero
plows through a packed afternoonBY REBECCA HAITHCOAT • PHOTOGRAPHED BY KAYLA REEFERW
HEN YG BEGAN DRAWING UP A BLUEPRINT FOR
Stay Dangerous, his third studio album and one of the
summer’s standout hip-hop releases, one thing was
nonnegotiable: DJ Mustard, his old friend and co-
architect of raunchy West Coast rap, had to be behind the boards. It
was a welcome reunion for the duo, who mined magic collaborating
on YG’s 2014 debut, My Krazy Life, which bowed at No. 2 on the
Billboard 200. But success also bred acrimony, and not a single
Mustard beat made it onto YG’s 2016 follow-up, Still Brazy.
“We was on our ‘fuck you’ shit; we ain’t work for two years straight,”
says the 28-year-old Compton, Calif., native (born Keenon Daequan
Ray Jackson), reclining on a snow-white sofa in the living room of his
home outside Los Angeles. “Me and Mustard had to get our shit back.
And we did that [on Stay Dangerous] — big records, radio records.”
With early mixtape tracks like “Pussy Killer” and “I Like Head,”
YG has always embraced his “party and bullshit” persona, perhaps
never so successfully as on My Krazy Life, which chronicles a day in
the life of a gangbanger. On Stay Dangerous, out Aug. 3, he switches
up his technique and, inspired by Atlanta sessions with Migos and
21 Savage, ditches his writing pad and instead freestyles a few hooks.
Yet the LP still inds YG reckoning with the thrills (“Big Bank”) and ills
(“Handgun”) of a thriving rapper with one foot still in the streets.
On this steamy July day, he’s gearing up for the project’s release
while dealing with a recent arrest for felony robbery after snatching
a man’s chain in Las Vegas. (He says he can’t discuss the case.) If he’s
stressed by his schedule — which today includes meetings for his
clothing label, 4hunnid; a video shoot for a collaboration with rapper
Mozzy; a studio session for last-minute album tweaks; and daddy duty
with 3-year-old daughter Harmony — he doesn’t show it. These days,
his primary concern is staying true to his roots. “I can’t throw shit out,”
he says. “I’m a dude from the streets, and it’s 110 million n—as on the
same shit I’m living on. I got to make my shit special.”1 YG readied Stay
Dangerous as well
as a new 4hunnid
collection for August.
2 T h e r a p p e r o n t h e
set of Mozzy’s video
for “Thug Mansion” in
High Desert, Calif.
3 At home on a
Saturday morning,
YG’s first task is
outfitting one of his
cars with new rims.
4 YG w i t h 4 h u n n i d
creative director
Gavin Mathíeu.
5 Also in August, YG
will reveal a new,
higher-end collection,
Kut and Sew.12345A Day In YG’s
(Still) Krazy Life
From left: Hideaki
Aomori, Moose,
Camerieri, Nadia
Sirota, Gabriel
Cabezas and Sopp
of yMusic.