Yung Senju Interview
Nehemiah Terry: In your youth you started playing the piano and trumpet. Why do you think you gravitated to music at such a young age?
Yung Senju: I'd say it's thanks to my mom and my uncle. My uncle is really into jazz. He teaches jazz trumpet and my mom, she always wanted me to be acclimated with music at a young age. So she's the one that had me doing piano at a young age. She also had me start learning the trumpet in sixth grade. Ever since then, I've just started loving it. And rap just sort of kind of happened when I blended the two things. Because, you know, I listened to ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ for the first time, and it mixed jazz with hip hop, and I was really big into jazz at the time, but not so big into hip hop. So it just mixed the two things. And I just got into it, and I started loving both.
Nehemiah Terry: Would you say your first love was producing, or was it rapping?
Yung Senju: Producing was definitely my first love. I got into producing at 15 and I started rapping at 16. The only reason I started rapping was because my beasts was ass and no one wanted to hop on the shits. That’s deadass the only reason. So producing was definitely my first love and now my main love is rapping.
Nehemiah Terry: I know you're in college. This past semester how were you able to balance your education with music?
Yung Senju: It's been difficult, honestly. Because balancing music, education, work, and also, like relationships and friendships and all that stuff but it helped just trying to create a schedule. I'm very schedule oriented. Just making sure that I get certain things done at a certain time. Waking up at a certain hour, going to the gym, going to classes, then getting music done at a certain time, working out at a certain time, hanging out a certain time. Just staying on task, staying on schedule. Trying to keep my head straight and on a swivel so I can just keep up with all that stuff. But it’s definitely difficult, definitely hard.
Nehemiah Terry: On your album ‘Blackman Wunderlan’ the whole aesthetic of the album is a little darker and it's very much paying homage to your roots. But then on the single ‘Like Gold’ the whole aesthetic, even in your photos and the things you're releasing, it's a lot more light. It's a completely different aesthetic. How purposeful was the aesthetic change? Or did it just come naturally with the music?
Yung Senju: Aesthetics is always my number one thing that I take importance in. The aesthetic change was definitely big because I wanted to separate the two areas of my music. I took a huge break after ‘Blackman Wunderlan’. Just because there was a lot of stuff going on in my personal life, a lot of mental issues. I was struggling for a bit, but then I got myself back out of that. That's why I want this ‘03 era (that’s what I call it) to be a lot more light-hearted. A lot more fun, and just bringing it back to my roots. I call it ‘03 because I was born in 2003. It's supposed to represent a lot of my childhood and stuff that I loved in my childhood. I want it to be real light hearted and fun but also I always love everything to have an underlying message. That’s also going to be really important with it but I definitely changed the aesthetic from darker to more upbeat, more of a vibe type of thing. That's what I want to keep until I get into my next era of stuff with my next album.
Nehemiah Terry: What would you say has been your most memorable fan interaction?
Yung Senju: The most memorable fan interaction was actually out here in Salt Lake City. I came out to Salt Lake City, just randomly. My car was dusty as hell. I came to get a car wash and I ran into this fan. This is like a year ago, right after I dropped ‘Blackman Wunderlan’. I sadly forgot bro’s name. When I pulled up to the car wash he was like, “bro, you look kind of familiar, do I know you? I was like, “no, you probably don't. I'm not famous or nothing. But I rap a little bit. My name’s Yung Senju.” He was like “Yooo! No way! You made “Blackman Wunderland? That’s crazy!” And I was like “Oh man I appreciate it bro” and then I went to clean the inside of my car. He spun back and was just telling me how much he loved the album. I thought that was a dope ass experience. That was really the first experience I ever had with a fan outside of my circle of people in my college and shit. So it was crazy. I’ll always remember that.
Nehemiah Terry: After the release of ‘Blackman Wunderlan’ your whole fan base was really pushing for Fantano to review it. What are your thoughts on what Anthony Fantano had to say about your album?
Yung Senju: I think it was dope that Fantano reviewed it. I don't really watch a lot of Anthony Fantano. Back when Shawncee posted I was more of a Shawncee type of guy. I don't know if the fan base split like that but I thought it was cool. I was just happy that Fantano listened to it because I know he's polarizing in the music scene in general, but definitely in hip hop. It was an honor. I didn't really succeed in the fact that Anthony Fantano reviewed it because it was a quick Tik Tok review but soon he's going to be doing it on Youtube. But I just thought it was dope. I think he gave it a 6 (out of 10). I was like I don't think it's a 6 but you know it's always an opinion. I never take it to heart. I think a lot of his criticism was also definitely understandable and I'm definitely taking that with me moving forward.
Nehemiah Terry: What would you say has been the most important moment of your career so far?
Yung Senju: It's gotta be just the release of ‘Blackman Wunderland’. That's really the album that skyrocketed me up. I'm trying to get myself back on pace to where I was when I released the album before I kind of took myself off the map. I just fell off because of stuff behind the scenes. But ‘Blackman Wunderland’ was definitely the most important, the most pivotal thing. On top of that, this dude Mellow Music, I don't know if he still posts, but that's my boy. His name's Perzul. On the Mellow Music app he made a post for ‘Blackman’ and that was the first viral post I've ever really had. It got like 4 million views on Tik Tok. That with ‘Blackman Wunderland’ I'd say were the most important things. Those definitely put me up in the underground scene.
Nehemiah Terry: Speaking of ‘Blackman Wunderland’ again, Ser Amari was featured on the album on the song ‘Superpowers.’ What would you say about his music? And your collaboration with him?
Yung Senju: Ser Amari, he just makes some fly music, bro. I think the aesthetic he calls it is ‘rich nigga music’. I forgot exactly what he calls it. I be rocking with it bro. I've been just supporting him and he's been supporting me for a minute. His music is dope. I just rock with him as a person. I definitely want to collaborate more with him. And low-key, like on the lowest of the keys, I kind of think he out-rapped me on ‘Superpowers’. I'm gonna give him that. I'm gonna give him that on the lowest of keys. I have a lot of love for Ser Amari. That's the boy, that's the homie. He's definitely helped me a lot just by doing that feature for me and doing promo for me, he’s just helped me with a lot of stuff. That’s the homie man. Love his music as well as him as a person.
Nehemiah Terry: This next question isn't really tied into your music, but more so your brand that you're trying to build up Rahgs. What was the inspiration for that? What's the ultimate goal with that?
Yung Senju: The inspiration for Rahgs, was really sporadic. I wear durags all the time.
It’s part of my image at this point and I love durags. Rahgs first of all stands for: Real Artists Have Ghetto Sides. I kind of want to make it sort of a movement with the clothing brand. I want it to be a thing about getting out of your comfort zone and not caring about public perception, but mainly about trying to hustle and trying to try to start something from scratch. Even if you don't think that you have what it takes to do it but when you have what it takes to start it. Because it was really sporadic for me to start Rahgs. I just want to inspire people to just go for it. When they get an idea and they think it's cool, just go for it. It's never gonna be the perfect time of your life, you’re never going to have the perfect time. You got to create that moment. You have to create what you want to create. While the idea is fresh, before someone else takes it. I want it to be a movement to just inspire. So that's why I'm starting from scratch. Don't really have much with it so far. We are working on pieces behind the scenes right now. But once I get it up for real, that's what I want the message with it to be.
