By far one of the most unique artists we've seen emerge into viral triumph this past year is platinum Minnesota-born rapper Yung Gravy. Being streamed over a billion times and becoming a favorite artist on TikTok, he has a lot up his leave. Amassing a cult-like fanbase amongst college kids, Gravy pushes the boundaries of storytelling with his relentless humor and self-expression.
Earlier this month, Yung Gravy dropped his sophomore album, Gasanova, on October 2nd. The 14-song offering includes several music videos inspired by classic films, and features from Young Dolph, Chief Keef, Ski Mask The Slump God, bbno$, and Trippythakid. We recently got to speak with the Minnesota rapper about each individual track, giving us a better perspective of what goes on in the mind of a young genius.
Check out Yung Gravy's track-by-track breakdown of his latest album below.
1. "Always Saucy" feat. Ski Mask the Slump God & TrippythaKid
Me and Trippy started this shit like 2 years ago but didn’t think it would clear because of the sample. Trippythakid is a legend, a day 1 SoundCloud homie of mine. Done a few songs together in the past and he’s been on tour with me a bunch. The sample from "Always Sunny" has been in my top five of shit I wanted to sample since day 1. Haven’t seen the show tbh but that sample is so gas. I always love the juxtaposition between a classic ass sample and some grimey Soundcloud distorted banger 808s.
I’m from Minnesota so that mighty ducks v form shit is from the heart for real. legendary film. I originally sent Ski Mask the song “oops!” to get on, but it wasn't really his style, so I sent him this. Shit worked out for the best I think.
2. "Martha Stewart"
Just classic Gravy material right here. I wanted to experiment more with this project but I love serving the OG gravy fans. The vocal sample is mesmerizing on this shit, it's nostalgic but still fits in with what's popping right now. I make music that I would want to hear/listen to. I took a more “hands-on'' approach with this album in terms of production, both vocally and musically. I wanted to add extra shit and tweak it so it's as perfect as possible. I think this one came out gas as F.
3. "Bags of Chips" feat. Bobby Raps
Bobby raps my Minnesota brother. I've known Bobby for a long ass time and this is our first song together. He started out as a poppin local artist in Minnesota, now he's a poppin producer in the industry. He was on Eternal Atake, worked with Future, Young Thug, The Weeknd, everybody. This is definitely the most ratchet song I've ever done, but we’re not coming from a judgemental place, we’re just really on our freak shit sometimes, it is what it is. Further, this song is a deeply veiled metaphor for the U.S.’ handling of the Cuban missile crisis and subsequent cover-up by president Nixon with the watergate scandal, the “hoe” of which I refer to is actually Nixon, and each subsequent alliteration to his is a metaphor for his, and our government's greed and quest for global power.
4. "Steve Austin" feat. Young Dolph
Young Dolph is one of my favorite rappers easily. It's an honor to be able to collaborate with artists that I really respect. I laid my verse down first, then he went and played off of what I did, it was very natural. The first verse we did is a lil ode to one of the most legendary Future songs of all time - Chosen One. Peep that shit rn if you haven't. This was another song where I had a hand in the finer details of the instruments that were added. I worked mad closely with Jason Rich - my motherfucking day 0, who you all are familiar with.
5. "Oops!"
This one was pretty experimental for me. I've been trying to find the perfect song for these bars for a minute, and this was it. I have a pretty wide musical palette and I pretty much figure if I fuck with it, my fans will too. I linked with Valentino Khan (EDM legend) and it took homie a day to whip up this filthy ass beat. And it was on and poppin from there
6. "Yup!"
Right when I heard this beat, I could envision the entire song off the rip. Some songs are like that. This is another derivation from my typical style, but it still works. That's why I love my fanbase so much, they're really open to anything. Some are into old nostalgic funk and R&B 70s type shit, some like hip hop, some fuck with K Pop heaters like I do. They fuck with everything and that makes it easy to experiment since my fans are open-minded.
7. "Whole Foods" feat. bbno$
Baby Gravy. Y’all know how it is with us two. Just some classic BG shit we envisioned while in LA learning bout Erewhon and such from Dirt Namaste / Dirt Nasty - my adopted uncle, rap legend, and health food connoisseur
8. "Gas Money"
Classic shit. Reminds me of Knockout. My favorite type of music to make. Per usual, Engelwood went dumbass on the beat. I went dumbass on the vocals. I evade tax money.
9. "Party At My Mama's House"
This song is obviously a dramatization but this it's pretty close to how we live. I love my mom so much. She's the dopest woman ever, and she loves to wild out with us when I go back to my hometown.
10. "Drip On My Dresser" feat. Chief Keef
Sosa is a legend and one of my favorite rappers. We had good chemistry while recording “Tampa Bay Bustdown” so we went back in and did another one. This song actually was recorded to a different beat, but I don't know, I felt like it could get better, so I made a whole new beat with my boy Diamond Pistols using the original acapella, and it came out dope. That’s the first time I’ve ever done that with an acapella but sheesh. I’m a Three 6 superfan so I had to show some love to Project Pat on the verse. People tend to forget about Pat sometimes but he really was the pioneer of a lot of the flows and shit that are still being used today.
11. "Miami Ice"
Did the same exact shit for this song with my boy Diamond Pistols and I couldn’t believe how fire it turned out. Boutta be working with DP a lot more in the future he snaps.
12. "Swimming Lessons"
Another one of my favorite verses is on this song as well. I did this entire album during the quarantine. I wanted to make the best of the free time I had away from touring, and this album was the result of that. My last album “sensational” was more of a traditional album where I was just rapping on the beats I was given, but I was able to really take time to work on every aspect of this album.
13. "jack money bean" feat. bbno$
One of my favorite verses of all time is on this song. I wrote it in between parasailing expeditions off the shores of Costa Rica at the end of 2019.
14. "Tampa Bay Bustdown" feat. Chief Keef & Y2K
I got connected with Chief Keef last year. My DJ introduced me to Brandon, one of his managers, then we linked in LA. This was the first song we made together, the second being drip on my dresser. I’ve known Y2K for a minute and we have multiple classics, I love that fucker. Also, shout out to Tampa Bay for winning the Stanley cup. They all fuck with me super heavy and used another one of my songs “Gravy Train” as they're official celebration songs. They put up billboards and everything, it was wild. One of our last live shows we did was in Tampa as well, I got hella love for Florida.