Jadriana Solomon: Fans became familiar with you as a contestant on Jermaine Dupri’s Lifetime rap competition series, The Rap Game. The official music video currently has 143 million views, and your career has been on the rise ever since. Today, you are a platinum-selling artist at the age of 21; How does it feel?
Yes: Sometimes I’m still embracing it, you know – God still has his weird way of hitting me with little glimmers of reality. For example, it didn’t really hit me until I went on tour in Europe. I was in Ireland, and people were stopping me on the street. I’m like, ‘Yo, they know the G here? Like, oh, now we’re global, it’s over!’
So touring was a whole new experience for me because when I go on tour, my reality is different – being on the road, seeing my fans, and going to different parts of the world that I never thought I could. I’ll go – this is madness.
Jadriana Solomon: Your breakout single came out in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have been extremely challenging for a new artist to deal with – being unable to do live performances, appearances, etc. But you excelled through that time, building your fan base built to reach millions; why do you think that is?
Yes: I feel like the world has its own frequency and people choose what they want to tap into. it’s funny because the rap game Was filmed in Atlanta. So I had a chance to be in Buckhead to shoot this and I thought this was my sneak peak – I thought this would be like my peak. I didn’t know what was coming for G
And I still don’t know what’s coming for me. You might see me in a movie next year – you never know what’s planned. But I’m thankful for that. And like you said, it was so challenging during Covid because the whole world had to brace itself for it. We didn’t know what Covid was and we didn’t know what would be its outcome.
At the time, I didn’t know what the frequency would be – if people still wanted to hear what I had to say. So you put icing on that cake, crazy. I didn’t even see it that way. I had a bunch of odds stacked against me – any artist out there at the time. They will admit that it was tough in a way. But once Covid picked up it was wrapped up, there was no one to hold us back.