Lil Yase

In 1995 Mark Antonyyo Alexander came into the world, later performing as the rapper Lil Yase; by age 18 he had begun filming song clips on an iPad he did not own. Residing in Sunnydale, a gritty industrial district beyond San Francisco’s city limits that contains the area’s largest housing project, he linked up with several gifted Bay Area MCs such as Llama Llama, Sage the Gemini, and Yatta. Regional notice first arrived in 2015 through the single and video “Get It In,” which he promptly followed with further releases including “Bum Bitch,” “Worst Way,” and “Furl.” Steady output gradually established his profile, prompting an all-star remix of “Get It In” that added verses from Nef the Pharaoh, G-Val, and additional peers. A steady flow of videos, singles, and mixtape features continued through 2016, among them his own summer tape From the Block to Alot. The following year brought What a Time 2 Grind, a joint mixtape with G-Val, as well as standalone singles such as “No Diss.”