Yung Mal

Emerging alongside his trusted partner Lil Quill through a string of early mixtapes, the Atlanta rapper Yung Mal forged his path in the latter half of the 2010s by fusing quick-tongued, neighborhood-rooted trap. Securing a contract with Gucci Mane’s 1017 imprint toward the close of 2017 allowed him to stabilize his presence via the Blessed Lil Bastards series, where he joined forces with fellow Atlanta voices such as Lil Baby, Gunna, and Gucci Mane himself, before stepping out alone on the 2020 full-length Iceburg. A second album-length effort, 1.5 Way or No Way, followed twelve months afterward.

Originally from New Orleans and later relocating to Atlanta’s East Side, Yung Mal first honed his craft by penning lyrics over hit instrumentals until peers urged him to develop original material. Although he had dabbled in recording his own songs as early as age thirteen, the MC did not pursue the endeavor with full commitment until the late 2010s, spurred by the online traction gained by his 2016 track “Str8 Out Da Pot.” Aligning with longtime associate Lil Quill under the name Mal & Quill, the pair launched their output with a tireless release schedule that brought Blessed Lil Bastards in April 2017 and Blessed Lil Bastards 2 the following month. Their initial work stayed grounded in Atlanta’s signature trap sound, representing Zone 6 through gritty street accounts set against the genre’s signature rattling percussion and booming low-end. The next project took the form of a six-song tribute EP created expressly to attract Gucci Mane’s attention and timed for a 10/17 drop in nod to his 1017 label; although it arrived only at the end of November, the gesture succeeded, earning the duo entry into the 1017 roster that same month. Their third mixtape, Came from Zero, dropped on Christmas Day and leveraged the new affiliation to secure guest spots from Gunna, Lil Baby, Rich the Kid, and Gucci Mane.

The duo’s pace slowed in 2018, yielding only the June collaborative mixtape SOUF6 alongside X before Blessed Lil Bastards 3 appeared in December, again relying primarily on longtime producer Gudda Tay for its high-energy tracks. After Quill’s 2019 imprisonment, Mal shifted focus to solo endeavors, issuing his debut album Iceburg that August. Drawing on an established circle of contributors that included Gunna, Pi’erre Bourne, and Mane, the project refined the rapper’s raw vitality and lived-in storytelling with studio clarity. Later that year the EP Iceberg Sosa surfaced, with the full-length 1.5 Way or No Way arriving in 2021.