With mother’s day right around the corner, a lot of artists have rushed to get their tribute songs out there, and that’s all well and good. But who better to sing praises of moms than a mom herself? Enter Young Mommy and her clean rap song “Swanky Ma”.
Rapper and mother of four born and raised in Canada. Young Mommy’s whole outlook is on giving a voice to the moms who are confident and know what they’re all about. She takes on the rap genre by challenging industry notions about what it can or can’t be, taking inspiration from other non-explicit hits (Such as “Where is the love?” By Black Eyed Peas”) to write and produce tracks that aren’t just positive and conscious, but also bring that capacity for powerful lyricism and flow to an even wider audience.
Though raised in Canada, Young Mommy grew up on that American Rap, and her love of the genre is very evident in the legit dexterity she outputs when it’s time to to lay down her bars, and though this love affair with music had to take a backseat when she became a mom, through sheer will, dedication and ingenious finances she managed to -little by little- build up a repertoire of releases, with the most recent being this unique new track
The surprises with this wonderful track don’t actually start with Young Mommy’s frankly stunning flow, but with the musical background on which it’s laid out. Beyond the solid beat, the song is built around a very curious string section that evokes an air of arabesque lounge music, and as far as the message goes, YM herself says “I want to send a strong message to everyone listening that moms are beautiful and powerful, we just don’t always believe it. We need to be elevated in society for all that we do for our families and that’s what I want people to take away. My vision was to create a song dedicated to moms but that anyone could dance to and enjoy. With ‘Swanky Ma’ I wanted to put moms back on the map in an over-the-top way.” The track was produced alongside Dallas rapper Midwest Don who punched up the lyrics.
Young Mommy is a proudly self-propelled performer who is leading what she’s dubbed the “Clean Rap” movement, a non-explicit alternative that seeks not to do away with the spice of the genre but instead to offer a different exploration of it from a female perspective that eschew some of the “hypersexual languages and messaging.”
Story: Samuel Aponte Photos: Courtesy of the artist
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