Quickly rising up the ranks of the NorCal rap scene with his emotive lyricism and stunning melodies, Yatta Bandz endears himself to his fast-growing following with a heartfelt, diaristic approach to music. Adopting a pragmatic perspective on the heartbreak that ails him, Yatta shares his black-and-white video single, “Hard Headed.” Kicked off with a somber, slow-building piano instrumental that soon meets trap percussion, the track finds the Bay Area artist sorting through the rubble of a broken bond, seeking an explanation to inform the path forward: “I let people into my life who said, ‘It’s gon be alright,’/Thinking that they wouldn’t, but they would for the right price/I think love is overrated anyway/Cause if the love real, it shouldn’t fade away.”
The video for “Hard Headed” closely parallels Yatta’s approach to processing the betrayal he addresses on the track, mirroring the pragmatic perspective he chooses to adopt with its monochrome videography. Whether he’s laying on a rooftop staring at the sky, stepping out of his classic Mercedes coupe in an expansive, empty parking lot, or standing in a white-walled room full of ticking clocks, Yatta stands alone in every scene, trapped in his hardened head as he seeks a way to dispel his grief for good.
“Hard Headed” arrives following Yatta’s recent video single “Way Out West,” which racked up over 3.4M total streams, continuing his run as one of the most promising artists to emerge from the Bay in recent years. Born in Hayward, an East Bay city south of Oakland and north of Fremont, Yatta endured a rough childhood, experiencing periods of homelessness during his elementary school years. He found refuge from his hardships with his love of music, immersing himself in the discographies of artists like Juice WRLD, J. Cole, XXXTentacion, and Polo G. Yatta first found an outlet for his creativity by posting his original freestyles on Instagram, building a following that naturally followed him to SoundCloud, where he released underground hits like “Loyalty” and “Somebody,” and to YouTube, where he cultivated a following of over 202k subscribers. Yatta broke out in a big way in 2022 with the release of singles like “Don’t Go” (23.4 million Spotify streams, 7.1 million YouTube views) and “Unseen Scars” (23.2 million Spotify streams, 3.1 million views on YouTube audio), both of which can be found on Perfect Storm, his debut album, which has over 100 million combined streams to date across platforms.
Hard at work on his follow-up to Perfect Storm, Yatta is hoping to expand beyond the Bay and earn some natonal recognition. Stay tuned for much more from the 21-year-old rapper very soon.
© 2023, Seth "Digital Crates" Barmash. All rights reserved.
