YFL Kelvin

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YFL Kelvin

YFL Kelvin is a artist from the city of Cleveland, Ohio. He began rapping at age 5 after seeing Lil Wayne's documentary and being influenced by him. He was signed onto Def Jam Recordings in 2018.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Early Life

YFL Kelvin was born in Cleveland, Ohio where he grew up with his parents. He is of American nationality and African-American ethnicity. However, his father was gunned down when he was 5 years old, causing him to join the streets. Since then he has landed in jail three times, he also revealed his little brother is in jail:

“My little brother is in jail.
Like, everybody who I used to be with is in jail.”

Kelvin began recording out of his home studio, but music was secondary to the lure of the streets. He took his rap name from his biological father and the aspirational acronym “Young, Flashy, Lifestyle.” Kelvin is inspired by artists like Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and Drake and the rapper always finds a way to funnel his suffering and anger into rap: ^[4]^[5]

“I knew I was destined then.
Something good was going to play out from all the tragedy that I’ve been through.”

Career

In 2016, he made his first significant released "Mayweather Freestyle", which was which birthed out of his beef with a former friend .

“I was getting street cred, street love with my music,” he says.
“It wasn’t a big fan base yet.”

He followed up the diss with a trap track called “Customers” in 2017.

He recorded the track from his house; incidentally near where his father was slain.

In 2018, he released “NASDAQ”, the single which proved the tipping point that took Kelvin beyond Cleveland. He linked with a local manager and released the song on YouTube, which has generated over 300k views. “My price going up like the NASDAQ,” he raps:

“Shit get tragic, fuck this rapping.
I’m in my bag.
I took a loss and had to get back.”

Although the song celebrates success, Kelvin had no clue it was going to be his biggest record to date.

The song incited interest from Def Jam A&R Alex Resch, who reached out via Instagram.

Kelvin inked a deal with Def Jam Recordings in August 2018 and released his first project in November. Out of Here is led by the “NASDAQ” remix with Moneybagg Yo. It’s a fitting collaboration^[6]. In 2019, he released the video for his single “Bands On Top Of Bands“. The video plays out the planning and execution of a robbery done by YFL Kelvin on a money van. The video, shot by Keoni Mars was released on March 8th and is part of Def Jam Recordings Undisputed Compilation ^[5]. As a major label artist, Kelvin has big plans for the future. He wants to ultimately earn a platinum record and a Grammy, but more than anything, he aims to build a legacy:

“I don’t wanna be one of those artists that comes into the game as a one-hit wonder,” he says.
“I wanna last.
I wanna show people who come from where I come from that it’s really possible.”

Personal Life

Kelvin is the father of a son he calls, Baby Kelvin, who was born on 27th June 2016.

On his second birthday, he posted several pictures of his son on Instagram and also opened an account for him. Kelvin did not disclose any information about his son’s mother.^[4]

He has an active Instagram page and a YouTube channel with 57.7k followers and 19.7k subscribers respectively. His feed on Instagram ranges from pictures of activities and clips of performances. He has over 4.2 million views on his channel as of April, 2020. ^[7]^[8]