Young Creation: the genesis

42Crew released Life is 42, their only Mixtape as a crew, on September 5th, 2014, however, it’s actually in 2012 that all started for the crew. 

Or well, it’s not that easy. 

Before 42Crew, Nafla, Young West, Daniel Prynne (you probably know better as Bloo), Neil the Forehead, and AP were part of Young Creation alongside EK, Lunick, Holic, Ehwhenkeem, Niahn, Mackwon, 막내 and Fran.

Young Creation pretty much happened by chance, some young people from the same neighborhood who decided to take a step further into their passion for rap by creating a crew. They spent time together, used to freestyle and to record some tracks for some still available on their SoundCloud, on Youtube or BandCamp. Thanks to their mutual feedbacks, they all developed their own rapping style. They all had the same influence though. Growing up in Los Angeles, they have inevitably been marked by the West Coast vibe. 

However, it would be wrong to talk about Young Creation and not give credit to Most Definite Family (MD Fam), and especially the crew Souleaf made of Sean, Won-J, and Haru, for the help they give to the Young Creation’s members. They greatly supported them in the beginning.  

As Won-J explained in an interview, at the time there weren’t that many places to perform. The clubs in LA weren’t that much into HipHop. Therefore, Souleaf pushed them by helping them to perform in coffees, bars, or even in churches. If you wanted to perform, you had to set up your own stage. There was still one condition yet; being talented. 

And talented, Young Creation’s members surely were, (Do not hesitate to take a listen to their projects, there are some gems, you’ll find the link at the end of the article). If it wasn’t for the fact that EK (not EK from MBA), Young Creation’s leader, had to move to Iowa, the crew would have probably blown up. But the crew lost its momentum with this sudden departure. Their initial dynamic lost, the members progressively lost touch. Young Creation dissolved by the end of 2014.      

And there is 42Crew

Was it really the end yet? Well, not for all the members. If some of the members are still collaborating from time to time, five members decided to turn a new page together. 

Among Young Creation’s members, AP, Nafla, Daniel Prynne, Young West, and Neil, The Forehead used to live in the same neighborhood, the neighborhood of “La Crescenta’s. If at first they just kept on hanging out together, things took another turn in 2014 when they decided to create a new crew, the 42Crew.

Overall, the crew kept the same dynamic they used to have in Young Creation. The only difference was that Souleaf’s members who supported them at their beginning on stage with Young Creation haven’t been able to be as present with 42 because Haru, Won-J, and Sean were getting busier with their own projects (Ed. Link to their BandCamp and SoundCloud at the end of the article). 42Crew’s members thus started to organize their own events.  

However, the fact that Bloo – formerly known as Daniel Prynne – Nafla and later Young West joined Mkit Rain, label and crew founded by Loopy, put more or less the crew on hold. As far as I know, they are not publically dissolved, but not really active either. They truly released one joined project, the mixtape Life Is 42, released on September 3rd, 2014 with the track Bae which has been quite appreciated by the audience. 

As for the collaborations, in 2016 Young West invited Neil on the track Going back to Cali. Nafla also released the now-classic track Mercy featured by AP. More recently, in 2017, Nafla made an appearance on AP’s track Gone. Niahn (more exactly former member of Young Creation) also released Selfish featured by Bloo and AP.

Besides the fact that some members joined the label Mkit Rain, 42Crew’s hiatus might also be explained by the fact that some members went back to South Korea while the others stayed in California. 

What is life? Life is 42

The question might have crossed your mind, but why 42 or 42Crew?

The answer is in the skit of their mixtape, which is none other than an extract of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a film by Garth Jenning released in April 2005. This movie is actually an adaptation of a radio drama series from 1978 written by Douglas Adam and also adapted into a novel. 

“The Answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything … is ……………………………. 42”.

Extract of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Here’s an extract randomly found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aboZctrHfK8

And the famous Skit: https://soundcloud.com/lifeis42/4-skit?in=lifeis42/sets/life-is-42 so that you don’t have to search by yourself!

Now you can also check the other articles about Mkit Rain’s members if that’s not already done, and once again do not hesitate to give a listen to Young Creation and 42Crew’s projects, they even gave Mediafire link for some of them!

MD Family:

https://soundcloud.com/haru21/md-most-definite-ft-haru-min

Souleaf:

https://soundcloud.com/souleafmusic

https://www.youtube.com/user/Souleafmusic

https://souleaf.bandcamp.com/

Young Creation:

https://www.youtube.com/user/YoungCreOfficial,

https://youngcreationla.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/youngcre-los-angeles

But also their Twitter and Tumblr because it’s still nice to give it a look

http://youngcreation.tumblr.com/

42Crew:

https://www.instagram.com/lifeis42/