PsychoYP’s strength as a Trap and Rap artist is near faultless. In the conversation surrounding the state of Trap in Nigeria, YP’s consistency in the art poses a possible solution to the question of the genre’s mainstream viability. From the UK to the Capital City of Abuja, the 22-year old rapper continues to tie different cultures together through his artistry. He never fails to brag about how he has managed and continues to, make a name for his city in this oversaturated music industry – “And I put my city on the map, and I got them on my back.” Psycho YP’s evolution as an artist is not just remarkable, it is truly distinct. 

With an ever-growing audience, the young rapper with every project manages to refine his craft and sound. In 2016, he set his career in motion with his first tape ‘Lost In The Sauce’, an album that captures the artist spitting bars over heavy clear and distinct Trap beats. His debut mixtape ‘YPSZN‘ came in June 2018 and a year after, he followed up with his sophomore mixtape ‘YPSZN2′ – The body of work that gained him his rise to fame as the rapper shows off his abilities track after track. The ongoing effect of the mixtape seems to be evident as the mixtape ‘YPSZN2‘ earned him a nomination spot at the Headies Awards 2020 for ‘Best Rap Album’, alongside AQ, Illbliss and more.

As fans, we were expectant of a ‘YPSZN3‘, but Psycho took us by surprise last month, announcing the release of his new EP ‘Euphoria’. This tape, which he describes as personal to him, is a balance between sonics and themes; “This project is going to do a lot for the trap scene in Nigeria“ he says over a zoom call.

In an exclusive track-by-track breakdown, PsychoYP offers a window into what each song on ‘Euphoria’ is about.

 

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 Big Moves 

This song basically is the intro. It’s a song I recorded off a BTG and Malik Bawa beat and when I finished recording the track, I knew it was definitely an intro track. It was either going to be for this project or another project. I eventually sent the song to [another producer I work with,] Ileri, because I felt like the beat was missing something, and he finished it up and that just had to be a track one.

+234 (Daily Paper)

+234 is actually one of my favourite tracks off the project. Recording the track was crazy, I was with Jaylon in Birmingham in this crazy apartment and from where we were, we could see more than half of Birmingham. It was a mad view and this was like 7am. But yeah, this track is a track for every Nigerian to be proud of based on the +234. I don’t really pick anything Nigerian on that track but, I mean, be proud still.

Industry N****s

The song is for “Industry Niggas” – I mean the second verse of this track is for industry niggas. The first verse is just for verse sake, but you see the second verse is where I really got into the beef with industry niggas. 

Guapane$E

This one is also one of my favourites as well but it’s kind of old. I recorded this in Manchester when I was still in my last year of uni or during my masters, one of them. But yeah, it was before COVID and it’s one of the oldest tracks on the tape. I recorded this and sent it to RassTokyo, he recorded a verse, sent it back, [and] then I sent it to TrillTega. [TrillTega] recorded a verse as well and sent it back and yeah, the track was done. I don’t even have a verse on that.

Target 

Target was just one of those songs that, from the beat, I just knew I had to do something crazy on this and I don’t usually write so I just started recording. At that time, I was talking to J Molley so I just sent him the song and a couple others, and he sent me back the verses and I just picked the best one to drop at the time. 

Smoke 4 Free

This was also produced by one of the producers on track 1, Big Moves. The track was recorded in Abuja at like 3/4am. BTG sent this beat to this group chat and said nobody wanted to hop on the beat and I knew this was something I’d have done easy. And, well, I did. It’s also one of my favourite tracks, I literally performed it like 2 weeks after recording it sometime in Abuja. 

In Peace

“In Peace” is another crazy track produced by Jaylon, recorded in Abuja as well. I love the song so much, I literally shot a video for it not too long after I recorded the song. You just need to listen to the song to really understand it. It’s basically kind of like an interlude type of thing and has skits on it as well.

6 Feet Deep

Alpha P and PatrickxxLee went crazy on this track actually. Big shoutout to those guys. Alpha P always comes through for me and PatrickxxLee and I have a couple of songs together. We had been working on a lot of stuff together and luckily enough, I get to put out one of the first songs we’ve worked on together so yeah, that’s another very interesting song.

Euphoria

“Euphoria” of course, Ramoni produced that special song, backup vocals by Azanti and yeah, a video ready. I was still in Birmingham, same apartment, same view and Ramoni sent a couple of beats. He sent this beat he made in 2018 or so and it was this Euphoria beat. I asked if he still had the file and yeah he did and I just knew I was going to do something crazy on the beat. [For] most of the time, I just let the beat let me know what to do. It’s not really what I’m thinking about or what I’m going through at the moment, It’s really just what the beat is telling me to do, and yeah, the song came out.

Stream ‘Euphoria’ in full below.

Featured Image Credits/AbdullahiAli

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