Born in Gadsden, Ala., Atha spent much of his childhood in Tennessee and was attracted to Hip Hop as a cultural and musical signifier at an early age. After a West Coast epiphany, Atha assumed his performing identity — he adopted his name from his father’s Cherokee heritage, with “yela” relating to the sun and light and “wolf” denoting strength and ferocity — and earned a spot on UPN’s reality show The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott in 2005.
He was bounced from the competition, but quickly capitalized on the exposure by recording his debut album, the independently released Creek Water, and his first mixtape, the irresistibly titled Pissin’ in a Barrel of Beez, within months of his elimination.
In 2007, Yelawolf was signed by Columbia and released his first single, “Kickin’,” but they dropped him almost immediately, never releasing the album he’d recorded for them. After a pair of under-the-radar mixtapes and his debut EP, Arena Rap, Yelawolf dropped his masterpiece, 2010’s Trunk Muzik, which led to an Interscope contract and then a deal with Eminem through his imprint Shady Records.
Yelawolf’s Shady debut, 2011’s Radioactive, which cracked the Top 30 of Billboard’s 200 on the strength of two singles, “Hard White (Up in the Club)” and “Let’s Roll,” featuring vocals from Lil Jon and Kid Rock, respectively, was somewhat creatively compromised but did well. After that, Yelawolf retained a tight grip on creative control, collaborating with drummer Barker on the Psycho White EP and with singer-songwriter Sheeran on The Slumdom Bridge. Yela dropped his Heart of Dixie mixtape in 2012, followed in 2013 by the much-anticipated Trunk Muzik Returns.
A ruptured spleen suffered during a stage dive initially delayed the recording of his Love Story album, but it finally came out last year. It was worth the wait, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. Almost immediately, Yelawolf announced his next album would be titled Trial by Fire; it’s now slated to be released before the end of this year. As a tease, perhaps, Yelawolf recently pushed out Hotel, an atmospheric new seven-track EP that’s gotten a lot of buzz since its release three weeks ago.
Yelawolf is a compelling songwriter, deftly mixing Southern Rock/Country traditions with blazing Hip Hop passion, elements that are amplified to critical mass in their live presentation.
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