MADE IT OUT OF PURGATORY is the heavy-hitting new EP from New York City-based alternative rap artist and musician YAHYA, which comes on the back of his latest album Pieces Of Me (The Full Story) that has now amassed nearly two million plays online, on the back of rave reviews and critical acclaim from fans and critics alike, including Live Nation’s Ones To Watch, and BBC Sounds, to mention a few. Produced by Canadian beatsmith Antonio Lamar, Made It Out Of Purgatory tells Yahya’s story of escaping the destructive cycles that have kept him trapped for so long.
The EP opens antithetically with ‘LOV3FLY’, which is the culmination of Yahya’s purgatory process of burning into purity that inspired the project in the first place, and it ends with the self-produced ‘Every Night’ where the story begins. The songs on the Made It Out Of Purgatory EP see Yahya trying to escape the self-induced nightmarish “dream life” where all is seemingly good, but only because of his direct choice to ignore his own pain, emotions and feelings in a bid to please others and do exactly what they expect from him, regardless of the damage it is causing Yahya.
In between ‘LOV3FLY’ and ‘Every Night’ sit the impassioned ‘Reminisce’, which sees Yahya naively extolling the virtues of only remembering the beautiful parts of the past, without trying to acknowledge and heal from the bad parts; the trap-infused ‘Drowning In Your Love’ where Yahya is feeling suffocated by his choice of masking his true feelings of the past with only positive memories; and the melodic trap offering ‘Fall For You’ over which the Sudanese native accepts that he must leave these “positive memories” behind in order to really change his life for the better.
Speaking about the inspiration behind his Made It Out Of Purgatory EP, Yahya says, “The overall theme of the story is release and growth, and the next album this EP leads us into will be the full exploration of this release of the old, and growth into the new with full confidence and faith that this is all meant for me, but it starts here on this project. The story is about me escaping from the destructive cycles that have kept me trapped, whether that was my emotions, my thought patterns, or just who I was allowing myself to be in my moments of weakness”.
Offering more context, Yahya adds that, “the EP speaks to learning how to be yourself again after healing your heart and healing your perspectives, so that you can move forward in your blessings. It is also about coming to understand that to move forward, you must first be still, and within that stillness, you can really slow the life around you right down, so you can see everything you were meant to attain from a certain space. The EP tells my story of addressing your life’s cycles, and shedding those destructive behaviours and patterns by being honest with yourself”.
Highly recommended if you like the sounds of Flatbush Zombies, $NOT or XXXTentacion, Yahya is an exciting genre-bending prospect in the world of rap music. His creative flair and penchant for diverse soundscapes has seen the Sudanese native fusing his hip-hop foundations together with trap, rock, and R&B sensibilities to create a sound that stands by itself in today’s hip-hop and rap landscape. Known for his undeniable cadence and delivery, the New York City resident comes with an ingenious vision and identity that has already garnered over five million listens online.
