Yung Bleu, 26, is known for being an extremely versatile and successful R&B crooner. He started his music career in Mobile, Alabama, as a rapper in the mixtape scene, which is a stark contrast to his style of music today.

“Most people describe [my sound] as R&B. I would describe it as ‘pain music’ because I go back and forth between singing and rapping a lot,” Bleu told the Rockstar Experience Podcast. “But for me, I can step outside of that and go anywhere I want with it. I’m just diverse really. I can slide in and out of any genre I want to.”

Bleu’s versatility has paid off for him in dividends with multiple gold records and a nomination in XXL’s Freshman List. He also scored himself a Drake feature on his hit song “You’re Mines Still,” which has proved to be one of the biggest breaks of Bleu’s career.

“I knew it was gonna pop off when I did the original song. I just ain’t know when,” Bleu told us. “Drake hopping on it just sped it up. You know what I’m saying? I knew it was a good song.”

The song has been one of Bleu’s biggest, earning him a gold certification, and the story behind the record is just as impressive.

“I did ‘You’re Mines Still’ in 15 minutes,” Bleu professed.

“And you freestyled it?” we asked.

“Yeah I just heard the beat and walked in the studio. I dropped that whole project within 4 days because I just woke up one day and was like ‘I wanna drop a concept project.’ I had just dropped the album but I was like ‘man I just wanna keep music coming,’” Bleu said.

And that he has. Yung Bleu has released two projects in the past year – Bleu Vandross 2 and Love Scars: The 5 Stages of Emotion – and it seems like there is more music on the way now that he’s figured out his label situation. Bleu recently took to social media and claimed that leaving a major label and going independent was “one of the best decisions of his career.” Bleu recently left his long-time major label to publish his music independently through a distribution company, Empire Distribution. When asked about the specifics of his label situation, Bleu explained his reasoning. 

“It just worked out for me man, it’s just my personal decision,” he said. “When I went independent I just made way more money and had more freedom to do what I wanna do. I just started prospering way more. Once I came to Empire, they gave me the tools to do what I knew needed to be done, without questioning. Shit just started goin’ crazy. I had only dropped like two projects since I been off a major label and ‘Love Scars’ was one of them. I just randomly texted the [Empire Distribution] CEO and said ‘I want to drop a project Friday. Two weeks. Get ready.’ And I couldn’t have done that with a major label.”

Now that Bleu is working with added flexibility and prosperity through his Empire Distribution move, he’s ready to drop his next project. Bleu has promised that it will be released this year and will contain more heavyweight features.

“I don’t know when it’s comin’, I just know I don’t really wanna say any of the features because they’re not cleared yet. I know they gonna be cleared but it’s gonna be a lot of huge people on there,” Bleu said.

“So for sure this year right?” asked Bryan Escalante, the Rockstar Experience’s producer. 

“Yeah, for sure, yeah,” Bleu assured.

Until then, dive into Yung Bleu’s extensive catalog and check out his latest hit record, “Thieves in Atlanta” ft. Coi Leray.

You can check out the full Rockstar Experience Podcast interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iHeart Radio. 

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