Rapper YELLO Explains His Fake Accents
and Yeti Pack’s latest track, Broke AF
Why music?
I’ve always sold myself. In school, I got friends to tell girls I’m in a band. Girls like guys who do music.
I can write. I can’t sing. Hip hop came naturally. I heard it gets money.
You’re a dropout.
At Singapore Polytechnic, my lecturers weren’t having me sign up as an group leader for freshman orientation camp. My GPA was 0.4.
My friend suggested I run naked when freshmen walk past the “red bridge.”
How do you represent “culture?”
In UK, I use a British accent, and its lingo; same in New York, Thailand, Hong Kong—what little I know of their native language.
I try to make people feel at home. No one owes it to me to connect with me; I should attempt to connect with others.
In music?
My rap name is YELLO. I know my race, but it doesn’t define me.
The meaning of Yeti Pack: the quest to uncover a mythical creature is similar to the quest for success.
With Yeti Pack, we try to push the envelope.
People are sensitive. We try to blur what’s acceptable and not. In one of our songs, Hei She Hui [Triad], I used language like “chink” and “cracker.” Chill.
Music’s fun. Get in the mosh pit.
Do you belong in Singapore’s music scene?
Radio and magazines don’t feature us.
We don’t want the city on our side; we want the people on our side.
You have new music, Broke AF.
One night, we spent a shit ton at Orchard Towers. My producer suggested I write about being broke. Other rappers talk about being rich.
The song’s about having a girl pay for your shit.
How can a girl fuck you?
She’s got to be cute. She’s got to remind me of my mom. She’s got to be smart. She has to have good taste in underwear. Bad girls who are homely.
Alex is uninhibited. He dropped out of school three times, makes music out of pure passion, and attracts an ever-expanding circle of friends from across of the world, who share his love for life. His childlike navigation of adulthood is inspiring.
I’m glad to have found a friend with real-life Peter Pan.
