Recently, YFN Lucci brought Summerhill, Atlanta to the students at Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Building.
Hosted by rolling out’s A.R. Shaw, the “Key to the Streets” rapper came to GSU decked out in diamonds for an exclusive listening session of his new album, Ray Ray From Summerhill.
Before his arrival, students wrote down their questions to Lucci to be answered during the listening party. They wanted to know the rapper’s inspiration, how he reached success and a little bit more about Summerhill.
YFN Lucci entered the session greeting everyone and asking if anybody was from Atlanta. Many students shouted where they were from and which zone they were representing. Before any of his new music was played, Lucci described Summerhill. “It ain’t no rich hood or nothing, everybody struggling,” he said.
“[I] grew up having fun and doing kid things … doing grown folks things, but I made it out of that. I grew up with my momma, and we stayed in Summerhill all our life,” he adds.
Lucci initially got inspiration to start rapping from his brother, Big Killa, known as YFNKay on Instagram.
“I believe I was thirteen. My big brother used to always rap, and come up with his own songs. They were hard, and it made me want to rap. So one day I was freestyling, and [he] asked, ‘You want to be down?’ I said, ‘Hell yeah,'” he recalled.
Lucci mentions how Johnny Cinco played a part in his career. He met him when he was about 16 or 17 years old through social media.
Cinco enjoyed his raps, and the duo began collaborating. Lucci adds that it wasn’t until he was about 21 years old when he and Cinco started to go to big studios and record. When Cinco featured Lucci on both his mixtapes, John Popi and John Popi 2, “everybody wanted to know who Lucci was,” he said.
When it came to the success of “Key to the Streets,” Lucci described it as easy. He met Quavo at the studio and the first beat he played, everyone in the studio loved it. Quavo went into the booth and made the hook and when it was Lucci’s turn, the two knew for a fact they had a hit. The song went platinum, as Lucci expected.
After questions were answered, the sounds of Ray Ray From Summerhill filled the room as students bobbed their heads to the various tracks.
Ray Ray From Summerhill is set to be released March 9.
Check out the cover art for Ray Ray From Summerhill and photos from the event below:
