Today we’d like to introduce you to Yxng Viz.
Yxng, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My name is Tylon Freeman. I am a musical artist, entrepreneur and overall self-made businessman. I am from Orange County, California. I grew up playing multiple sports from a very young age. Among them being football, basketball, track & field, and baseball. I played these four sports all the way through right before high school before stopping baseball due to season and schedule conflicts but continued playing football, basketball and running track and field all the way through my senior year of high school.
Being that football has always been my greatest passion I continued playing through my freshman and sophomore year of college. I graduated high school with 0 scholarship offers even though I had a great GPA of 3.5 and lots of talent. I was a bit undersized for my positions. I played Wide Reciever and Cornerback and only stood at 5’10, 135 lbs. I’ve always been among the smallest of athletes ever since a kid but I never allowed that to stop me. I hold records that still stand to this day, I was the fastest ten-year-old in the state of California. I was featured during a halftime show on ESPN at the age of 12 for a short-lived segment called “The Tiny Football League” that covered Pop Warner football’s early rising and soon to be in the future big-time athletes.
So, I’ve been in the spotlight since an early age. Moving on, like I said I continued on and chose to attend my local community college Saddleback. Located in Mission Viejo. After playing two seasons I managed to stack up 30 scholarship offers to both Division 1 and Division two universities. As happy as I was to see my hard work finally paying off and by this time I had finally grown and hit my growth spurt. Like my father, I was a late bloomer. I am now 6’2.
The Doctor once told me if I was lucky I would be 5’9 and boy was he wrong, haha. Anyway like I said I was excited to see my dream of being a future NFL superstar slowly coming to fruition. But something just didn’t feel right. Growing up, I went through a lot. I faced more than most should have to on this journey to turn their dreams into reality. It was like every time something was going good something would happen beyond out of my control that would kick me right back down to where I started and it took a role on me mentally but also physically. By this stage of my career, I had already suffered multiple bone fractures, sprains, concussions you name it I went through it. But I loved the game so I kept going.
But this time it felt as though yeah things were going pretty good I had more or less just lost my passion to continue pursuing it. And at that moment, against many of my friends, family and close relatives will decided to stop playing completely and pursue other endeavors. I felt lost for a little bit because sports was all I knew I never had a year without the constant workouts and highly busy schedule. I didn’t know what to do next or where to even start, but I always knew since a child, I was put on this earth to be something special. It was at this moment where my true purpose arose. Becoming a musical artist. It all started when my close friend and little brother to me Jaylen McCloud under the moniker “Lil Nunu” who at the time was just like me starting to dive into the music business full tilt reached out to me and we began formulating ideas together.
At the time, he was just starting to work on making beats. And me, I was just learning the process of turning my thoughts into lyrics and writing them down. I was focused on song structure or any of those things just getting my ideas onto paper! Every night we would go on this app called “House Party”. It was an app people used to go on to do large FaceTime calls with their friends. But it would only be just us too. And we would work on our music together. He noticed quickly that I had a good ear for music as he would show me beats he was working on and I would offer suggestions on how to make them better. I really didn’t even know who’s to do the things I wanted him to do to make them better but I could always just hear it.
God blessed me with many gifts and this just happened to be another one I discovered through my life’s journey. Furthermore not too long after this was when he asked me if I would be down to record a record at a mutual friend of ours house Darius De Four. Who at the time had his own in-home set up. Nothing special just a mic and some t-shirts set up in the corner of his room to act as soundproofs so the vocals came out better. I was optimistic at the time and wasn’t too sure if I wanted to do it.
A lot went through my mind, what would my friends and family think of this yadda yadda yadda. I told him to give me a couple of days to think about it and I would get back to him. Now mind you at this time I was still playing football. I know I said I had stopped playing but at the beginning of my music journey, I was actually playing college ball and making music at the same time. I would write songs in the parking lot before practice every day and in class even at times when I should’ve been paying more attention to whatever my teachers were saying, haha, but don’t get it twisted, I still was an honor roll student four semesters straight 3.8 GPA and a team captain. What made me decide to finally go and record my first song was actually a day I was in class at school. I’ll never forget it CTVR3 a class where we would watch movies for the whole period and write reviews on the films.
After class one day a few of my classmates who I had gone to high school with who were also in my class had been paying attention to me writing in class every day and suggested that after class that day we go to the parking lot in his car play beats and freestyle for fun! So we did! My homies D-Train, Miles and Miles brother Louis! We sat in their car and freestyles over like five beats we found off of YouTube. Miles decided to record me while I was rapping and posted it on Instagram just for fun. The feedback was great.
And right there, I decided I’m going to give it a shot. Not too long after that I have my close friend I mentioned before Jaylen aka Lil Nunu a callback and gave him the okay to set me up to record. And the rest is history! From there, I began dropping songs on SoundCloud once a week building up my following. I did this for about 7-8 months straight. And was able to see a great deal of not only development in my sound but of the new fans I was gaining but what took it to the next level was when me and another close friend and artist Jair and I came together and started throwing house parties in my city.
We knew dropping music consistently was great but not if we weren’t capitalizing on gaining more fans to interact and listen to us. We began throwing some of the biggest house parties you could ever imagine. So big that we both are now banned from the app “Airbnb” where we used to book our homes to throw parties at off of because of how huge our events were. This made us become extremely popular and we began seeing our music and videos of our parties spread virally across the globe. From there, I began using the influence to build up your brand but also give opportunities to other aspiring artists who wouldn’t get the attention otherwise to get some shine too. I started hosting artist showcases after building connections with local venues I was performing at when I first started where artists could perform and bring fans out to watch them perform live.
And just doing everything I can to help put my city of Orange County on the map! From there, came the opportunity where me and my two close friends Lil Nunu and Jair went on tour with Chief Keef. And also performed on the massive 80,000 attendee festival Rolling Loud twice! Once in Los Angeles and another in Miami. Even opening for Travis Scott in L.A! And this is all current as these all occurred within the past eight months. Rolling Loud Miami being the most recent as that was just this past Spring 2019 in May. I’ve came a long way and am proud to be a representative for my city as a sign of hope that a kid with no musical experience nor connections in it all by himself alongside his friends were able to create such a huge impact.
Visiting local schools in my community signing autographs taking pictures with the fans I even went to Florida in May a day before my Rolling Loud performance with my bro Lil Nunu and met with my fans out there who waited five hours just to see me in the middle of the night due to three flight delays! Screw American Airlines y’all owe me $2,000 and you almost made me miss my show! Anyway furthermore I’ve also connected with another close friend of mine Kyle Hansen a former Marine and owner of the company “Recycle For Veterans” where he brings together former marine veterans and together they interact and do great things for the community, like beach clean-ups, planting trees to help the environment, etc. and we just had an event for that last month and cleaned the entire beach of Dana Point Harbor!
So, I’m really big on seeing my community shine and it’s amazing to see my peers around me all being so supportive of one another as well as myself and us all doing great things! I want to also give a special shout out to my friends/brothers, I consider my closest friends brothers to me so you’ll hear me say that a lot, haha, but special shout out to Chad Franklin an amazing comedian/videographer and overall entrepreneur whose always had my back since I started and is going to be a household name one day so stay on the lookout for him! And also my good friend James Pendergrass also a young very smart entrepreneur with endless potential to be something very special in this world!
And of course, I want to give a very special shout out to my family! Mom and Dad, I love you and my sister and brother and my little nieces Hayven, Alyssa and Yasmen. My big brother influences and mentors Ragee Bailey, Taylor Cunningham, Mike Custodio, and Xavier! Also a special shout to my sponsors Dope Clothing, Rastaclat, Supra, Skull Candy, People At War, and Ethika. And special thanks to my absolutely amazing manager Mia! My PR agent and close friend Carlos! And my always supportive, highly business savvy and fellow Orange County born and raised brother Jarret aka JCures owner of Westcoastcure! Shout out to my team of producers from overseas and in the United States my “Viz-ionary Productions Crew” Instagrams as follows: @lilnunubeats, @blk_beats, @is_amari, @likkledotz_otb, @aj_sawyer, @kidkrazybeats, @anthxnycollins, @justintimeforthebestpart, @beatsbykaiito, @laszlo.gsd, @tr1stanmadeit, @willhayness, @darius.rameshni.
Shout out to my very close friend/brother & barber @therealbarberal! My hairstylist and most amazing lady ever @badbarberchick! My big brothers since a kid Anthony Pierce and Isiah Robertson! My engineer and close homie @Official_Iv my big brother & DJ @djmogotti. My hype man and big bro @theatglife my big homies and big-time L.A promoters @djtreezy and @marathon_mina and of course, I could never forget to shout out my big homie Moosa! And also I want to thank Angela Bradford for always being there for me as well since my first music video I ever did at her house! And lastly, shout out to my homies Vai aka Slime and Carlos @whoiskaruousu! They are super talented and have always had my back!
Special shout out to every last one of my family members in Little Rock Arkansas and New Orleans Louisiana, I love you all so much. And then also add- shout out to my close friend and big brother figure Jermaine La Fleur soon to be NFL superstar love you, bro!
Shout out my big brother and amazing artist whose been there for me since I first ever started music Juliann Alexander aka Hitwxnder! And last but certainly not least my homie all the way on the east coast Aka_Twin I love you big bro and thanks for always having my back 1 love!
And for all the names I’m forgetting, I’m sorry, I could go all day with this, but you know, I love you all, that goes without saying and I appreciate every last one of you for your endless support over the years! I want to say Rest In Peace to my Uncle Charles, My God Father Gary, and my many other friends and fallen soldiers you are all missed and I will continue to make you all proud! And lastly, thank you to Phoenix Voyage for covering my story, you have now turned into a large piece of my life story! God bless! And stay tuned October 9th, I will be appearing on a new Netflix TV Series Rhythm + Flow, a hip hop competition between up and coming artists from all the globe judged by Hip Hop A-List Stars Cardi B, ChanceTheRapper and T. I!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I want to continue to be the best me that I can be! My ultimate goal is to inspire people to chase their dreams and that no matter what circumstances or obstacles life throws your way you can overcome anything as long as you believe in yourself and your vision!
Contact Info:
- Email: yxngviz13@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yxngviz13/?hl=en
Image Credit:
@iamseanranullo, @local__lightskin
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