Yung'N Restless

You Can Dance If You Want To: Athens rapper and Clark Atlanta University student Yung'N Restless (born Damien Xavier Ellison) released his second album, Big City Bright Lights, last month. Yung'N recorded his first track at age 11 and released his first full length, I'm Tuff, at age 18. So far, it appears that the breakout track from Big City Bright Lights is going to be “Okay,” for which a video was shot by the locals at Moving Images Pictures. You can view this and sample lots of tracks over at www.reverbnation.com/yungnrestless. Best of luck, Yung'N. More power to ya. - Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)

Damien Xavier Ellison still seems like an unassuming 19-year-old, a rare quality found in up-and-coming hip-hop artists. Up until a few years ago, he didn’t really show off his writing and rapping abilities at all.

Talk to him on an idle Tuesday, and it’s hard to gauge just what Ellison can do. Then he starts explaining himself, and suddenly his stage name fits him all too well.

Ellison performs as Yung’N Restless. The Clarke Central graduate now studies computer science at Clark Atlanta University, but he’s also made time to lift his hip-hop career off the ground.

He released his second album, “Big City Bright Lights,” earlier this month. He recorded the songs for it over a two-month stretch this past spring while continuing his education. Still, he had to cut something out.

“I didn’t sleep,” he said. “I’d pull all-nighters all semester, just watch the sun come up. My classes were spread out that I could squeeze in a two-hour nap, and then I’d do it all over again.”

Ellison paid the price for those sleepless nights, he says.

He still sounds a little tired now, at least until he gets a microphone in his hand.

If anything, he is diverse. Rap and hip-hop anthems come naturally to him, but he also can sing and play all kinds of percussion instruments. He writes as many as four songs a day.

The writing comes from his mother, he said.

“My mother always wrote a lot of poetry,” Ellison said. “She’d sit there at the desk and just write, write, write. We would do the poetry tour.”

Ellison started tailoring his own writing to music when he was 14. A few of his friends got together and recorded one of his songs in an Athens basement, and the next thing he knew, the whole neighborhood had it on CD.

“The whole neighborhood ended up knowing about the song, listening to it,” he said. “I wasn’t really proud of it, but I was just 14, 15. I just wrote it to do something.”

Ellison still doesn’t know why he writes or what makes himself tick. Many times, he catches a hook in his mind while he’s walking to class and holds onto it. He writes some of his best work when he’s angry.

Ellison moved around Athens several times growing up, and those experiences certainly blend into his words. He may be living in Atlanta now, but his heart — and his voice — are still from Athens.

“You still hear the small-town country boy in all my lyrics,” he said. “I’m no city boy.”

But if Ellison is going to make it in the music business, he’s going to have to make it in Atlanta. He has partnered up with All Out Management and has fellow Athenian Montu Miller as a manager.

Miller looks at Ellison’s abilities and can’t help but see an Athens superstar in the making.

“We don’t have to worry about him writing or being motivated,” Miller said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. He’s someone who’s not going to be stopped.

“We’re trying to shop him to different record labels and investors right now to take that next step. With the music and the movement he has around him, we don’t think it will be long.”

Once again, Ellison’s versatility is very attractive, Miller said. He grew up listening to groups like Outkast, but he doesn’t want to emulate anyone.

“I’m trying to be something different,” Ellison said. “I’m going in and doing what I know I can do. I know I can do a lot.”

By JOE VANHOOSE - joe.vanhoose@onlineathens.com
Published Sunday, October 23, 2011
- Athens Banner Herald (Athens, GA)

“Yung'N Restless back in studio working hard as ever. Big Miami trip coming up, Good things are ahead of this Talented Athens born Lyricist!!!!”
— blakstone, New Star Magazine - New Star Magazine

"BIG CITY BRIGHT LIGHTS" Hip-Hop artist Yung'N Restless has done it again!! Teaming up with Thunda Tracks in-house Producer Don T-Lay, to continue blessing the industry with "REAL LYRICS FROM ATLANTA"
— Jennyblogs1, New Star Magazine
- New Star Magazine