8.18.2023

Bay Area Sensation Yatta Bandz Shares TUFF LUV, His Tuneful and Affecting Second Album, via EMPIRE

The Hayward, CA Native Reflects on a Lost Love in “Polaroid” Video

With Hundreds of Millions of Streams On His Catalog, Yatta Bandz is Connecting With Fans on a Deep Emotional Level Through His Melodic, Alternately Lovesick and Lovestruck Anthems

The Album + Video:

Yatta Bandz wins fans with his sharp, emotional melodies, pouring his heart and soul into each and every bar. Coming through with a new collection of romantic rap ballads, the Bay Area sensation shares TUFF LUV, his second full-length album. The follow-up to his successful debut project Perfect Storm (over 100 million streams across platforms), TUFF LUV demonstrates Yatta’s ability to succinctly describe matters of the heart, distilling complicated situations into memorable hooks with his conversational melodies. The 21-year-old artist is wise beyond his years, demonstrating deep knowledge of self on “Hard Headed,” expresses the patience to wait for true love on the heartfelt “Find My Way,” and spits sincere game on the recent single “4Lifers.” The new album finds Yatta tapping into his raw emotion and delivering his best vocal performances to date on album highlights like “Way Out West“ (over 3.5 million total streams to date) and “Polaroid.” Featuring appearances from 3Breezy and Tatiana Manaois, TUFF LUV is available everywhere via EMPIRE.

To accompany the release of the album, Yatta shares the video for “Polaroid,” a highlight from the album. Tiptoeing around electric guitar curlicues, dramatic pianos, and soulful vocal samples, Yatta works a fast-paced melodic flow, looking at a past relationship from a birds-eye view. While he attempts not to dwell on his heartbreak, he understands, but still struggles to accept, that his partner’s decision to move on was the correct one: “You deserve better than what I could give/Tryna say ‘f*ck it, it is what it is’/Hard to say that when I keep lookin’ back, reminiscing on all of the sh*t that we did.” In the video, directed by AdamKG, the young rapper channels his pain into his performance, recording the song at EMPIRE’s San Francisco studios while scenes from his old relationship come to life through a series of polaroid pictures. Earlier this week, Yatta Bandz teamed up with Major Stage to share a performance of “Fallin Again,” another TUFF LUV highlight.

Born in Hayward, an East Bay city south of Oakland and north of Fremont, Yatta endured a rough childhood, experiencing periods of homelessness during his elementary school years. He found refuge from his hardships with his love of music, immersing himself in the discographies of artists like Juice WRLD, J. Cole, XXXTentacion, and Polo G. Yatta first found an outlet for his creativity by posting his original freestyles on Instagram, building a following that naturally followed him to SoundCloud, where he released underground hits like “Loyalty” and “Somebody,” and to YouTube, where he cultivated a following of over 202k subscribers. Yatta broke out in a big way in 2022 with the release of singles like “Don’t Go” (25.4 million Spotify streams, 7.5 million YouTube views) and “Unseen Scars” (25.2 million Spotify streams, 3.1 million views on YouTube audio), both of which can be found on Perfect Storm, his debut album.

With the newly-released TUFF LUV, Yatta hopes to expand beyond the Bay and earn some national recognition. Stay tuned for much more from the 21-year-old rapper.

Stream TUFF LUV: https://music.empi.re/tuffluv

Watch “Polaroid”: https://youtu.be/G7SjFBueC1U

Watch “Fallin Again” Live on Major Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytvo6q9RU8o

TUFF LUV tracklist:

Had It Hard
Toxic Inspiration
Find My Way
Way Out West
Fallin Again ft. Tatiana Manaois
4Lifers
Hard Headed
Attached ft. 3Breezy
Save The Day
Polaroid
Take It Easy
Time After Time

Photo credit: Daniel Aziz

Please contact Michelle or Chris for more info.

The Background:

Yatta Bandz explores extreme emotions in his music. He’ll confront heartache head-on with a wavy rhyme or embrace loneliness in a balmy and bold melody. By holding nothing back, his music may very well sound exactly how you feel in the moment. Yatta always found love in even the roughest of circumstances. He endured a period of homelessness as a young child, holing up in hotels or at the homes of gracious family members for three years. Music offered an escape as he discovered Drake, J. Cole, Juice WRLD, XXXTentacion, and Polo G. He got his first taste of viral success in high school, gaining traction with “Loyalty” and “Somebody.” In 2022, he ignited his debut Perfect Storm. With a bevy of bangers, “Don’t Go” piled up 24 million Spotify streams followed by “Unseen Scars” with 23 million Spotify streams and “Phone Calls” with 16 million Spotify streams. With empathy and energy, he has generated hundreds of millions of streams and incited the applause of OnesToWatch and HotNewHipHop, among others. Now, he opens up like never before and explores love from every angle on his 2023 second full-length offering, TUFF LUV [EMPIRE], featuring “Find My Way.”