Seattle native Jaya YC has plenty of musical influences hovering in the hip-hop hemisphere. Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Hopsin ushered him into the game, and now he’s on a wave similar to the likes of Juice WRLD, Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert. He grew up listening to all types of music — jazz, reggae, rock n’ roll, to name a few — but leaned heavily into his romantic rap bag for his latest EP: “Lost Souls, Vol. 4: LUVTAPE.”
Produced by three close collaborators (DJ Lil Ve, KickBeatz and Wertos) and engineered by the man himself, Jaya YC kept things intimate on the love-themed project while also reaching back into his younger days. The “Lost Souls” series itself serves as a channel for Jaya YC to release songs he’s kept in the vault for a while, and it was during “LS2” that he decided to create themes for each of the installments in the series.
“I don’t come up with a theme until I have songs or beats that fit each other well,” Jaya YC said. “The first song, ‘Lair,’ was produced by DJ Vil Le and is the song that truly inspired the concept of LS4 because I had that song sitting in my vault for three years.”
“‘Royal Treatment,’ produced by Wertos, was the first song I finished for the project and the only song I finished that expresses all the elements I had intended to implement for LS4,” he added.
The cover art for the five-piece was inspired by headshots that Jaya YC had taken by his cousin. It was created by close friend and designer Mason Dillon-Hill.
Be on the lookout for more Jaya YC music this year, as he plans to release more singles throughout 2025. He’s also remastering his 2021 mixtape “The Sad Tapes” and re-releasing it with a fresh outlook, proving that this intrepid MC is not going to stop until he finds his success.
Learn more about Jaya YC by following him on Instagram and visiting his website.
