Young Meepa has lived inside systems most people only read about. Homelessness, addiction, poverty, and institutional control are not themes for him, they are memories. As he talks through his journey from the streets to fully independent music, he unpacks how misanthropy, empathy, and resistance coexist in his work and in his life.
- Hello Young Meepa, thank you for taking the time to share your story and your work with us. Your life has taken you from Dayton to Chicago’s South Side, and from riding freight trains to making music in studios. How does all of that still influence the way you see the world?
This is a really intense question, because in one way or another, the things that influence every aspect of my art, lifestyle, way I think and perceive the world, have deeply in a multitude of ways have had a major impact on me. Like when I was a traveling crust punk. I was exposed to the really dark elements of America (including Puerto Rico) like witnessing the PRI) prison industrial complex first hand, and the effects it had on entire communities and the people directly affected by it, and the effects of the drug addiction industrial complex machine, and poverty as policy rather than an “accidental social problem”. It humbled me, jaded me, depressed tf out of me, and made me forever see the world for the piece of sh** that it is. But in a way it made the good parts / people really stand out. Like when every time I was spanging (spare-changing) on a Sunday especially in the south, these God-fearing, black women, wearing their Sunday’s best, would give me a couple bucks and food and pray for me (if you’re reading this Doris from NOLA it’s Georgie / Meepa!!)
- “Meepa” started as a joke among friends in the punk scene. At what point did that nickname start to feel like a real identity you could stand behind?
It got to the point where I was overdosing like 3-5 times a week, and my partner at the time said “you’re so punk it’s a problem.” And that statement really stung because why was I living this way, it was complete misery, I no longer cared if I live or died and all I had to show for it was a black mold ass squat / bando in right next to the lower ninth ward, so I started concentrating on other aspects of music (like no longer trying to be a leftover crack clone (they’re a band), and started making trapish beats.
- Addiction is part of your story, but it’s not the whole story. How do you decide what parts of that experience belong in the music, and what parts stay private? Do you feel pressure to represent anything beyond yourself, or is your priority simply telling the truth as you lived it?
I try to tell as close to the truth as possible based solely off of my own lived experience, like first hand I can tell you there is nothing glamourous about life in a black mold filled bando in the LNW in NOLA hustling either your body or panhandling to get your fix). Whenever people approach me in an act like I’m glamorizing this lifestyle it makes me very depressed.
- You create everything yourself, writing, producing, engineering, and performing. What does total independence give you that collaboration sometimes can’t?
I’m a control freak, especially about the narrative, and don’t get me wrong I love to give credit where it’s due. but at the end of the day Young Meepa is me / my instrumentation, my lyrics, my story.
- MXTPE #1: birth introduced listeners to your world in a very uncompromising way. What were you trying to establish with that first project?
Just my truth, I wasn’t at all trying to be abrasive or shocking and tbh I wasn’t even thinking about how other people would take it or not.
- In your latest release MXTPE #2: misanthropy, the word misanthropy suggests bitterness, but the project also feels deeply reflective. What does that word really mean to you in the context of this tape, and how does this album continue the story you began on MXTPE #1?
Oh sh**, ok this may take a while to answer. Ok so since I was like 10-12 years old, people (mostly adults) in general just kept putting me down, or exploiting me (different topics for different times). So when I say “Misanthropy” it is wayyyy past the point of bitterness, it is full of hatred and disappointment, for at least 95 percent of humanity. And being homeless, addicted to drugs all the while having to adhere to and play by the rules of capitalism, it really starts to wear you tf down, but I always held onto this belief that not every one is “an NPC, evil, computer program” (joking mostly) and I need to keep it together for myself and the folks that still love me and I love them. So MXTPE #1 birth was a quick introduction, into a world that (no exaggeration) wants to grow / groom me for their exploitative needs, as in exploit my body in everyway possible, use my intelligence, just f**k**g use me.
- “Blood and $emen (ACAB)” is intentionally extreme and confrontational. What was the emotional purpose behind pushing it that far?
I’m gonna put this as honestly and bluntly as possible. 1) cops only exist to protect property for rich people, i.e. people (slavery), big bass boats, banks, etc… the very first police in the United states of America were slave catchers. 2) they are an inherently racist, classist system, so all these motherf***ers saying reform, how tf can you reform a system built of off property being people and not people property being just as important in not more so. When I say ALL COPS I MEAN ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS.
- You have an upcoming two-part release titled MXTPE #3: dystopia, and as we know you’ve put a lot of intention into the structure of that project, especially with the numbers and how they add up. What drew you to that two-part format and symbolism? Also, when can listeners expect it to arrive?
So, I feel like we already live in an Orwellian-esque 1984 dystopian society, I mean come the f*** on, the former host of the apprentice in the US’s president, if were not in hell then I’d be surprised as f*** as to how much worse it can get. Have you ever seen the movie Idiocracy? i deadass think that movie would be a step up from what’s happening now. I got political awareness from my mom and dad (RIP). My mom was an undercover communist in Berlin for her dissertation and my dad was like a nuclear rocket scientist. But you know how a lot of people say if you don’t vote you can’t complain, I feel like if you don’t riot you can’t complain, or take out a cop or something.
P.S. MXTPE #3 Pt 1 should be out mid January to mid February.
- The word dystopia suggests a future shaped by collapse or control. Is this project about the world around you, the world inside you, or perhaps both?
I feel like for the first time in my life people are actually listening to what I have to say or at least saying I’m hot, I’ll take what I can get.
- Looking back at everything you’ve survived, what does stability mean to you now, and does music feel like a destination or an ongoing process?
Stability means harm reduction and not having to worry about coming home to an eviction notice or my partner cheating on me. I want a semi boring life I guess you could say, but semi boring to me is way off the rails for everyone else.
- When someone hears Young Meepa for the first time, what do you hope they understand that goes beyond the shock or intensity?
Radical Empathy. Just that it’s not weird to feel empathy for someone, it’s actually weird and f****d up to feel nothing.