Yungsta Levels Up on Wide-Ranging, Openhearted Album ‘MEEN’

New Delhi hip-hop artist Yungsta aka Yash Chandra offers a deeper glimpse into his life and journey, the good and challenging times with able assists from his peers on his new album MEEN, which released this week via The MVMNT and Mass Appeal India.

The opening track and lead single “Ruhbaru” put forth a new perspective that the rapper took to writing an autobiographical song. The rest of the 11-track album sees Yungsta adjust his focus at different times, employing not just the able mind of producer Sez On The Beat but also New Delhi-bred hip-hop artists like Ikka, Raga, Seedhe Maut‘s Calm and Encore ABJ, his Full Power co-founder Frappe Ash, Mumbai’s Yashraj and up-and-coming artists like Dilliboy, Ak aka Akanksha Neogi and producer Eyepatch aka Ainesh Dhawan.

Yungsta says in a statement that he had the concept and story for an album for a long time. “I made about 8 to 10 songs and sent it to Sez in 2020 which was loosely based on the concept and the story,” he adds. Alongside work on MEEN, Yungsta also joined Sez and The MVMNT for the producer’s album Chaand Paar, which released in 2022 and took Yungsta to bigger stages. The rapper says, “While all this was happening, I’d been working on polishing the story and figuring out my own sounds for what I’d call my debut studio album and finally with the help of Sez & Faizan [Khan, co-founder of the MVMNT], I was able to bring out the best version of the story and the concept that I’d been working on and called it ‘MEEN.'”

The rapper swerves in several directions in the course of journeying through MEEN, going ham on “Dilli” with Frappe Ash and Calm. “Sansani” has that tabla sample that might just remind a few to throwback to Sez’s work on “Class-Sikh Maut, Vol. II.” “Sukoon” is a breakfree turn into a whole new territory for Yungsta and Sez alike, the buoyant beats and exuberant hooks making it one of the rapper’s most accessible song yet. “Nascar/Needs” is probably two songs but they’ve got a sense of open-heartedness connecting the whole thing together, with the beat switch and changes in flow.

“Homecoming (Interlude)” gives us a sense of the bonhomie Yungsta shares with his fellow artists and acts as a rousing reminder of the journey of MEEN so far. Soon enough, Yungsta and Yashraj — two of the meanest rappers by any measure — channel their inner optimists for “Savera,” complete with a saxophone outro.

MEEN is not just Yungsta’s best work, it’s clearly Sez on the Beat going from strength to strength too, unraveling a power-packed album that delivers both, earworms and unflinching mosh-ready hip-hop. Elsewhere, “NLITI” — No Love In This Industry” name-checks his 2012 debut show in Pilani and takes down the labels that cheated them. Ikka appears on the made-for-arenas “Totka” and brings a flamethrower to this bars. Yungsta finds another way to talk about his principles and the path he’s carved out for himself, never really sounding repetitive.

The rapper wastes little time on the closing track (and latest music video) “Hona Hi Tha,” flexing about how much he earns from being an artist now compared to a 9 to 5 day job. The incisive verse from Encore ABJ takes no prisoners, but it’s all in a grandiose, celebratory fashion, with Raga offering a glimpse into his journey.