My Origin

NG Young was born and raised on Chicago's South Side in the Robert Taylor Projects.

While attending Chicago Vocational High School, NGY joined two R&B groups and majored in vocal music.
She performed at various talent shows, night clubs, and she even sung acapella with her group members on subway trains in pursuit of her dreams. NGY wrote her first original songs that were performed by her singing group.
At the age of 15, NGY became pregnant and was emancipated by the courts to obtain full and legal adult status and lived independently as such. NGY graduated from high school in 1997, despite being a single emancipated, teen mom who struggled with depression.
A few months after graduating from high school, NGY relocated to Minnesota with her son in search of a better life. She attended college in the evenings, while she worked as an assistant preschool teacher at her son's preschool during the day. She also worked as a medical receptionist at a small clinic in St. Paul. 
Within a short time, NGY went back to her musical roots and joined a local rap crew called Mo' Chiefa Tribe becoming the group's only female member as a hook writer and singer. For months, NGY wrote musical hooks for MO' Chiefa Tribe in exchange for tracks. It was in this time she began to listen to more rap than R&B music. She eventually became a fan of artists such as Common, Lauryn Hill and Talib Kweli. These Hip-hop artists changed the way she saw the world and her place in it.
However, no emcee, artist, or activist influenced her life, art, and spirit more than KRS-ONE. His lectures, music, and teachings welcomed a new way of life for NGY to live, which was Hip-hop. At the same time, NGY welcomed a new life, when she gave birth to her second child, a daughter, after emotionally surviving a heartbreaking miscarriage at 4 1/2 months gestation just one year earlier.
 

When It All Falls Down
Shortly after the birth of her daughter, she became pregnant with twin boys. After the birth of her twins, NGY began to lose her grip on reality. She was diagnosed with 
Acute Onset of Post-Partum Psychosis with Bi-Polar Traits. After more than a dozen hospitalizations, with no sign of getting better, and living with an untreated mental illness, NGY did the unthinkable and committed the act of infanticide by jumping off a bridge after throwing her twin sons in the Mississippi River. One of her sons died, and the other, along with NGY, was saved by a bystander. She was subsequently sentenced to 19 years in prison. NGY would spend the next 15 years incarcerated.

 

When You Get Back Up

After serving her sentence, NGY's journey continues with the desire to create the music and media that helped her survive the most heartbreaking event in her life. NGY remains especially passionate about the benefits of conscious rap and is dedicated to listening, producing, and sharing its message along with her story. When not working on music or literary projects, NGY spends her time with her husband, children and family.
NGY also remains passionate about helping others who live with mental illness get the help they need in her other work at MFF (Minnesota Freedom Fund), as a Post Release Support Specialist and Organizer/Activist.  NGY lives her life in service to the many who suffer in silence as she did, especially within the African American community.  She seeks to end the cycle of guilt and shame, having purged herself of this debilitating state of mind. N.G. Young speaks openly and honestly about the loss and pain in her past while moving forward in her future.
​N.G. Young is illegal, because she was not meant to rise again. She declares victory over the streets, just like a true Hiphoppa!

 

Hip-Hop Lives!