Young Son

Young Son (born as Michael Alexander Hannah on November 13, 1988) is an unsigned American hip hop rap artist and 4-time Twin Cities Hip Hop Award nominee, based out of the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

He was born and grew up on the south side of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began getting interested in hip hop music as early as 4 years old. As a youngster, he performed in many of Minneapolis’ community talents shows at local libraries, parks and churches. As he continued through his Jr. and Sr. High years, he became an extensive poetry writer, being published in national anthologies and gaining nominations for Amateur Poet of the Year on multiple occasions. After high school graduation, Young Son began a full-on plight as a professional artist.

In October 2006, he formed an unsigned independent recording collective called “Influential Melodiez” with various artists from the Twin Cities. The label serves as a group of music independent artists as close affiliates in musical creation and promotion, with a specific positive aim on the popular genre of hip hop, rap, soul and urban music. Along with former label and group mate Hypel, he was nominated for "Best Kept Secret" award at the 2007 Twin Cities Hip Hop Awards as the collective duo, "Reality's Dream (then known as Young Squad Harmony). Under the Influential Melodiez company/collective, he released his first solo effort, “Soul Inspired: Hip Hop's Revival” on May 25, 2007, and since then, has been promoted through promotion and performances throughout the United States. The album was a collection of 21 tracks that basically set the tone of Young Son’s lyrical content, love for classic soul music, including the Motown greats, such as Diana Ross and the Supremes. The album featured rising Twin Cities M.Cs Hypel (Hope Youth Power & Everlasting Life), A.R.O, and Andrew Bates. Other rising singing vocal talent features included Courtney Williams, Phillip Conley, better known as TruCity, Evey Jean, Angee Blevins, Adrien Lindsey and Eugene Edwards, better known as G-Notes. Young Son hailed three 2008 Twin Cities Hip Hop Award Nominations, including the categories for Best Hip Hop Album of the Year, Best Hip Hop Song of the Year and the Best New Artist award. In November and January, Young Son’s singles “A Timeless Classic” and “This Far” received coverage and reviews on the critically acclaimed DJBOOTH.NET. “A Timeless Classic” debuted on the Underground Hip Hop Singles Charts @ #70 in the nation. Young Son is a born again Christian, and in the words of Chrisette Michele in one of her interviews "is not afraid to be a Christian in this industry (of hip hop)".

Young Son works heavily in his community in the Twin Cities by devoting time, efforts and concerns to issues he feels are important, including peace building, the fight against gang and street violence, anti-misogyny (the movement against the hatred of women), education of minorities, support for immigration and immigrant rights and the advocacy for Christianity and the beliefs he was raised upon. He is also a college intern and media correspondent for the non-profit youth peace organization, Youthrive, founded by Donna Gillen, as part of the Upper Midwest Affiliates of International PeaceJam, is an organization working with multiple Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, including Shirn Ebadi of Iran and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, promoting peace amongst the world. The organization is housed out of St. Paul, Minnesota. Young Son served as the main performing act at the Midwest Regional PeaceJam International celebration ceremony for 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Shirn Ebadi of Iran in March 2007 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN and headlined along with Twin Cities rap group “Big Quarters” at the 2008 PeaceJam Celebration for Archbishop Desmond Tutu in April 2008 at the North Minneapolis Service Project. Young Son is also currently on the "Youthrive Live: Hip Hop Peace Tour" across Minnesota and the Midwest at elementary, junior and senior high schools, a traveling concert tour promoting peace through hip hop with notable Twin Cities artists including Scribble Jam 2006 Beatbox Champ "DJ Snuggles", Maria Isa, Dancing Dave and Hypel (Hope Youth Power & Everlasting Life). Young Son and the tour have performed in various schools around Minnesota, the Red Wing Correctional Facility, the 2008 National Youth Leadership Conference and most recently, the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America.

Other major shows have included headlining the "Hip Hop 4 Obama" Fundraiser Concert in Minneapolis, Minnesota, opening up for One Be Lo of Binary Star, opening for Eyedea and Abilities of the Rhymesayers and performing in the lineup at the 2007 Allied Media Conference in Detroit, Michigan. Young Son released an online -only free downloadable promotional mixtape on Friday, May 30, 2008 entitled “Forever Words”, hosted by Houston DJ Kool Los B. The single from it and more information on the mixtape was featured on the internationally known, critically acclaimed hip hop website “DJBOOTH.NET” on May 23rd, 2008. Within 2 weeks, the mixtape received over 7000 downloads. Young Son is currently working on his second solo LP album, entitled "Philanthropist", which is slated for a September 2008 release.