Young Sosa

Rap nowadays is flooded with artists who claim to be the next big thing. Acts that are bringing New York back or taking over the industry run as rampant in the streets as them tinted Impalas in the summertime. And while not everyone is that 'breath of fresh air' they see fit to portray, there has been no shortage of artists on the come up who claim to be all these things and more, and yet they typically tend to fall short. While it's understood that a rapper needs a certain level of bravado to be taken seriously in today's climate, it's refreshing to meet an artist whose confidence stems from his ability to make good music.

Washington Heights own Sosa shows that music is universal, boundaries are made to be blurred and New York doesn't need to be brought back. Hailing from New York City's Washington Heights, Young Sosa, born Orlando Robles, has seen his fair share of ups and downs during his life. While being the son of Rafael Robles, the first player to ever come to bat for the San Diego Padres, Sosa's desires took him down a path that didn't exactly align with his natural born affinity for baseball.

Sosa had a story to tell, being from The Heights as it is casually called, embeds you with a certain pride. That pride may run hand in hand with the fact that Washington Heights is by far predominantly a Dominican neighborhood. The red and blue flag with the white cross is an ever present fixture in The Heights and that pride to represent not only where you come from, but your people is one of Sosa's main motivations. "I do this for my people. I'm a Dominican from The Heights, its the hood like any other hood in America, people on public assistance, drugs all over the place, crime all over the place, yet its a place that we wouldn't trade for anything in the world and that translates into my music whether it's me recording a track about our struggles, or me writing to all the ladies out there. Whether it's a track about what goes on in the hood or me recording a club or Reggaeton track. I like to consider myself Universal and having grown up in the hood and being Dominican I can relate to the hoods all throughout the world and make Universal music."

Sosa doesn't feel he can be defined by one genre of music. While everyone tries to label everything right now Sosa is on the verge of defining something all new, but something that has been a long time coming. His music isn't primarily Rap, nor is it primarily Reggaeton. The way he puts it explains how he sees his type of music. "I'm not afraid of change. You can't label me a street artist nor can you label me a party dude. You can't label me a dude that caters to the ladies, a Spanish rapper nor a battle rapper because I got all that and more in my arsenal." The same way that Hip Hop has evolved to encompass all genres in one through influence, it has also inspired the children who grew up with Hip Hop to react the same way. Encompassing Street with Caribbean, conscious music with music for the clubs, we all have these dynamic differences within ourselves. Why should the artists of our future be any different? Sosa is set to make an impact in music. His diverse influence base meshed with his pride or 'swagger' derived from his rich neighborhood and cultural upbringing, shows why Sosa will have a voice in the coming year and beyond. He is an artist who transcends genres effortlessly. The same way we all listen to different types of music, Sosa blends these different types, because that's who he is and that is in essence who we all are.