Young Buck

Real Name: David Darnell Brown
D.O.B.: March 15th, 1981 Nashville, Tennessee

Label:G-Unit/Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records

The Early Years

Young Buck started rapping at the age of 12. It was not until the age of fourteen that he started recording in the studio. Although he was in the studio, recording, he was also well known on the streets because he used to deal drugs in his neighbourhood. Buck's mother is an Iranian immigrant and he is proud of his Iranian heritage.

The older drug dealers gave him the nickname, "Young Buck", due to the fact that although he was dealing drugs at an early age he was also making money. Brian "Baby" Williams spotted Young Buck at the age of sixteen having a rap battle and took on the young rapper. It was not long before Buck left high school and was recording along with the rest of the Cash Money Crew. Juvenile and Young Buck left Cash Money at the same time. Young Buck joined UTP Records whilst Juvenile was trying to work out a deal with Suge Knight but Juvenile had legal problems and had to leave before they could finish the deal. Young Buck would later sign with G-Unit.

Shooting

After Young Buck helped Juvenile secure cars for his video "Ha", he headed back home. It was not long until he was in a tight situation. One man came through where Young Buck was dealing drugs and shot the rapper two times. Buck recalled: "Motherfucker come kick in my door, 4, 5 in the morning. I was laying in the middle of the floor. He came standing on top of me with AK or a Mac something. I ain’t had no gun so I got my ass off the floor and ran towards the kitchen. It just so happen one of my homeboys, he was awake; he pushed the guy back up out the door. I got shot twice. One of them damned near blew my arm off and another caught me in my upper leg, in my thigh. I had so much illegal shit in the house at the time I rode around for 45 minutes to an hour before I even went to the hospital. I damned near lost my life from bleeding so much."

G-Unit Start

G-Unit was founded when childhood friends, Lloyd Banks, 50 Cent and Tony Yayo decided to make a group with each other. They met Young Buck when Cash Money Records artists came to New York and 50 Cent heard Young Buck rapping. After 50 Cent signed his contract with Aftermath Entertainment, Young Buck joined the group. 50 Cent gave him a feature on his successful first Get Rich or Die Tryin' album on the track "Blood Hound". After this, he appeared on G-Unit's début album, Beg for Mercy, which went on to be certified 2x Platinum. Young Buck then released his début album.

After being with G-Unit for a little over a year, Young Buck released his début album, Straight Outta Ca$hville with Ca$hville being a play on the name of Young Buck's home city, Nashville, Tennessee. Young Buck recalls: "I got the name from N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton. “Straight Outta Cashville speaks for itself. It tells you my way of living up on to this day. I want the world to get a feel of me, showing them the way I am and the way I get down."

The singles from this album include "Let Me In", "Shorty Wanna Ride", and "Look at Me Now". It features a lot of rappers outside of G-Unit such as Lil' Flip, David Banner, D-Tay, Ludacris, Stat Quo and production from Lil Jon, Mr. Porter, and more. The track "Stomp" was controversial because rapper T.I. was on the original version. Both T.I. and Ludacris were dissing each other and Young Buck replaced T.I.'s verse with D-Tay's, and eventually (on the final album) with The Game's. The album got very little promotion after November because of the VIBE award incident after Young Buck was arrested for assault. Though the case was dropped it had been four months since Young Buck himself had promoted the album. Production was provided by Three 6 Mafia, Lil Jon, Kon Artis and others. The album also featured guest appearances from Stat Quo, Lil Flip, David Banner, Ludacris, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Kon Artis amongst others. The album received very little promotion after November because of the VIBE Awards incident after which Young Buck was arrested for assault. Straight Outta Ca$hville has been certified Platinum by the RIAA with over 1.1 million sales in the U.S. and 2.3 million Worldwide.

Young Buck's second album, Buck the World was released worldwide on March 27, 2007. Its title is a play on the expression "Fuck the World". Production was provided by Dr. Dre, Jazze Pha, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Polow Da Don, and Lil Jon amongst others whilst guest appearances included 50 Cent, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, Young Jeezy, Bun B, Trick Daddy, and Lyfe Jennings, T.I., Eightball & MJG. Buck the World debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, with sales of 141,083 in the first week.