Franklin B. Quesada III (born December 19, 1989) is an American Musician/Actor best known by his stage name "Yung Q"
Life and Career
Yung Q has earned this. When you litter over a decade of hip-hop with landmark verses, when you roll with some of the most formidable crews to ever huddle up in the rap game and still make a name for yourself as a solo artist, when your talent is so internationally known you can hold it down in any area code, when you’ve been in the game as long as he has and still sound as fresh to death as he do, when you’ve rocked the stage with Big named artist and held your own, then…and only then…can you name your album Failure Meet Success.
With wisdom in his lyrics and feeling in his blunt smoke and liquor free voice, Quesada has spent the last 10 plus years entrenching himself in the upper echelons of the rap game. And on his first solo album—his first as a member of the Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam familia—his rhymes have never sounded so potent; his voice never so evocative.
“People are always trying to redefine themselves, re-invent themselves,” says Quesada. “But I’m not selling you a lifestyle; I’m not selling you rims; I’m giving you my art and I’m trying to entertain you. And there’s value in that.”
Failure Meet Success with it’s eclectic collection of guests, producers and sounds transcends sub-genres and geography. Leave the pigeon-holes for the birds, this is simply a filler-free rap album from one of the finest pound-for-pound MC’s in the game.
“Sure, things are different out there; music sounds differently, it gets made differently and it gets listened to and talked about differently. But it’s still music. And you still have to come with heat.”
On Failure Meet Success, Quesada's playing with fire. Whether he’s keeping it all in the D-Block family with his man, Sheek, on “Fresh Out,” lacing the clubs with the likes of Young Marquis and John Michael on “Let Go,” and “Things I Wanna Do,” respectively, tipping his cap to the legend he knew as a friend on, “Failure Meet Success” or going bar for bar with Jae Raw on “Stackin' Stackin,” Quesada's rhymes are always flammable objects.
Don’t think of the album title as some petulant shrug of the shoulders. Failure Meet Success is a mission statement from an artist equally inspired by the music of his contemporaries and frustrated by the static to noise ratio he hears in the music business. “People get down on things, people whine on them blogs about rap...but the music of this year, with Jeezy, with Wayne, it makes me proud to put out an album this year. This has been a great year for rap and I wanted to have my say.”
No conversation about the game is complete before Yung Q says his piece. Unapologetically dedicated to his gift, Failure Meet Success is an offering to not just rap aficionados, but truly anyone that calls themselves a music lover. It’s full of the frustration and anger of daily life, the joy and excess of a Saturday night and the clear-eyed contemplation of a Sunday morning. It’s about what life gives and what it takes away. It’s simply a portrait of an artist doing his thing at the highest level. And if you don’t’ like it, you know where to pucker up.
