Rapper Yungen has released a single to pay tribute to Liverpool FC’s first Premier League title win in thirty years. The track is named Mane and Salah, in homage to two of the football team’s key players.
The video flits between shots of him celebrating with friends, and landscape visuals of the rapper outside the club’s home, Anfield. Naturally, Yungen wears a Liverpool shirt throughout and poses with a replica of the trophy. The Premier League title was wrapped up by The Reds, after Chelsea beat title rivals Manchester City on Thursday. The artist took to Instagram Live to express his immediate elation, claiming that it was ‘the happiest [he] has ever been‘. He later announced the single,via Twitter, accompanied by a caption exclaiming ‘TO CELEBRATE THE NEWLY CROWNED PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS‘. As well as the track’s title players, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, Yungen uses a combination of metaphors and wordplay to salute other members of the Liverpool squad such as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
There is a unique relationship between the British rap scene and the sport of football. AJ Tracey was the face of Tottenham Hotspur’s kit launch in 2017, and Stormzy has performed at the home of his beloved Manchester United. Football is played and watched religiously within the urban communities from which the majority of the scene stems, therefore performers idolise the players and vice versa. The result is a cross-section between two of British culture’s biggest stalwarts, and an artistic platform that often emphasises the importance of the sport.
Yungen’s new single is evidence of this. A big name in modern grime, he rose to prominence after his SBTV freestyle. His greatest success to date was the 2018 platinum single Bestie, which featured Yxng Bane, and peaked in the UK top 10. He has also earned critical acclaim with a MOBO nomination for Best Newcomer in 2015. He has released two studio albums to date, Project Black and Red (2014) and Project Purple (2019).
The single Mane and Salah may not threaten the charts, but Yungen will not be bothered. It was not made to earn money or please his fans, but to celebrate the success of his favoured club. The Red’s title win was a monumental effort after thirty years of hurt, and so the reason behind the rappers elation are obvious. The relationship between the British rap scene and football is unique, and therefore Yungen’s track is the perfect medium to display the pride he feels at his team’s achievements.
