On “Dear Life,” his first release in about a year, Chicago’s YP a.k.a. Backwood Jones goes in on his life’s hand like a sub-machine gun: blam, blam, blam-ing it out until the cartridge is spent. Many would crumble under the weight of it all, and perhaps, at points, YP almost did. The lesson is that regardless of what life gives you, or takes away, it cannot ever strip you of your talent. Watch as YP keeps pushing, contributing the best he can.

BackWood states, “I wish I had something as cathartic as being able to construct a song to vent my frustration at some of the cards I’ve been dealt. All I’ve got is wine-fuelled angry rants on Facebook.”