Young Dolph on Tour
Memphis hip-hop is a distinct style of Southern rap, and acts like Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat and Juicy J have been synonymous with the city. Rapper Young Dolph has built a career in the same mold as his predecessors, spitting menacing flows over breakneck production that tell his story of growing up in the South. A self-made star, Young Dolph makes it a point to bring the current sound of Memphis to every stage that he's on. At the 2019 Rolling Loud hip-hop festival's Bay Area stop, Dolph and his protĂŠgĂŠ and fellow Memphis trueblood Key Glock â whom he signed to his Paper Route Empire label â gave fans a taste of their No Rules tour, with cuts off of their Top 10 Billboard-charting collaboration album, Dum and Dummer. The pair gravitated with poise over thick, menacing beats, and Dolph delivered every bar like his city's cream of the crop. Young Dolph has delivered multiple album and mixtape projects every year since 2011, and so he's frequently on tour all over the country, bringing that Memphis swagger with him everywhere he goes.
Young Dolph in Concert
Born Adolph Thornton Jr. in 1985, Young Dolph had a tough upbringing in South Memphis. The course of Dolph's life changed at age 23 after he almost lost his life in a 2008 drive-by shooting and took the incident to propel his newfound devotion to a life in music. His career has embodied the Southern rap hustle from his first mixtape, Paper Route Campaign. He's released all 19 mixtapes and six albums on his own independent label, Paper Route Empire. He's left a mark as a diss rapper, including the song "Play Wit Yo B***h" pointed at Memphis rapper Yo Gotti, which led to a well-documented feud. But it hasn't stopped the prolific Young Dolph from continuing to link up with hip-hop's best. His 2017 mixtape Gelato featured tracks with Wiz Khalifa, Lil Yachty and Migos, while his 2018 LP Role Model featured Snoop Dogg on "I Think I Can Fly" and Offset on "Break the Bank."