You can call Yak Boy Fresh a rapper if you want to, but that’s not what he calls himself.
“I’m an entertainer. This is what I do. That’s why I was put on this earth. I’ll also say I’m an artist,” says Yak Boy Fresh, who raps and sings.
The North County/Hazelwood artist has been making the rounds on the St. Louis music scene, hustling and bustling while cementing his name as one to watch.
He has already opened for the likes of Bun B and Kirko Bangz, Twista, Machine Gun Kelly, Chanel West Coast, Stevie Stone, Chevy Woods and Nelly on a bill that also included Karmin.
“If they came to St. Louis, I opened for them,” he says.
This weekend, Yak Boy Fresh adds hip-hop legends Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to that list. He will open for the group Sunday night at the Pageant.
He considers it an honor to share the stage with an act that has worked with both 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.
“A lot of people’s No. 1 goal is to work with a Bone Thugs-N-Harmony,” he says.
But he’s doing it one better than just sharing a bill with the group. He recently returned from Los Angeles, where he recorded a song called “Scraping the Sky” with Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony from Yak Boy Fresh’s upcoming album “Welcome to My Rehab.”
“We went straight to his personal studio and wrote it together,” he says. “I held my composure with him. I walked into the room, shook his hand and said, ‘I do this,’ ” says Yak Boy Fresh.
He was signed to Nelly’s Derrty Entertainment a year ago and hobnobbed with celebrities often during that period.
During his short time with Derrty, he mostly worked with St. Lunatics rapper Ali. (Yak Boy Fresh first met Ali when he was 9, and Ali told him he was going to make him the next Bow Wow). Derrty shopped him around for a record deal last year, but they’d parted ways before the year was over.
“We had discussions, started renegotiating and didn’t agree on the same terms,” he says. They shook hands and walked away, though he says they continue to be friendly. “There was never any hard feelings.”
Yak Boy Fresh says his takeaway from that situation is that no matter what situation you’re in, have your own hustle. “Don’t ask for no handouts,” he says.
Though Yak Boy Fresh’s name is relatively new, he says none of what’s happening is new to him.
“I been doing it for so long. It doesn’t happen overnight at all.”
He discovered hip-hop when he first heard ’80s rapper MC Shan and says he has been rapping since he was 9, taking cues from influences such as KRS-One, LL Cool J, Rakim and more.
His father used to dabble in rap and exposed Yak Boy Fresh to it. “He’s front row every show, and he’s the reason why I am who I am today.”
He’ll release his debut album “Welcome to My Hood” later this year, which will include his mix of Nelly, B.O.B. and Eminem, “but with an edge.” His sister Maria Stylez is on the project as well.
“It’s a feel-good album with a teaser of my life story,” he says. “I don’t want to give everybody everything just yet.”
What Yak Boy Fresh, opening for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (“Icons of Hip-Hop 20th Anniversary” tour) • When 8 p.m. Sunday • Where The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard • How much $25-$30 • More info Ticketmaster.com
