The Man

Yamin Semali is a hip-hop producer/emcee, born and currently living in Raleigh, NC, but raised mostly in East Point, GA. 

After a broken knee refocused the ambitions of the budding basketball star in high school, Semali found himself working promo for RED (Relativity Entertainment Distribution) where he would often drop off records to DJs in nightclubs and strip clubs at the young age of sixteen. It was here that the impressionable

Semali was introduced to artists who piqued his curiosity about pursuing a career in music. Semali credits his DJ/production training to friend Jesse ‘X-Ro’ Pinkney of The Vinyl Junkies crew, who also worked at RED.  Semali would later land himself a spot with Rhythm and Vibes on WRAS in college but left school in 2006 to pursue music full-time on the West Coast. After spending time in L.A. around accomplished producers and emcees who respected his artistry, Semali’s confidence in his career choices was at an all-time high. He has collaborated with a range of artists, including Count Bass D, Blu, Kurupt, J-Live, Supastition, Cunninlynguists and more. In the early 2000s, along with fellow emcee DT of psych- rock/rap collective The Difference Machine, Semali formed Clan Destined, sharing microphone and production duties. Best known by their stage names DT and AmDex, the duo both originally hail from North Carolina but met in college in Atlanta in 2002.

Clan Destined had a number one single on the Rap Attack/Rap Network charts with “Plan B” in 2007 and were chosen to be included in “The Rawkus 50” campaign. In 2010, they put out their first mixtape A Story Never Told: F#S% a Mixtape and were voted “Best Atlanta-based Hip-Hop Group” by WRFG’s The Beatz and Lyrics Show. 

Their third studio album Self Titled, which dropped in January of 2011, received 5 out of 5 stars in Creative Loafing the week after its release. The following year, they were awarded Georgia’s Best Hip-Hop Group at the Georgia Music Awards. The duo has shared stages with RJD2, the GZA, M.O.P., Del tha Funkee Homosapien, KRS-One, and People Under The Stairs, among others.

He also worked with producer Illastrate to form Monday/Friday and released a self-titled album, which gained Semali a spot on allhiphop.com’s Top 25 indie artist list. He has gone on to be included in the same list for 2016, as presented by The Wake Up Show.

As a solo artist, Semali focuses more of his energy on bringing out his soulful side and fusing his hip-hop background with a modern focus on what’s fresh in the culture and industry today. In 2016, he successfully completed a 21-city tour and joined the Scratch Academy Atlanta team as a DJ and production instructor. Semali also released a remix album for Monday/Friday.

The following year saw him touring throughout Europe with Cunninlynguists, adding to his already-extensive solo body of work, which now includes numerous instrumental projects (Yamin’s Supreme, DOTCOM) and emcee-driven work produced by himself (YAMIN 202.0) or Dublohskytzo (Phantom Feeling, and The HotEP). 

With a solo career reaching into a decade, Semali shows no signs of stopping. Keep your eyes and ears open. You’ll no doubt be hearing more from him very soon.