Dallas Cotton (known professionally as Yung Bae) is playing with his self-described “demonic” cat when we connect by phone on a Monday. Cotton is slow to start, his cat exacerbating his “case of the Mondays” by inhibiting his coffee consumption. But coffee is not Cotton’s vice: Joints on the other hand have been supremely helpful in Cotton’s creative process, a process that has yielded his latest album—Groove Continental Side A—a feel-good, groove-centric record that hits just in time for summer.
Over the course of our conversation, we explore the album’s inspirations and origins, Cotton’s journey into music, and the pivotal role his family has played in his success.
Early on, how did music come into your life?
For me it was in middle school, when everybody had CD players and were carrying around their binders of CDs. It was the coolest thing. Around that time, I really started getting into music and started making burn CDs off of my iTunes library and would carry those around. They’d always have the most random mixture because I grew up on a ton of yacht rock and that kind of stuff. I was always interested in funk, but never delved into it until I really started doing music.
One of my favorite things—God love my mother for it—I think I bought 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ CD and my mom goes, “Oh no no no no no.” She comes back with Will Smith’s Big Willie Style—which is still my favorite album of all time. Best album ever.
Each track is a banger.
I’m saying. Try playing that at any house party. Automatic win. It’s incredible.
That was also the closest I got to a sense of disco, especially …
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Author: Stephen Laddin / High Times
