Young was born in
Wimbledon,
London, to
Jamaican immigrant parents. He left the United Kingdom at the age of three and later moved to
Queens, New York, when he was eight years old. Young attended
Hunter College High School on the
Upper East Side of
Manhattan (he was honored at the school's 2018 convocation). He went on to earn a degree in economics from the
University of Southern California (USC). At USC, he met Michael Ross and
Matt Dike from the record company
Delicious Vinyl. However his third album, ''
What's the Flavor?, released in 1993, was a commercial failure, with both the album and its singles failing to chart. It was his second and final album on Capitol Records. In 1997, Young released his fourth album, Return of the 1 Hit Wonder'', on the independent label Overall Records. The album produced two singles, "Madame Buttafly" and "On & Poppin" which charted at No. 25 and No. 23 respectively on the
Hot Rap Songs chart. In 2000, Young released his fifth album, ''
Ain't Goin' Out Like That'', on his own record label Young Man Moving Records. The album was Young's first to chart since
Brainstorm, peaking at No. 85 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In 2001, Young contributed a song "Deck the Halls" he co-wrote with Kevin Irving, to Disney's TV movie, '
Twas the Night. In 2002, he released his sixth album,
Engage the Enzyme. Also in 2002, Young appeared as a contestant on
Weakest Link – Rap Stars Edition. He was joined by Rev Run of
Run-DMC,
DJ Quik,
Jermaine Dupri,
Da Brat,
B-Real of
Cypress Hill,
Xzibit, and
Nate Dogg. Young went on to win the celebrity contest, beating Xzibit in the final round. All of the proceeds from his winnings were donated to the Humane Society. In December 2004, Young travelled to
Vancouver to film
The Zero Sum. Young played Mr. Henderson, a publishing company executive. Film director Raphael Assaf and screenwriter Armen Evrensel asked Young to help create the film, for which he is a co-executive producer. Young also teamed up with Baltimore rapper KNOXX to record "Brotherly Love", the theme song from the film. In September 2005, Young was cast in the
VH1 reality show
Celebrity Fit Club 3. Joining Young was
Kelly Le Brock,
Bruce Vilanch,
Tempestt Bledsoe,
Countess Vaughn,
Chaz Bono,
Jeff Conaway,
Gunnar Nelson, and Rapper
Bizarre of
D12. Young won the competition, losing more weight than anybody else. Young also made an appearance in a special episode of
The Best Damn Sports Show Period which featured the Top 50 Sports Moments of the 80's. Young crafted lyrics and performed a sports-themed rap song alongside
KRS-One and
Kool Moe Dee. After twenty years of living in Los Angeles, Young relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona in 2006. He spent 2007 creating his seventh album,
Adrenaline Flow, which was released in 2008. Immediately following
Adrenaline Flow, Young released an online-only album,
B-Sides, Demos and Remixes, compiled from unreleased, remixed and re-recorded tracks. In 2009, Young released his eighth album,
Relentless. Later that year, Young also landed a cameo role in the
Jason Reitman film
Up in the Air starring
George Clooney. Young played himself, performing at a software convention which was crashed by Clooney's character and those of his two female co-stars,
Anna Kendrick and
Vera Farmiga. On July 6, 2021, Young performed his signature hit song "
Bust a Move" and other songs in the halftime show for Game 1 of the
2021 NBA Finals. In October 2024, Young charted for the first time since 2002, with his song "Fun Part" reaching No. 38 on the
Rhythmic Airplay chart. ==Discography==