YoungBoy Never Broke Again
Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, known professionally as YoungBoy Never Broke Again or NBA YoungBoy, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Gaulden released eight mixtapes from 2015 to 2017, and garnered a regional following for his work. He signed with Atlantic Records and Artist Partner Group in the latter year to release the singles "Untouchable" and "No Smoke", both of which marked his first entries on the Billboard Hot 100. Released in January of the following year, his single "Outside Today" became his first to peak within the chart's top 40, and received quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. It served as both his mainstream breakthrough and the lead single for his debut studio album, Until Death Call My Name, which peaked at number seven on the US Billboard 200 despite mixed critical reception.
His 2019 single, "Bandit" became his first song to reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Released the following week, his commercial mixtape, AI YoungBoy 2, debuted atop the Billboard 200 and received 18 gold certifications by the RIAA for each of its tracks. The release of its follow-up, 38 Baby 2 and his second studio album, Top, made Gaulden the second hip hop act to peak the chart thrice within a single year. His third album, Sincerely, Kentrell, was released during an incarceration, and became the third project—behind Tupac Shakur's Me Against the World and Lil Wayne's I Am Not a Human Being —by an imprisoned artist to debut atop the Billboard 200. His fourth album, The Last Slimeto, peaked at number two on the chart and served as his final release with Atlantic. Gaulden then signed with Motown to release his fifth and sixth albums: I Rest My Case and Don't Try This at Home, both of which peaked within the top-ten of the Billboard 200 despite trailing critical reception. Gaulden's seventh studio album I Just Got a Lot on My Shoulders was deemed a commercial failure, not entering the top one-hundred, while his eighth, MASA, and his ninth Slime Cry peaked in the top ten.
Gaulden has sold over 109 million digital copies in the United States, ranking him among the highest certified artists in the United States. He has garnered 15 billion views on his YouTube channel, also ranking him among the highest-viewed rappers on the site. He is the youngest artist in Billboard history to chart 100 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, while also being the rapper with the most RIAA platinum certified albums from 2015 to 2025, and the most certified rapper in RIAA history with 126 certified titles. Gaulden has 34 albums that have charted on the Billboard 200 chart, the most of any rapper, and has been nominated for three BET Hip Hop Awards and a Grammy Award while being the recipient of one ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Award and one BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Award. He founded the record label Never Broke Again in 2015, which has signed artists including NoCap and Quando Rondo.
Despite his success, Gaulden's career has been marked by a long history of legal issues that began in 2016. He has maintained a largely prolific output notwithstanding his incarcerations. Gaulden has infamously spent several years on house arrest from 2021 to 2024. He was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2020 alongside sixteen others on various federal charges, including distribution and manufacturing of drugs and possession of stolen firearms. The following year, he was arrested in Los Angeles, California, by federal agents stemming from his 2020 arrest, resulting in an additional federal firearm charge. From March to October 2021, Gaulden was in jail before being released on bond and placed on house arrest awaiting trial from October 2021 to March 2024. Gaulden was found not guilty in the case in Los Angeles, but was found guilty in Baton Rouge and sentenced to 23 months in prison followed by 60 months of probation following his release. After over three years in federal custody, including house arrest, Gaulden was officially released on probation in April 2025. Upon his release, after spending almost two months on probation, Gaulden was granted a presidential pardon by Donald Trump.
Early life
Kentrell DeSean Gaulden was born on October 20, 1999, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Sherhonda Gaulden and Jeffery Staden. He broke his neck while wrestling as a toddler, the injury requiring a head brace until the spine healed. The brace left permanent scars on his forehead. Gaulden was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother, Alice Gaulden, due to his father being sentenced to 55 years in prison. He dropped out of Baton Rouge's Scotlandville Magnet High School in the ninth grade. While in juvenile detention for a robbery charge, he began writing lyrics for his debut project.After he was released, Gaulden's grandmother died of heart failure in 2010 and he was sent to a group home in which he noted that he would get beat up:
He later moved in with his friend and fellow Baton Rouge rapper, OG3Three Never Broke Again. The two then used acts of criminality to begin to pay for studio time.
Career
2015–2017: Career beginnings and ''AI YoungBoy''
Gaulden first began producing music with a microphone he bought from Walmart when he was fourteen years old. He released his first mixtape, Life Before Fame in 2015. A string of other mixtapes followed including Mind of a Menace, Mind of a Menace 2, and Before I Go. Gaulden attracted attention with his October 2016 mixtape, 38 Baby which featured fellow Baton Rouge natives, Boosie Badazz, Kevin Gates, and fellow rappers Stroke Tha Don and NBA 3Three. A week later, Gaulden released another mixtape titled Mind of a Menace 3 on November 4, 2016. Gaulden's quick rise to popularity could also be attributed to his "song-for-song rap beef" with fellow Baton Rouge rapper Scotty Cain in December 2015, in which songs from both rappers included death threats. Although no real violence ever occurred between the two Baton Rouge rappers, their feuding attracted a lot of attention.In November 2016, Gaulden was arrested in Austin, Texas on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder in connection with an alleged drive-by shooting. While in jail in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Gaulden re-released his two mixtapes, Before I Go and Mind of a Menace 3. Gaulden was released from prison in May 2017 after taking a plea deal and posting bail. A week after leaving prison, Gaulden released the single, "Untouchable".
In July 2017, Gaulden released a video for his song, "41", that included cameos from notable artists including, Meek Mill, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Boosie Badazz, and Yo Gotti. In August 2017, it was reported that after being scouted by Mike Caren, Gaulden signed a five-album record deal worth $2 million with Caren's Artist Partner Group and Atlantic Records while the music had been published under Gaulden's own Never Broke Again. On August 3, 2017, he released his seventh mixtape, AI YoungBoy which charted at 24 on the Billboard 200, marking Gaulden's first appearance on the chart. The single, "Untouchable", peaked at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single from the project, "No Smoke", peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Gaulden's eighth mixtape, Ain't Too Long was released on October 7, 2017. The mixtape peaked at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking Gaulden's second appearance on the chart. Just a month later, in November 2017, Gaulden appeared as a guest on 21 Savage's Numb The Pain Tour.
2018–2019: ''Until Death Call My Name'' and ''AI YoungBoy 2''
Gaulden released the single "Outside Today" on January 6, 2018. The song became Gaulden's highest-charting song, peaking at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. He announced his debut studio album, Until Death Call My Name on January 11, 2018. The album's second single "Diamond Teeth Samurai", an interpolation of Lil Wayne's October 1999, "Tha Block Is Hot" was released on April 2, 2018, just three weeks prior to the release of the album. The song peaked at No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was released on April 27, 2018. Following the release of "Villain" on June 21, 2018, Gaulden released a reloaded version of Until Death Call My Name which featured guest appearances from Offset and Lil Uzi Vert on June 28, 2018.Despite being arrested in February 2018, Gaulden promised a new mixtape. Gaulden was released from jail on March 15, and his next mixtape Master The Day Of Judgement was released on May 19, 2018. Throughout the summer of 2018, Gaulden released a series of four EPs, each containing four tracks. The first of which, 4Respect, was released on August 24, followed by 4Freedom, 4Loyalty, and 4WhatImportant on August 30, September 6, and 14, respectively. In conjunction with the final part being released, all four EPs were combined into a 16-track compilation titled 4Respect 4Freedom 4Loyalty 4WhatImportant. On September 7, Gaulden released his mixtape Decided, featuring a sole guest appearance from Trippie Redd. On December 20, Gaulden released another mixtape, Realer, featuring guest appearances from Lil Baby and Plies.
By January 2019, Gaulden was on YouTube's Top Music Artists list in the United States for the previous 101 weeks, which made him the most-watched musician across all genres. This was mainly due in part to his consistency of releasing music regularly and exclusively on YouTube. He was also the ninth best-selling artist on the 2019 Billboard Mid-Year Charts and was seventh in the top ten artists ranked by on-demand audio streams without releasing a project in the first six months of 2019. Gaulden was sentenced to 14 months on house arrest following a probation violation earlier in 2019. Due to the house arrest, he was unable to record music from anywhere besides his house. On September 25, 2019, Gaulden released the "aptly titled" single "House Arrest Tingz". On October 4, 2019, Gaulden released the song "Bandit", with rapper Juice WRLD, released as the final new song by Juice WRLD as a lead artist before his death. The song reached number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Gaulden's highest-charting single.
On October 10, 2019, Gaulden released his mixtape AI YoungBoy 2, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. The mixtape is a sequel to his 2017 breakout AI Youngboy and features 18 songs, including the previously released song "Slime Mentality". The album earned 110,000 album-equivalent units, accumulating a total of 144.7 million on-demand audio streams in its first week, becoming one of the top ten biggest streaming debuts of 2019.