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mtvhive:

storyboard:

Art + Rap + The Internet = Yung Jake

This story was produced in partnership with MTV Hive.

He was supposed to look directly at the interviewer, not at the video camera, please. But Yung Jake — internet incarnate, rapper, memester, artiste of the online world — found it frustratingly difficult to make eye contact with a human being. As he was talking, his gaze kept shifting back to the lens, then down to the iPhone nestled in his palm. He sighed. “I’m just more interested in interacting with the virtual world than I am with real people.”

Yung Jake won’t admit his age (“I’m young yung”), where he grew up, (“all over”), or how he should be artistically categorized (“I call myself whatever world wants to accept me”). Something like 10 years ago, this might have been a freakish way to publicly define oneself. But today, in a world in which screens are hot and people are, well, not, such a proclamation is legitimate, on trend, and, increasingly, more normal than not. 

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We’re very excited to co-publish this fascinating Storyboard piece with Tumblr. s/o Yung Jake!