Who is saYf?

Darrius Jamel Clemons stage name saYf was born in southside of Chicago, Illinois in 1988. His stage name is derived from sayf, an Arabic name meaning “sword”, which was inherited by Clemons when he was fifteen. His eccentric style shows by capitalizing the “Y’ meaning the obvious question asked about name choice and changing sayf meaning to “a peaceful state of mind”. Clemons attended Morgan Park High School for two years, then transferred to Banner Linc High School, graduating valedictorian. It was towards the beginning of high school that Clemons first began producing, inspired by hip hop artist such as Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri and the Trip Hop genre. Eventually, Clemons studied music at the Columbia College then dropped out after 2 years.

While studying at Columbia Clemons polished his craft creating his signtaute bouncy trippy sound. Though having no professional mentor who taught him how to make music, saYf developed an astonishing production ability. Engineering his own project that he produced the beats for, he cuts out the middle man. Picking up a bad habit along the way has became a part of his brand Music & Trees. “Music & Trees isn’t a campaign or an excuse to get ‘high’ but a way of life”. “Everybody I know loves music and more or less has loved trees at least once”. saYf explained his evolution “my music isn’t drug influence music with egotist cliche rap, I take you through a emotion I had, its really thought provoking real rap from a  familiar stranger life”.

Highly influenced by MGMT & Trip Hop, Clemons lifestyle changed to a more positive let it be attitude. Clemons defines his sound as “catching the vybez, I make my music for the average music lover which is a “Social Loner”. A “Soical Loner” is a demographic, a person who’s a sound with the outside world for apart of the day but also look for the way to ecsape life dramas. These people tend to run solo in an attempt to be free to go do what they need to. The truth behind at this demographic is that it lives within all of us, thus who are animals who wish to be unchained.