Growing up in Queens, Young saw as Hip-Hop made superstars out of local talents like Run-D.M.C. and LL COOL J. "When I was growing up in Hollis, there were a lot of things going on, some good things but a lot of bad things," he told The Washington Post in 1990. "So I saw rap as being one of the good things, and I gave it a shot. I didn't get the hang of it right at first. I was using variations on other people's lyrics, but I found out quickly you have to write your own. And I found out I was good at it."

He started attending USC in 1986 and it was while he was in school that he connected with fledging label Delicious Vinyl via a friend.

"I was coming back out to California for college in August of ‘87 and he either gave me the number for Delicious or he gave them my number," Young said to Albumism in 2017. "All I know, a phone call happened and Mike Ross and Matt Dike were on the phone. I simply read lyrics from my collection, so about three verses that ended up being some of 'I Let ‘Em Know' and some of 'My Name is Young.' I said about three verses over the phone and within a week of that phone call, they sent me a contract in the mail. No attorney. I’m a college kid. I’m actually going to school, and I was in the student senate at the time, at USC, and I took my contract to the law school representative of the student senate and asked him to look at it."

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