By Dylan Harrison
Some people might be unaware of the rich hip hop history of Irvington, NY, from Lord Burns and Hargon to C $tyles$ and Yung Salt, and now there’s Yung Toni, an up-and-coming rapper from the Irv, most famously known for his song “can’t stop won’t stop” with almost 1300 plays on Soundcloud, where he’s posted 26 six tracks in total.
Toni (aka Anton Dedvukaj) describes his rap style as fluid and says his flow was influenced by rappers like Drake and DaBaby.
Something that has always fascinated me about rappers is their ability to hear a beat and rap to it almost instantaneously. Many rappers like Jay-Z claim to have never touched a pen to paper and freestyle all their songs.
Toni prefers a more structured approach when it comes to producing a song. He will often start with a central idea or rhyme scheme and write his lyrics with that foundation.
Unique to Toni’s process the beat is usually an afterthought. The beat is usually produced by someone like the Paw Print’s own DJ Benny Beats (Ben Hymowitz), who features on a number of Young Toni tracks.
For Toni the beat always serves the lyrics, so after the lyrics have been written he will get together with a percussionist and make a beat that matches the energy he was trying to create.
“I love working with Toni. He’s truly something special,” said DJ Benny Beats.
Toni, 15, doesn’t let the occasional hater faze him. Asked if people’s opinions ever get to him, he said that rapping is something that he enjoys, so he’s not going to stop because some people don’t like what he creates.
He admits that it was a struggle to put out music during the height of the COVID lockdown, but he has begun working on his fourth album. His purpose for making this album was to be more introspective and help the fans understand what makes Yung Toni tick. He has big plans for the future and I look forward to seeing where his music takes him.
