Young Maylay facts for kids

Christopher Bellard (born June 17, 1979), known as Young Maylay, is an American rapper, music producer, and actor from Los Angeles. He is famous for being the voice of Carl "CJ" Johnson. CJ is the main character in the popular 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

About Young Maylay's Early Life

Christopher Bellard was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California. His early life in a tough neighborhood, where he saw a lot of gang activity and heard gangsta rap music, inspired him to start rapping.

He grew up around people connected to the Crips gang. Christopher Bellard is also the younger cousin of actor and rapper Shawn Fonteno. Shawn Fonteno voiced Franklin Clinton, another main character in Grand Theft Auto V.

Young Maylay's Music Career

Starting Out: 2000 to 2005

Young Maylay's rapping career began in 2000 when he was 21 years old. With help from King T, he first appeared on Killa Tay's album Thug Thisle in 2000. He was featured on the song #1 Hottest Coast (Killa Cali).

Later, in 2002, he was on Rodney O & Joe Cooley's album Summer Heat. Since then, he has worked with many artists from the West Coast music scene. Young Maylay also wrote most of the songs for King T's album Ruthless Chronicles. In 2005, he used money from his work on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to start his own music label. He released his first mixtape that same year.

Before Lench Mob Records: 2006 to 2008

In 2006, Young Maylay was featured in Deeyah's song "What Will It Be", which also had a music video. That same year, he appeared on DJ Crazy Toones' album CT Experience. This was the first time DJ Crazy Toones, WC, and Young Maylay worked together as a group.

In 2007, this trio started making Young Maylay's album called The Real Coast Guard. The album came out in 2008. Later that year, WC signed Young Maylay to Bigg Swang/Lench Mob Records.

Joining Lench Mob Records: 2008 to Today

Lench Mob Records was started in 2006 to release music by Ice Cube and WC. Over time, other artists like Young Maylay joined the label. Ice Cube sees Young Maylay as an experienced artist.

DJ Crazy Toones created two online blogs for Young Maylay. One was called Who's Young Maylay? Mix Blog, and the other was Young Maylay, WC & Bad Lucc Mix Blog.

Young Maylay is currently working on three albums. These include his own album and albums with WC and Crazy Toones. He is also featured on two songs by Ice Cube, "Y'all Know Who I Am" and "Too West Coast". These songs are on Ice Cube's album I Am the West.

In 2010, Young Maylay was on two songs from the album DJ Premier Presents Year Round Records - Get Used To Us. The song "Temptation" is a solo performance by him. The song "Ain't Nuttin' Changed (remix)" features him along with Blaq Poet and MC Eiht.

When asked about a new album in an interview, Young Maylay said:

Yeah, I'm working on an album. But I will not tell the title again! (laughs) And we gonna know when we're gonna drop it. But I got something that I wanna put out. I was gonna call it "Brushfires and Earthquakes", cause that's California all day. On the brushfire side I come with just straight heat spittin'. And then on the earthquake side I'm coming for that like to get out there in traffic and show you they got some sounds. But that's gonna be more or less like a mixtape. The album is in the works. I'm not trying to just take songs that I didn't use off my mixtape and put it on a CD and call it my album. I can't really put no timeline on it, we're working everyday. So it ain't the fact about getting songs done or nothing like that, timing is everything man.

OBG Rider Clicc Group

OBG Rider Clicc is a rap group that Young Maylay is part of. The other members are Young Dre The Truth and Killa Polk. The group first appeared on Young Dre's album Revolution In Progress The Movement. Their first single was "Let's Get The Game Bacc Right". They also appeared with Compton Cavie, Dresta, and BG Knocc Out on the song "Wes Indeed". This song was on the Cali Luv mixtape.

Young Maylay and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Young Maylay was working in New York when he got a call from DJ Pooh. DJ Pooh was in a meeting with people from Rockstar Games. They had a normal chat about music, but Young Maylay didn't know it was on speakerphone. The Rockstar staff heard their conversation. After the call, they asked DJ Pooh to have Young Maylay come in for an audition.

A few weeks after his audition, Rockstar reviewed the recordings. They decided that Young Maylay was perfect for the role of the main character in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This character was Carl "CJ" Johnson. In 2021, Young Maylay was asked if he would ever voice CJ again in future Grand Theft Auto games. He said he would not, because of disagreements with Rockstar Games.

Maylaynium Muziq Record Label

Maylaynium Muziq is Young Maylay's own independent record label. It is located in Studio City, California. He has released his mixtapes through this label.

Young Maylay's Music Albums

Mixtapes

• San Andreas: The Original Mixtape (2005)
• The Real Coast Guard (2008)

Young Maylay's Acting Roles

Movies

Television Shows

Video Games

See also

In Spanish: Young Maylay para niños