Biography
Lil Tracy (born Jazz Ishmael Butler on October 3, 1995), formerly known as Yung Bruh, is an American rapper.
His father is Ishmael Butler (leader of the cult jazz-rap group Digable Planets and the revolutionary project Shabazz Palaces), and his mother is Cheryl "Coko" Clemons (lead singer of the legendary R&B trio SWV, which dominated the Billboard charts in the 1990s). Butler was already recording his first tracks at the age of 15, but his real breakthrough came when he moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 without telling his parents. For a time, he struggled with homelessness.
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At the very beginning, the artist released music as Yung Bruh under the Thraxxhouse collective in style of raw cloud rap. The most important project from that period is e m o c e a n with the underground hit Vampire Love. The Thraxxhouse collective disbanded in mid-2016. Around that time, the artist changed his stage name to Lil Tracy after discovering another artist who used the pseudonym Yung Bruh. He later joined GothBoiClique - a group founded by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, where Lil Peep, a frequent collaborator from the moment they met, was already a member. Tracy first heard of him after being shown the track Beat It, which referenced his brief stint in jail and mentioned him by name in the lyrics.
His relationship with Peep deteriorated significantly during the rollout of the album Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1, as he felt rejected by his former friend and sidelined by his management. The two never reconciled before Lil Peep’s tragic death on November 15, 2017. This death plunged him into a deep depression tinged with guilt.
In May 2018, Lil Tracy released the slightly humorous track Like a Farmer, laying the groundwork for the country-rap aesthetic - a genre that would explode as a commercial phenomenon a year later thanks to Lil Nas X and the song Old Town Road. Tracy's track itself was remixed by Lil Uzi Vert and reached number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Tracy himself had a near-death experience in 2018 after mixing unknown psychoactive substances. He was hospitalized with a severe heart attack but suffered no lasting complications. He referenced the incident in the song Heart from his commercially successful EP Sinner. Although the rapper gave up drugs for a time following the incident, he relatively quickly returned to using them. The following year, he released the long-awaited album Anarchy, which he dedicated entirely to the memory of his late friend Lil Peep.
In 2021, record labels and management finally resolved the legal issues surrounding samples and officially released the cult underground EPs Castles and Castles II on commercial streaming platforms, securing Tracy hundreds of millions of streams credited to his streaming platforms accounts and the resulting royalties.
He is best known for his collaborations with the late rapper Lil Peep such as Castles, CASTLES II or tracks Awful Things, white tee and walk away as the door slams.
His greatest solo successes turned out to be Beautiful Nightmare from the album Anarchy (almost 100 million streams on Spotify as of October 2026) and Vampire Love (released under the name Yung Bruh), which gained 37 million streams on Spotify on a relatively recent upload (as of October 2026). Other popular songs are Heart (almost 39 million streams),Tattoos both from the Sinner EP and viral Like a Farmer.
Discography
Only projects released as Lil Tracy are counted, because Yung Bruh has his own page.
757 Virginia Hood Nightmares (The Unknown Story) (2016)
Moon Stones (2016)
Tracys Manga (2017)
XOXO (2017)
Life of a Popstar (2017)
Anarchy (2019)
Designer Talk 2 (2020)
Saturn Child (2022)
Babyvamp (2025)
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.