# Young Chris

Christopher Francis Ries (born March 9, 1983), known professionally as Young Chris, is an American rapper. He rose to fame as one-half of the Philadelphia-based hip hop duo Young Gunz, which he formed with rapper Neef Buck in 2001. That same year, the duo joined the larger Philadelphia-based hip hop group State Property; both acts were signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records by the same time.
With Young Gunz, the duo saw their furthest success with their 2003 debut single "Can't Stop, Won't Stop", which peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. They subsequently released two albums: Tough Luv (2004) and Brothers from Another (2005). After long-term delay for his debut solo record, Ries signed to Rico Love's record label Division1, an imprint of Universal Motown Records in December 2010. He has since released two studio albums through the label: LIFE: Ladies In For Free and The Revival, both in 2011.
Ries is often disambiguated with the rapper YC, who used to perform as "Yung Chris", and is thus sometimes incorrectly credited as the performer of the YC song "Racks."

## Music career
### Young Gunz

Young Chris and Neef Buck (born Hanif Muhammad) had been friends since they were young boys on the block (Gratz and Wingohocking). On "Takeover", a track from his 2001 album The Blueprint, Jay-Z announced the duo as "Chris & Neef". In 2001, the duo performed on the State Property soundtrack album. Young Chris and Young Neef also starred in the 2002 titular movie in cameo appearances. Also during this period of their career, Young Chris appeared throughout Dame Dash's Dream Team compilation, and Beanie Sigel's The Reason. The duo performed together on guest appearances for albums like Jay-Z's The Blueprint 2, Freeway's Philadelphia Freeway, State Property's The Chain Gang Vol. 2, and Memphis Bleek's M.A.D.E.; all while recording their album. The Young Gunz scored their first hit with "Can't Stop, Won't Stop", the lead-off single from The Chain Gang Vol. 2 album. Its song and video received major airplay on hip-hop radio, MTV2, and BET and reached No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and #6 on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart.
After the success of their single, "Can't Stop, Won't Stop", the label jumped and was ready to release their debut album, Tough Luv. It included the remix to "Can't Stop, Won't Stop", which featured St. Louis rapper Chingy. Singles included "No Better Love" featuring former Roc-A-Fella Records crooner Rell and the Just Blaze-produced "Friday Night". Tough Luv debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 3 after selling 128,000 copies in its first week. That week, the album at No. 2 was labelmate Kanye West's debut album The College Dropout, which was released just two weeks earlier.
After a brief hiatus, the duo returned with Swizz Beatz produced "Set It Off" from their second album, Brothers from Another. It was the second release from the "new" Roc-A-Fella Records, referencing when Jay-Z became president of Def Jam Records, the first being Memphis Bleek's 534. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 15, and included guest features from Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Slim of 112 and John Legend.

### Solo career

As early as March 2006, Young Chris thought about recording a solo album. He initially titled it Now or Never. He stated to XXL magazine that he wanted to release a solo album by the end of 2008 and had been "95 percent done" by June 2008. In this article, Young Chris also states that he himself up there with Lil' Wayne and Juelz Santana. Since this time, Chris has taken to the internet to solidify himself as a top solo artist, with his YoungChris.com Social Network, hitting the remix circuit, and his much anticipated "The Network" Mixtape series, hosted by DJ Don Cannon.
In December 2010, Young Chris signed with Division1, a label started by songwriter/producer Rico Love, under the Universal Motown umbrella. Love considers Young Chris his flagship artist, working closely with Young Chris on his debut album and pre-album/mixtape. The mixtape, called "The Re-Introduction", was released on November 20, 2010. The aptly titled mixtape gives the spotlight to a newly signed Young Chris, as a solo artist, and also, re-introduces the combination of DJ Drama and Don Cannon, the former "Affiliates" partners, hosting their first mixtape together, in several years.
On January 28, a song called "Philly Shit (Mega Mix)" featuring Young Chris, Eve, Black Thought, Money Malc, Fat Joe, Fred the Godson, Diggy Simmons, Jermaine Dupri & The Game was leaked. On March 22, 2011, Young Chris' single "A$$ets" was commercially released.
In late 2013–2014, Young Chris began releasing a slew of freestyles, the latest being a reworking of Wale's "LoveHate Thing", released on May 6. He's currently working on a new studio album titled Alive.
On May 6, 2014, he released a mixtape on Datpiff called Gunna Seazon.

## Awards and nominations

"Can't Stop, Won't Stop" was nominated for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards.

## Discography

This is the singles and albums discography of Young Chris.

### Young Chris

* Young Chris (2007)
* Killadelphia – More Bodies Than Days (2007)
* Hired Gun (2007)
* Murder Capital (with Pooda Brown, Neef Buck and DJ LRM) (2007)
* Politically Incorrect (2007)
* The Newprint (2007)
* Young Chris-Mas (2007)
* Now or Never (with DJ Drama) (2008)
* Campaign for Change (2008)
* The Network (with Don Cannon) (2009)
* 30 Days 30 Verses (2009)
* The Network 2 (2010)
* The Re-Introduction (2010)
* L.I.F.E (Ladies in for Free) (2011)
* The Revival (2011)
* Young Christmas (FrEP) (2011)
* Vital Signs EP (2013)
* Gunna Season (2014)
* The Network 3 (2014)

### Young Gunz

* Tough Luv (2004)
* Brothers from Another (2005)
* Get In Where U Fit In (2004)
* Get In Where U Fit In Part 2 (2005)
* Rapid Fire (2008)
* Back to Business (2010)

### State Property

* State Property (2002)
* The Chain Gang Vol. 2 (2003)

### Mixtapes

List of extended plays, with selected chart positions and certifications :
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Title | Album details | US | US R&B | US Rap |
| Killadelphia: More Bodies Than Days | Released: February 2, 2007 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Hired Gun | Released: March 7, 2007 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Murder Capitol (with Pooda Brown, Neef Buck and DJ LRM) | Released: March 30, 2007 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Politically Incorrect | Released: September 21, 2007 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Newprint | Released: December 5, 2007 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Young Chris-Mas | Released: December 25, 2007 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Campaign For Change | Released: August 4, 2008 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Now or Never | Released: September 26, 2008 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| 30 Days 30 Verses | Released: December 25, 2008 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Network | Released: July 19, 2009 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Network 2 | Released: May 19, 2010 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Re-Introduction | Released: November 20, 2010 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| LIFE: Ladies In For Free | Released: June 14, 2011 Label: Division 1 Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Revival | Released: October 31, 2011 Label: Division 1 Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| Gunna Season | Released: May 6, 2014 Label: Jaccpot Entertainment Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Network 3 | Released: November 28, 2014 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |
| The Network 4 | Released: March 10, 2017 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download | - | - | - |

### Guest appearances

| Title | Year | Other artist(s) | Album |
| "Nigga Please" | 2002 | Jay-Z | The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse |
| "Work For Me" | 2004 | Ol' Dirty Bastard | A Son Unique |
| "Call Me (Remix)" | 2005 | Play-n-Skillz, Lil' Flip Chamillionaire | The Album Before the Album |
| "Connect 4" | 2009 | Joe Budden | Escape Route |
| "Microphone Killa" | 2010 | Freeway, Jake One | The Stimulus Package |
| "The Last Two" | 2010 | Beanie Sigel, Freeway | The Roc Boys |
| "Serious" | 2010 | Beanie Sigel, Freeway | The Roc Boys |
| "Fresh ta Def" | 2010 | Beanie Sigel, Freeway | The Roc Boys |
| "Lay Low" | 2011 | DJ Drama, Meek Mill, Freeway | Third Power |
| "House Party" | 2011 | Meek Mill | Dreamchasers |
| "Philly Mega Mix" | 2011 | Eve, Black Thought, Money Malc, Fat Joe, Fred the Godson, Diggy Simmons, Jermaine Dupri, the Game | Purp & Patron: The Hangover |
| "Dangerous" | 2012 | Beanie Sigel, the Game | This Time |
| "City of Sin" | 2012 | Lloyd Banks | V.6: The Gift |
| "Real Shit" | 2012 | Freeway | Freedom of Speech |
| "Greystone" | 2012 | The Game, Fat Joe, Sam Hook | California Republic |
| "Believe Me Freestyle" | 2014 | Phat Geez | Cut From A Different Cloth 2 |