In a wide-ranging interview released Tuesday, the prolific Louisiana rapper NBA YoungBoy, born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden and widely known as YoungBoy Never Broke Again, delivered one of the most definitive statements of his career: he will never move back to the United States. Filmed while living in South Korea, the conversation with interviewer Funny Marco has sent shockwaves through the hip-hop community and raised questions about the future of one of the most prolific and controversial figures in modern rap.
When asked whether he could ever see himself relocating permanently back to the States, YoungBoy’s answer was immediate and uncompromising. “Never in life. No,” he said. In another clip circulating widely, he reinforced the point: “Never in life. Never.” He added that he is “staying here,” referring to his current base in South Korea.
YoungBoy, 26, explained that the adjustment to life abroad has been easier than many might expect. “I used to always feel like I never had the opportunity to get away or to like leave that place so it was like I don’t have no problem with being away,” he told Marco. “There’s nothing there for me. Isn’t enough for me at all.” The only significant tether remaining, he said, is his children. He emphasized his intention to maintain the financial stability necessary for them to travel and spend time with him despite the distance.
The interview, part of Funny Marco’s Open Thoughts series, was recorded in South Korea and released on August 11. YoungBoy has been overseas for several months, traveling with family through Beijing, Norway, Belgium, France, and now South Korea. Fans have spotted him frequently in Seoul, including in the upscale Cheongdam neighborhood, often described as the city’s equivalent of Beverly Hills. He has posed for photos, spoken with people on the street, and drawn dedicated followers—one reportedly waited outside his hotel for 24 hours for a chance to meet him.
Beyond tourism, YoungBoy appears to be putting down professional roots. He recently held a private session for Urban Link 360 (sometimes referred to in coverage as a related fan platform), an upcoming official app built on an operating system developed in Korea. During the session he discussed his experiences in the country, signaling that his time there involves business as well as personal escape.
The decision arrives against a long backdrop of legal trouble that has defined much of YoungBoy’s adult life in the United States. He has faced repeated arrests, periods of incarceration, house arrest, and intense scrutiny from law enforcement and the courts in Louisiana and beyond. Those experiences, combined with the pressures of fame and the environment he grew up in, appear to have fueled a desire for permanent distance.
In the same interview, YoungBoy offered a sobering assessment of his music career. Asked how many albums he has left, he replied, “One or two.” Regarding touring, he was more definitive: “One for sure. I’ll go on tour one more time throughout my whole life and that’s it.” He has already released two projects in 2026—Slime Cry in January and ML2 in June—continuing the extraordinary output that has made him one of the most consistent chart forces of the past decade. Yet he said he is currently not focused on music. A doctor informed him that the left side of his heart is swollen, a revelation he connected, with characteristic bluntness, to the intensity of his creative process: “That explains the music, though, right?”
The interview itself was not without tension. At one point YoungBoy interrupted the conversation to criticize Marco’s energy, telling him he had “fucked up” the interview with his vibe after earlier comments. Separate clips also show YoungBoy responding to statements from his mother, Sherhonda, by asserting that she “has never been to Korea a day in her life.”
For fans who have followed YoungBoy’s evolution from a teenage street-rap phenomenon in Baton Rouge to a streaming powerhouse whose music often documents violence, trauma, loyalty, and survival, the South Korea chapter represents a striking turn. The artist who once seemed inseparable from the American South and its legal and cultural pressures is now building a life half a world away, prioritizing distance, family logistics, and what appears to be a deliberate winding down of his recording career.
Whether South Korea becomes a true long-term home or another stop in an ongoing international period remains to be seen. For now, YoungBoy has made his position clear. The United States, he insists, no longer holds enough for him. From a balcony overlooking Seoul—with the distinctive N Seoul Tower visible in recent photos—he has chosen a different horizon.
As the clips continue to circulate and the full interview reaches wider audiences, the hip-hop world is left to absorb the implications: one of its most relentless voices has effectively declared the end of his American chapter and, quite possibly, the beginning of the final phase of his recorded music career.