It’s hard to say, especially since both rapper Shunda K and singer Jwl.B continue to promote the impending release of their electro-crunk debut Futuristically Speaking… Never Be Afraid, slated to drop this October on Domino Records. In talking to the ladies (albeit in separate interviews), they seem ready to reconcile, but for now, they’re pushing forward with solo projects and collaborations, neither seeming particularly afraid that their potential for future success might fade now that Yo! Majesty is on shaky ground. But maybe that’s because this isn’t the first time the group has been about to self-destruct.
Lashunda Flowers (Shunda K) says she came up with the name Yo! Majesty a decade ago, 3 years after she wrote her first rhyme and 5 years before she dropped her first solo effort. In the early ‘00s, she teamed up with Roshonda “Shon B” Bur and the two began performing under the moniker; in 2001, a mutual friend introduced them to Jewel Baynham (Jwl.B). Baynham, who’d been singing and performing since age 3, had built a following in her hometown as a spoken word artist, and for her, the time seemed right to start building with other artists. “I met them, they heard me, and they was wowed,” she recalls.
It looked as though they’d finally found the formula to create the chemistry and charisma to put Yo! Majesty on the map, but the timing was wrong: Shon B left the group a few years after Jwl.B came on board, and an impromptu hiatus/temporary breakup ensued. However, Flowers and Baynham regrouped in 2005, and overseas and stateside performances in 2007 generated a buzz for the duo that’s carried over into ‘08. They’ve been featured in publications like URB and XLR8R, and shows at high-profile music fests like South by Southwest and Coachella garnered them fans from the public and critics alike. The July release of their Kryptonite Pussy EP was also well-received, and as songs like “Break Bread” and “Hit It and Quit It” began to circulate, the twosome were poised not to take their place, but to make a place, in the music scene.
While many artists easily, even complicity, fit the mold that the industry creates for musicians, the ladies of Yo! Majesty could never just ‘fit in’: call them the square peg in the round hole. As if it weren’t enough that they’re two black women making hip hop-based, electronic-laced club bangers that aren’t hypersexualized or dumbed down, they’re also lesbians who’ve paid enough dues to be unabashed about their lady-loving lifestyles.
Flowers felt the heat from her family for her sexual proclivities, and reconciling her Christian beliefs with supposedly sinful behavior has taken its toll. “I wasn’t always confident in how I feel about my lifestyle and stuff, and how I love God. And I went through a rough time dealing with that, even up to this year,” she confides. She even renounced her homosexuality and became Mrs. to a man, but divorced him in favor of staying true to self. For Baynham, leaving the closet and hitting the stage were one and the same. “I kind of came out the closet as an artist. And now, I’m thanking God that my fans celebrate me instead of— my surroundings [before I joined Yo! Majesty, people were] just tolerating me. But when you have people that celebrate you, you come out, and there’s nothing wrong with being different,” she insists. “Like, diversity like a mutherfucka, but appreciate the diversity.”
They don’t shy away from celebrating their GBLT status, but they definitely understand the politics of mass appeal. “I can’t listen to some typical gay artists, because it’s too gay,” Flowers laughs. Instead, they focus on putting out party jams that pulsate with energy so that the bulk of Futuristically is about finding your groove (the funkdafied “Get Down on the Floor”), shaking your shit (the apeshit brass and timpani of “Booty Clap”), and not giving a fuck while getting fucked up (“Club Action”).
Still, they recognize the impact that two openly gay artists are having on the industry and the general public’s perceptions. “We’ll be done just did a show; the last two songs’ll be “Club Action” and “Kryptonite Pussy” or something like that. And people come to us in tears. Like, ‘I feel so free. I feel like I’m refreshed and like this has changed my life forever.’ Just me doin’ what I do is life changing. I don’t even have to open my mouth. Just me having the balls to get up there and be who I am.”
Sounds more like church than the club, right? Though most people aren’t having spiritual epiphanies at a show unless they’re getting baptized in the funk, Yo! Majesty welcomes these awakenings; they seem just as interested in freeing minds as they are in shaking behinds. Many of their lyrics are almost effortlessly ecclesiastical, inspirational without being preachy. Given that both ladies were raised by grandparents who made the line between secular and spiritual very clear (“My grandmother bred me to be a powerful woman of God,” Baynham asserts), it makes sense that they often sprinkle some spirit into their tracks. “Night Riders” addresses the soul-stealing nature of hood politricks, the Milli Vanilli-interpolating “Blame It On the Change” focuses on embracing evolution, and the offbeat stutter-step of “Never Be Afraid” encourages folks to use God’s guidance to feel fearless.
“The album is kind of like freedom,” says Baynham. “That’s why it’s called Futuristically Speaking…. Because it’s the music of the future; because this is what [music’s] supposed to be like — self-expression. I’m glad that I can provide music that everybody can dance to and be happy, because it’s all about uplifting people with our album, and that was really our main mission, me and Lashunda, to really uplift people and show people that you can be yourself through this album,” Baynham says.
Regardless of how their relationship has soured, Futuristically shows almost no hints of the lemons Yo! Majesty’s been handed. By mixing reality raps with melodramatic melodies, spiking it with some humor and hypeness, and sweetening it with production that’ll keep both hip-hoppers and hipsters happy, they’ve made a cool, refreshing lemonade that’s just as sweet and sassy as it is tart and tangy. Yo! Majesty is proof positive that girls just want to have fun and show their true colors.