Yaya Bey // do it afraid CD

アメリカ・NYのR&B作家／ラッパーYaya Beyが、2025年6月にNYのヒップホップレーベルdrink sum wtrからリリースしたCDです。

コンテンポラリーR&B〜ネオソウル18曲を収録。

レーベルその他作品はこちら /// Click here to see more drunk sum wtr releases available at Tobira.

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CD

Tracklist:

1. wake up b*tch 01:52
2. end of the world (feat. Nigel Hall & Butcher Brown) 04:30
3. real yearners unite 02:56
4. cindy rella 02:51
5. raisins 02:41
6. spin cycle 03:31
7. dream girl 02:01
8. merlot and grigio (Fear. Father Philis) 03:26
9. breakthrough 02:17
10. a surrender 02:27
11. in a circle 02:25
12. aye noche (feat. Rahrah Gabor and Exaktly) 02:26
13. no for real, wtf? 03:14
14. blicky 03:04
15. ask the questions 01:52
16. bella noches pt. 1 02:05
17. a tiny thing that’s mine 00:43
18. choice 01:53

Text excerpt by drink sum wtr:

“Suffering is promised to us all, but so is joy. You have to find peace in that duality,” says Yaya Bey, who commits to life’s delight — humor, love, the power of human movement and connection — even if she has to do it afraid. With her new album, which follows a run of critically acclaimed releases and marks her debut on art-forward indie label drink sum wtr, the Queens, New York singer-songwriter thrives across uplifting, effervescent material. A rejection of past narratives projected onto her, do it afraid finds Bey reclaiming her story with resolutely fun, full-hearted, and nuanced songs that pull from R&B, hip-hop, jazz, soul, and dance music, including the soca stylings of her family’s Bajan roots. do it afraid celebrates all sides of Yaya as part of a collective lifeforce that doesn’t subscribe to fear but to the moments that move us.

“I wrote this album from the most vulnerable parts of me, which contrary to what many people want to believe about me, is not my trauma but my desire to love, to feel joy...to be free. In this life, pain and loss are promised to us; it takes real courage to dance in the face of the inevitable. To savor the now and make it beautiful. I come from a people who are masters at this. Onlookers like to make a spectacle of us. Rob of us of our nuance. But the truth is we are brave, resilient and joyful. I made this album for us. May we continue to do it afraid.”

First, Yaya works through the raw emotions. In the tradition of her rap-led album openers, “wake up bitch” comes from a place inflamed. Over a fluttering piano loop, she deconstructs the contemporary hellscape, taking aim at widespread uncertainty, economic recession, and an exploitive industrial complex built on lies. She explains, “Anger for anger's sake isn’t productive, but sometimes you need that fire lit, like here are the things to be mad about.” As a self-identified working-class artist, Yaya maintains a healthy distrust of institutions at large and an unwavering belief in herself — she fronted the album’s recording budget without a label partner yet in place and manifested it as a 2025 release — and that fiery intentionality radiates in the intro and elsewhere across Yaya’s clever, confessional rap cadence. On “bella noches pt. 1” she decries low wages and rising rents; on “choice” she’s mad at god but chooses “to trust him anyway”; on “breakthrough” — a bumping, rattling, scorched-earth shuffle of keys and bass — she reminds folks to not take this magic for granted..."

Artist : yaya bey

Label : drink sum wtr

cat no : DSW023cd