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Interview with:
Yejide The Night Queen
 Thanks for sitting down with us Yejide. Now for starters tell us how you became "The Night Queen?" How did you get into hip-hop?
The name was given to me by my mother. Since I was 15, I was clubbing and partying and coming home late, so that was her title for me. I began listening to the classics with my big brother, Jay (the first known Spinnocchio). He taught me how to DJ on two Tecnics with a Gemini mixer in 1980. Since he was DJing and I followed him everywhere as a tomboy, I did what he did and grew to love The Treacherous 3, Funky 4 Plus One More, Tla Rock, SugarHill Gang, the Fatback band, Us girls, etc.
But isn't the "Night Queen" the same alias Whitney Houston used in the Bodyguard movie?
She was the Queen of the Night. There's a difference. I don't need a bodyguard, I hold my own everywhere I go and people know this. My name has more to do with the Night time being my element where as Whitney made herself sound more like a street walker. No disrespect, Mrs. Brown!
What do you personally get out of hip-hop?
A feeling of empowerment. I feel the creativity regardless of my personal feelings for individual songs and artists. I love the variety and the international scope of it. I love the fact that the whole world has embraced it, even though we were to believe the art was just a fad.
Artistically, you're a creative juggernaut as a writer, do you ever find yourself favoring one artistic form of expression over another? Do you get more fulfillment from music, as opposed to writing and performing poetry?
Thank you for that compliment. I have to use that in a rhyme, now. I always wrote poetry and I like to sing but rhyming (emceeing) is my personal twist on both and I actually chose to do that. I LOVE performing, I like writing and I really don't have to recite poetry but it gets done anyway.
But, you are hardly limited to just emceeing and poetry though, right?
I have 16 years of technical training as a multicultural dancer; I've always been singing and trained in choruses and choirs since elementary school plus my mother was a singer; I produced the DAWTAHZ series, the Revolution series under my performance & production company, We Manifest; I still do natural hairstyling (cornrows, twists, braids, locks - no weaves or perms) from the rest and I'm the mother of a dawtah (a JR in Brooklyn Tech HS) & a sun (who was accepted for a fellowship and will be attending boarding school for HS out of NYC), I play the alto sax, I make jewelry and oils. I keeps it moving. That's what keeps the hustle with the muscle, minus the body fat, nah mean...
As a woman, in a male dominated/male driven business, what's it like competing for attention as a serious emcee?
It's not hard as far as getting recognition from your peers who are doing what you do: hustling to make that bread and giving their own twist of creativity and originality to the game. It becomes a problem when I don't feel the need to flaunt my T & A at shows and I use my extensive vocab instead of cursing like a sailor when I spit. I'm a SERIOUS emcee and many chicks out there are just entertainers.
How does Yejide differ from the rest?
I try to show the skill, educate, & bring truth to light as well as let motherfuckers know I'm bout it bout it. I'm not marketable like the regular sisters you see getting love on the radio or getting vinyl cuz my style is so real, yet ancient, so smooth, yet too powerful. I rock for the 'real ones' in every ghetto, every suburb, every city, everywhere. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
No secret, your music has a certain complexity and heir of consciousness to it. However, the mass majority aren't generally compelled to show the "enlightening artist" their props at the check-out lanes. Do you have any interest in being a more commercial songwriter/artist?
Of course! That's how you get more greens and brown rice on the dinner table. I've changed my style but not for the sake of being famous. My cd, SEVENTH was done in 2000. Since then, I've had my third hernia surgery, I was in a car accident, I changed my appearance and cut off a lot of people who I thought had my back. As a result of these occurrences in my life, my style has taken a massive switch in dynamic. Things people wouldn't expect me to build on I feel it necessary to build on, now. Cash never ruled everything around me, so I've never made it off selling drugs to my people, but I did my share of bad shit in my life and karma is a real life material entity. Now, I think that I've grown more, I can manage to make money, bring the essence of Hip Hop back to rap and still be able to look at myself in the mirror.
Is integrity more important than success?
Integrity in this industry for a woman IS success. People respect Oprah more than any other black woman because she represents herself with no conviction. What you don't like about her YOU have to deal with. She knows where her head is and no one can tell her what to do for the fame, riches and notoriety. Even though she's not in the music industry, she has her hand in everything and she's heavily respected. Another good example would be Queen Latifah. The rumors may spread, the hate may build but she gets her respect, regardless to whom or what. But you have to remember, people have different definitions for integrity as well.
Describe your style as an emcee?
What you heard from the SEVENTH cd is smooth, laid back, righteous in words and concept and for an audience who is more conscious. Right now, it's springing back and forth from that to ghetto scholar, street observer, magga nasty-girl, grown ass woman with children, and retro with an afro. I can't really describe it but you'll definitely hear it.
Does it ever bother you that "people" automatically categorize you as a 'neo-soul-hip-hop' artist?
Yes, because neo soul is a stupid phrase. How can you describe soul as neo (old)? The soul is ancient! Then you got the neo-soul performers who jack legendary soul artists music, lyrics etc. I don't jack the ancestors, I let them teach me and I run with my own rendition. But, I'm flattered by the classification, I just don't want to be categorized as anything except an off the chain artist/performer.
What's your approach to constructing a song?
Now, I just think and write. I've become a better freestylist but I still can't remember what I said previously. Before SEVENTH, whatever came to mind started out as a thought, got written, unknowingly like a poem or prose, corrected for proper grammar (even the slang) then I styled a rhythm for it. I'd develop the cadence for the words before a beat was added. Then I might change how and what I say depending on how I feel when I think it's ready for the world.
In theory, (at least from an artist vantage) music is a personal thing that at the same time is shared with others. From that standpoint what do you hope to accomplish with your music?
I want people to love the fact that others can attest to what I say, know I mean what I say and I've experienced everything I speak on. I want to build on all the things I see lacking in Hip Hop, as well as make the world aware that me and mine won't be beaten out of our share of the capital. I want to be known as a pioneer in this industry and loved for the new found inner-chi I provide while not selling my soul or ass. Since music is the universal language and has healing and balancing properties, I choose to bring that as well as my truth to the forefront.
Describe a typical day for Yejide?
My son leaves for school at 7:10 a.m. My daughter leaves for school at 7:25. Nowadays, I get up around 8 a.m., eat breakfast, get on the computer. Check email...wait! My Internets been off since 12/27/04. Hmmm...scratch that.
Things have slowed down since my surgeries and car accident, so my active, partying lifestyle and showcasing three times a week came to a halt. Now, I get up around 7am and kiss my son and tell him, I love him and have a good day. I tell my daughter the same before she leaves, as well. I make breakfast and turn on Good Day New York to check what's poppin' for the day and the weather. I go thru stacks of paper and revise my file cabinet for space to add more paper, later. I make phone calls to cats who need either a wake up call, a scream on, or a reminder of what we are supposed to be doing today. Depending on what's on the agenda for the day, I do that. It's different everyday. I may hustle my custom made oils, incense, and jewelry in Williamsburg's northside, ride my bike to my people's rest, work on a few ongoing projects, record, write, read or just chill, sit back and burn a spliff. But I always start dinner around 6pm. My children are usually home by 6:30 from their various after school programs and clubs, so we chill and watch movies. If I go out, it's after the children go to bed and it's to a show I think is worthy of seeing or dancing to some House music.
Do you write everyday?
No! I can but I don't. Too many things to do in 24 hours.
Who/What are your biggest influences in your music?
I had influences of elements, good tidings and truth. Now I'm influenced by the state of the Universe and my truth in my life. The growth of my babies influences me everyday and let's me know that I am, Mama Wize. In this hellish existence in AmeriKKKa, I'm definitely motivated by the preservation of my soul, being a good and truthful influence to all children and never forgetting who I am or where I came from.
Again, thanks for interviewing with us. Do you have any thank you's, plugs, last wordz or maaaad shouts?
Shout out to Big Head Daryl Barlow and the Cadman Plaza (LIU)! Thank you to my children who inspire me to be who I naturally am, my parents who gave me life, and no question - the Most High for blessing me with multiple gifts and who watches over me and mine always, DJ Evil Dee for believing in me, Fred Theus, who taught me what a man is supposed to do, my dancer Serge (thank for DJing at my Earth Strong Ilabration last week) and all my sisters & brothers in Hip Hop, all over the world.
The Lyrical Lounge would like to thank Yejide The Night Queen for taking the time out and granting us an interview. Mother, dancer, emcee, poet, hairstylist..c'mon, how dope is that? Some of these A&R's, label heads and talent scouts had best get out their checkbook, that's all I'm sayin'!! To learn more about Yejide, check out: www.cdbaby.com/cd/yejide and www.trusfund.com for in-depth info. And as always, keep the moto alive...Hip-Hop..Live It...Love It..Get Involved!! |
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