Yo Majesty - Futuristically Speaking... Never Be Afraid [Domino 2008]

Yo Majesty is the most subversive and refreshing phenomenon in hip hop in many years. And since hip hop has become a wasteland of misogyny, homophobia, hypermasculinity, and uniformity, Yo Majesty’s latest Domino release, Futuristically Speaking… Never Be Afraid couldn’t have come at a better time. Jewel B and Shunda K, the two open and proud lesbian MC’s who are gaining quite the reputation for performing topless, speak their mind and powerfully assert a queer message that breaks through the confines of heterocentrism. Yet, Yo Majesty is under attack for promoting the same sexual and gendered exploitation of mainstream hetero rappers. But assuming that queerness must be restrained in the limitations of political correctness is homogenous and despotic. Queerness speaks to the spectrum of diversity and I applaud that Yo Majesty aren’t afraid to yell ‘get down on your knees and slurp it’.

Dusted’s Ben Yaster’s statement that “Futuristically Speaking isn’t a thesis, and Yo Majesty is a far cry from academic provocateurs. They might provoke, but they aim primarily to entertain” is absurd and completely missing the point. Fortunately, hip hop has created a critical dialogue that exists far from the elitism of the Ivory Tower. Hip hop is about expressing real life problems and realities, a street life that is much more connected to actual cultures than a separatist university existence. In doing so, Shunda K and Jewel B etch out and call out the multiple facets of oppression in combining criticism of homophobia, white racist violence, and male constructions of beauty. When their forceful and progressive MCing proclaims, “Dis country boys eat niggers like us for dinner, while thick, black beautiful women is getting thinner”, what’s the point of writing a thesis?

Futuristically Speaking is strongly recommended for anyone proud to bounce to jolting the nuclear family, the religious fundamentalists, frat-boys, a square P.C. doctrine, male and heterosexual dominance in hip hop and plastic surgery bods. Like the great political hip hop artists of the Golden Age (1985-1995), Public Enemy, Poor Righteous Teachers, Paris and X-Clan, with Yo Majesty true hip hop is back on the map. Futuristically Speaking... Never Be Afraid is a well-drafted title: Yo Magesty's forward thinking attitude is what is necessary in "never be afraid" to surpass all conservativists, the homophobes and the square politically correct.

Bardos Freedoom