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Yo Majesty first gained a reputation for their lewd live shows and explicit rhymes that’d make 2 Live Crew blush. With the crunching beats, fast rhymes and smooth soul harmonies on their debut LP, Futuristically Speaking... Never be Afraid, the trio of black, Christian lesbians from Tampa, Florida proved there was a hard bite to their bark.
Since the 2008 release, members Jwl.B aka Jewel, Shunda K and Shaun B have parted company and Yo Majesty is now a one-woman show. Wheel caught Jewel's solo act at Fabric nightclub in London, then met her on a Dalston rooftop to talk about the past, present and future.
By Ananda Pellerin
What music inspired you when you were coming up in Tampa? I’m a singer foremost so I was into gospel and R&B. I was into some hip hop artists, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, NAS. But I've only been MCing for the past four years.
That’s pretty different to gospel singing. I’m pretty different to Gospel singing.
Did you sing in the church? I had no choice, I was raised by my grandmother who was a Pentecostal preacher. I had to dress a certain way, speak a certain way, act a certain way or you’re going to hell.
Do you still go to church? Religion is man-made rules. Control. Mentally and spiritually. Everybody is born to be an individual, to blossom in their own way. I’m not controlled by anybody. Fuck society that tries to control me. That’s why I MC with my shirt off when I want to. These are my body parts, this is me, I’m an artist and fuck you. I went through enough of that in my life with religion, trying to satisfy church people, trying to satisfy my grandmother. All that bullshit.
But do I believe there’s a God? Yes. Is it the God in the Bible or whatever? You can call it what you want: Allah, good spirits. Whatever it is, thank you. I came from out the ’hood, you know – didn't have shit. I think I did pretty damn good. I was on the corner selling crack cocaine.
When you were younger? Not that younger. Street life and shit, in and out of jail. Just trying to survive cuz I’m not going to sell my body, never that. Music saved my life. I would have been dead. Tampa streets ain’t no joke. You got people out there, they live and die for money; they’ll kill you without any remorse.
What was the club scene like in Tampa? I didn’t get into the club scene until I was eighteen. I moved out on my own, I went to the gay club scene and all the women… you got the feminine women and you had the studs that dress like men and act like men so if you perceive yourself to be a stud, how dare you two years later dress like a woman? They’ll beat your ass. They get very violent, even to this day. They’ll degrade you. How dare you, a stud woman, get pregnant? There’s a prejudice in the gay community in Tampa – you’re not allowed to be more than one thing, you have to be one or the other.
I didn’t know it was closed-minded until I started travelling around the world and other gay women did not act like that. A lot of feminine women used studs to take care of their five or six kids. I spent a lot of years taking care of other women’s children just to fit in. But who am I? I’m a dominant gay woman. Period. I’m comfortable in my own skin.
Growing up in such a strict environment, did you always accept who you were? Yeah. It wasn’t hard for me to come out because I was a sexually abused child inside of a strict home so I was rebelling at the same time. I was like, yeah! And I'm fucking gay and I don't care anymore. I have my own place now, my own life, I don't have to fuck these men anymore. I don't have to have a boyfriend anymore, I can have a girlfriend. I can have a best friend, I feel comfortable with a woman and I can cook my own food and I can walk butt naked around my goddamn house and sing ‘comb my pussy’ and say ‘fuck that shit.’
These girls in the church that I thought were my friends, when they found out I was gay they switched out on me. Here I am, the best singer in the church or the district or whatever, and it was like Christmas because now they had something to say they’re better than me.
Like, even in Yo Majesty, I can say this now... it was hard for me to accept all my band mates being jealous of me. I didn’t want that, I wanted it to be a sisterhood: let’s come up, let’s get this money and be the biggest female band in the world. We’re setting the standard, we don’t have to dance on cars butt naked with g-strings, we can go on with baggy pants and shirts and everybody will love us, and we was doing it... but bullshit got in the way.
