“My life has been a whirlwind,” sighs Yaya Bey. Across a turbulent near-decade, the R&B auteur has weathered divorce and bereavement, relocated from Washington DC back home to New York and wrested control of her musical direction. Her 2022 breakthrough, Remember Your North Star, fused homespun neo-soul with hip-hop as she brooded over heartache, depression and a world that no longer made sense, coining a sound as intimate as a voice note from a desperate friend. Her honesty and wit have won her widespread acclaim, and that’s only likely to grow with the release of her ambitious new album Ten Fold.
“But I haven’t been able to reflect on all that’s happened,” she says. “I’ve been fighting this uphill battle for years, and it’s been exhausting beyond belief. I still have so much to say, I’m striking while the iron’s hot. But after one more album, I’m taking a break.”
