Yaya Bey. Photo by Andres Norwood.
New York-based experimental R&B artist Yaya Bey has unveiled Remember Your North Star, her poignantly-titled third full-length album out on June 15. It's also her first for the esteemed label Big Dada, recently relaunched to focus on marginalized and racialized artists. Along with the news comes the project's first single "Keisha."
Beneath the song's golden, classically minded guitar licks and bobbing bass lies a resolute statement on heartbreak and securing one's own worth. This balance is captured in certain moments such as when Bey sings the song's mission statement of "Why you don't like nice things?", tragic and heartening all at once.
The Bey-directed music video has a glamous exterior – Yaya is a natural model in the photo shoot where the clip takes place – which hides a deeper meaning. Director of Photography Chassidy David says, "it was a pleasure working with Yaya to create a music video that portrays the many caricatures women may feel pressured to perform in the pursuit of love and acceptance but also shows that true love and acceptance can only come from within.”
Speaking on her upcoming album, Bey said, “I saw a tweet that said, ‘Black women have never seen healthy love or have been loved in a healthy way.’ That's a deep wound for us. Then I started to think about our responses to that as Black women. So this album is kind of my thesis. Even though we need to be all these different types of women, ultimately we do want love: love of self and love from our community. The album is a reminder of that goal.”
