Yaya Bey had a breakthrough year in 2020 with her album Madison Tapes, but she’s far from resting on her laurels. She had been working on a follow-up album, but following a break-up took a detour to write some music that dealt with that situation, which has resulted in an EP called The Things I Can’t Take With Me, arriving on April 9 via Big Dada. She says:
“[The album] is going to be about the journey home to self, but on the way, there’s all this shit I gotta let go of, just the things I can’t take with me.”
“fxck it then” is the first song shared from the EP, and while it finds Yaya toiling in bitterness, she does it with such confidence and class that she comes away from it looking and sounding cooler than ever. The song is full of stand-out lines that show off her outspoken personality, right from the off with “fuck being good now I’m a bad bitch / fuck staying down now I’m a savage – I ain’t average.” With a background of smoky brass and minimal beats, she’s completely in her element, and by the end of “fxck it then” there’s absolutely no doubt that when she says “you know you went and fucked up baby” she’s absolutely right.
Watch the video, directed by Morgan Powell, below.
Yaya Bey’s The Things I Can’t Take With Me EP arrives on April 9 via Big Dada (pre-order/save). You can find her on Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
