Brooklyn, NY

Hidaiyah "Yaya" Bey has lived a thousand lives: poet, street medic, museum curator and lately, one of the most genre-bending R&B artists working today. Her kaleidoscope of life experience shines through her intoxicating blend of jazz and soul melodies, delivered with raw sincerity. In her own words, “I wouldn’t never rather be no other thing but the thing I am.”

Born and raised in Queens, Yaya came up as part of the NuBlack Music Group collective alongside artists like Sammus and Zenizen before dropping her first record in 2016, a window into New Yorker life called The Many Alter-Egos of Trill’etta Brown. 2020’s Madison Tapes solidified Yaya’s jazzy charm and disarmingly vulnerable lyrics, paving the way for The Things I Can't Take With Me EP the following year on the British label Big Dada.  

In 2022, Bey released her breakout album Remember Your North Star, which received “Best New Music” from Pitchfork and combined Afrobeat bounce with neo-soul swing on tracks like “alright.” On 2024’s Ten Fold (which also received “Best New Music”) Yaya explores the death of her father — Grand Daddy I.U. of the legendary rap collective the Juice Crew — with painfully honest wordplay over a dizzying blend of hip-hop and poppy house that dances around samples of her dad’s voice. A recent dancefloor remix of “the evidence” courtesy of Exaktly further cements Yaya’s wild sonic abandon and shapeshifting sound. 

Seeking a taste of her live show? Check out Yaya’s recent Tiny Desk appearance, a 16-minute primer for her vivid connection and aching vulnerability onstage ahead of her debut Sled Island performance.