Yaysh Affirms Women and Sexuality with Her Raps
Buddhist, queer, and unapologetically sexual, Yaysh is bringing wisdom and swag to Denver, one rhyme and beat at a time.
“A lot of my stuff is very sexual, inspired by sex,” Yaysh, birth name Sonia, explained to OUT FRONT. “I just think I’m a pretty sexual person and I don’t wanna hold that back. Most people can say their sex life is not what they’d like it to be, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are very shy.”
Despite taking her music very seriously, Yaysh makes it no secret that her main goal is to help people get down. Spending her entire life rapping, whether she was going back and forth with friends or killing time at parties, Yaysh always had a knack for words and rhyme. She spent a while on Buddhist studies at Naropa University, and then realized that she needed to drop out and temporarily move to L.A. to find an agent. She is now dedicating herself to her musical craft full-time.
As a queer-identified woman, Yaysh says that she would identify as pansexual in a pinch, even though she is mostly attracted to women. Overall, however, queer identity to her means being open with sexuality and comfortable in one’s skin. This is a lot of what she deals with in her lyrics.
“To me, the whole queer thing comes from people wanting to have sex or being and identifying with who they are based on how they feel, and in our culture we have created such a hypercriticism and an idea of what is right and wrong, and it’s not accurate,” she explained. “If you actually do what you wanna do and don’t harm other people, it shouldn’t matter. Love is love and sex is sex, and it can be experienced, same sex, opposite sex, by shifting how you name people. But me personally, I feel like my songs are about being free and not judging. The point is just to not harm, and kind of to encourage people to be more confident in who they are, because that makes life a lot more fun and exciting.”
Yaysh describes her music as a mix of pop and hip hop, and hopes that in her songs, there is something for everyone. Rather than seeking to be accessible or only pushing her own artistic agenda, she tries to make music that is danceable and fun for everyone, but also stays true to her lyrical concepts. And if she casts a sexual spell with her music, she considers that a fortunate side effect.
“Something is going on with sexual energy in the U.S.,” she claimed. “It just needs to be turned up. We are so stressed out and angry and unhappy because of the current political situation, and there is something about sexual energy that needs to be ramped up, so I think that’s a good thing. My music makes people want to f*ck, and I’m happy to be doing something to make people want to have more sex instead of keep criticizing each other.”
Yaysh definitely recognizes that the personal is political, as well. While some rappers sing about women only being sexy if they conform perfectly to beauty standards, or talk about disrespecting them, Yaysh is all about positivity, self-love, and never objectifying women, even though they are the objects of her attraction.
“I listened to so much hip hop growing up and just bounced to the beat, and now, listening to the lyrics, I’m like ‘holy shit,’” she admitted. “I feel that by treating myself as equal, somehow it does something to gender as well as the perspective of the person viewing me that normalizes it. I am not trying to be misogynistic; I’m a woman, but I use humor. There’s a difference between me saying it and a man saying it. I say ‘I like my ladies with titties and ass,’ and I’m allowed to say that, but I’m not disrespecting women; there is some kind of irony in it. There’s also like an aspect, especially in hip hop, where it’s more about flow than what you mean, and how you say it.”
Yaysh currently has a lot of exciting projects in the works, including a music video, live performances this summer, and some music soon-to-be-released. She hopes that people will give her music a chance if they are hip hop fans, queer, or just anyone who likes a catchy beat. And overall, she wants to help people feel liberated.
“One of my big messages is, I just want to help people feel free. We have such an issue with body image hypercriticism and not feeling like we fit in, being afraid to be attracted to someone and hit on them and have a good sex life. Ideally, a happy life involves all those things, and I want to help people have more fun again. Some of my stuff is introspective, but a lot of it is helping people just turn up. When people come to my concert they are going to be dancing; girls are gonna be twerking; it will be a judgement-free zone. I’m gonna cut through a lot of shit, and people will start having a little bit more fun.”
Photos Provided By Yaysh
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