Yo! Majesty is an American
hip hop group consisting of singer Jwl B and rappers
Shunda K and Shon B, produced by UK-based electro group
HardfeelingsUK.
Yo! Majesty was mentioned as one of the 'Top 11 new bands of 2008' by ''
NME'' magazine as well as one of the '25 Most Exciting Bands in America'.
Biography
Yo! Majesty's current members are Windy Baynham, who goes by Jwl B, Shon Burt, stage name Shon B, and LaShunda Flowers, known as
Shunda K. The group members are openly
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
and self-identify as
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
. Their sound is a hybrid of
crunk, Baltimore club music,
[
] and
electro, and they have garnered comparisons to
punk for their defiance of labels and creation of new sounds.
Rappers
Shunda K and Shon B started out as a duo named Yeah Majesty before they were rounded out circa 2001 by gospel-raised vocalist Jwl B.
They started collaborating with London-based electronica duo HardfeelingsUK (David Alexander and Richard Winstanley), who supplied Yo! Majesty with their electro-rap club beats, in 2002.
After a hiatus during Shunda K's marriage, Yo! Majesty regrouped.
Once they established a name for themselves on the underground club circuit, both in the US and the UK, Yo! Majesty self-released their first official release, the ''Yo EP'', in 2006.
They "made a splash" at
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
in 2007 and that year toured alongside
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...
and
Gossip.
Yo! Majesty has also toured with
Peaches and was featured in her parody video of the
Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo (rapper), Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie (singer ...
' "
My Humps" called "My Dumps". The group signed with
Domino Records Domino Records may refer to:
* Domino Records (1916), American producer of early phonograph, from 1916 to 1917
*Domino Records (1924), American record label, from 1924 to 1933
* Domino Records (Canada), produced by the Compo Company in the 1920s a ...
in 2007, and the label released an EP and full-length record by the band in 2008, which included a track produced by
Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house scene ...
.
A documentary based on the band, ''Das Wassup'', directed by Johannes Schaff, was released in 2017.
Discography
Albums
Appears on
Singles
*2009: "Don't Let Go"
*2021: "FLEX Maxi Single"
*2022: "FLEX - The Belgian Stallion Remix"
References
External links
* (https://yomajesty.bandcamp.com/)
{{Authority control
Musical groups from Tampa, Florida
African-American musical groups
LGBT-themed musical groups
American hip hop groups
LGBT hip hop musicians
LGBT people from Florida
Domino Recording Company artists