Yo Majesty
Futuristically Speaking... Never Be Afraid

I remember when I first came to Berlin. I used to listen to Yo Majesty a lot, well one track in particular; Club Action. The kind of retarded yet cleverly simple party hip-hop / ghetto electro jam that I have a soft spot for. I was at the tail end of a short interest in the new, heavier styles of dance music - Sebastian, fidget house, Switch, that kind of thing, and Yo Majesty represented the cutting edge of that. Wow, that feels like a lifetime ago. I used to be occasionally swayed by what was ‘fashionable’ or ‘cool’ in music. I still had my true loves, but occasionally my judgement could be clouded, and I would believe that the Count & Sinden really did represent an exciting new direction for dance music. Nearly 2 years later, and listening to Yo’ Majesty’s long awaited debut album FSNBA, I am surprised at how much of it I like (and not that surprised at how much is, erm, well bad). They have made a smart number of choices in production, though by working with everyone who is ‘hot’ they ended up basting themselves with the hipster brush. In spite of this their rhymes are at times infectious, and the beats, in places are inspired. There is even a relativley credible 'ballad' However, despite, or perhaps even because all of that, I still can’t escape feeling like a bald, self facilitating media drone, sporting a New Era cap and clinging to my youth. Vice magazine has a lot to answer for.