Openly pansexual pop artist Yaysh is asking people to give her — and love — a chance in “Get 2 Kno Me,” her provocative new pop/reggae summer track, releasing this week. It’s a sweet, gentle, relaxing song where Yaysh invites listeners to open up and embrace a higher quality of life. “I want to encourage people to be honest, vulnerable and willing to take that fearless leap into life’s unknown,” she says. “Leap. Enjoy. Relax. Love. You might be surprised at what happens.” She takes a leap in the song’s music video, appearing fully nude, along with fifteen other Gen Z’ers. “We are all so afraid of being judged and letting people see our flaws. It prevents us from feeling good about ourselves and allowing others to love us for who we are.” Yaysh explains the video, in essence, was an exercise in confronting and conquering her own fears of nudity. “Sometimes we have to jump into our phobias so that our thinking doesn’t get the best of us.” “Get 2 Kno Me” is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and all other major retailers as well as streaming through Pandora and Spotify. Its music video is on Youtube and Vimeo.
Yaysh understands that she presents a unique challenge to many people. She is an androgynous-looking female, white MC and a singer who often crosses musical genres. “People often want to label me a lesbian but I prefer pansexual because I occasionally find sexual chemistry with men,” she explains, clarifying, “usually black men.”
She believes sex is healthy, good for the soul, and may be the answer to many of life’s problems. “We are so good at war, why haven’t we mastered love yet?” she wonders. “If people’s sex lives were better, they would feel loved and be more willing to release love to others.”
She hopes her music helps to launch a movement that inspires human connectivity and the embracing of diversity. “I want my fans to be friends with each other and to be motivated into being kinder, more daring and open to learning about others, rather than assuming they know them based on preconceived notions. I hope my music stimulates hard conversations around our own personal biases.”
Yaysh grew up a rebellious youth in Denver. She struggled in school and would often sneak out of her home to hang out with older boys from the hood. She encountered a conglomerate of drug dealers, gangsters, and ex-convicts. “I learned so much from all the people I was around,” she reflects. “I was taught how to relax, roll blunts, drink forties, freestyle, be tough, kick it, and simply enjoy being with friends, all in the midst of incredible poverty.”
As they grew older, her friends began exhibiting certain behaviors Yaysh says made her soul cringe. Recognizing she could no longer turn a blind eye to them, she was forced to go her own way. Years of loneliness followed until Yaysh found a new community in Shambhala Buddhism. She became an avid meditation practitioner and found that it, combined with music, enabled her to care for her mind and express her thoughts freely. “I found freedom through music and meditation,” she says.
She later moved to LA where she met her producer, Troy "R8dio" Johnson (Solange, Chris Brown, Why Don't We). They connected on their mutual interest of spirituality and began making music together.
Today, Yaysh takes special pride in writing all of her own lyrics and music. “I am completely, thoroughly and fully myself in my music. I don’t think about it. I just make it. Sometimes I’m feeling soft and sweet, deep, and romantic and sometimes I want a club banger. Sometimes I’m pissed off and sometimes I want to be sexual and spicy. I do have quite a mouth on me and lyrically and topically, I would say I am pretty raw, blunt and outspoken.”
"I'm weird,” she laughs. “I'm a spiritual person who maybe doesn't immediately appear that way. I’m a circle that refuses to fit in a square box. I'm a deep bish and every one of my songs has meaning and intention. Get to know me. I think you might get woke to the bigger reality that no one truly is how they appear.”
Yaysh’s new single, “Get 2 Kno Me,” is available on iTunes, Spotify, and all digital platforms. The music video is available on YouTube and Vimeo.
