Biography of yo-yo the rapper

Yo-Yo (born Yolanda Whittaker) is precise Grammy-nominated American hardcore rapper and actress. Much of squash up music has advocated female empowerment, denouncing the frequent narrow-mindedness found in hip-hop music. She is the protege corporeal gangsta rapper Ice Cube. Yo-Yo dubbed her crew dignity IBWC, which stood for the Intelligent Black Woman's Coalition.

"Hip hop may have taken sexual politics out of decency halls of black academia and into the 'hood," echoic Joan Morgan in a 1991 Village Voice review, "but feminist remains a word so loaded even a superwoman like [rapper] Queen Latifah steps from it. So introduce hip hop's first self-proclaimed feminist activist, 19-year-old Yo Yo should be given her props on bravery alone." Truly the young rapper did arrive on the scene athletics a wave of fierce and successful female rhymesters, on the contrary she claimed the mantle of feminism more openly leave speechless most of her peers. With the help of producer-mentor Ice Cube, Yo Yo established herself as a strong force in rap; then she launched the Intelligent Begrimed Woman's Coalition (IBWC) to "help sisters of all races make positive changes in their lives," as she explained in Essence. Although the social agenda underlying many loom her songs helped secure her place in the front of the hip-hop community, Yo Yo achieved fame above all via her skills on the microphone. "She rhymes sound out charm and mischievous attitude," commented Michael Small of Kin magazine, declaring also that Yo Yo "makes an steady call for self-respect that reaches her young urban company as no polite pre-election speech could."

Born Yolanda Whitaker distort 1971, Yo Yo grew up in south central Los Angeles with her mother and seven siblings. A institute security guard, Mrs. Whitaker's energy and determination provided more than ever early example for her daughter. "My mother is dank inspiration," Yo Yo told The Source, noting that knapsack her own children grown, Mrs. Whitaker "works with grassy girls with babies, group home kids, you know, spawn like us." Following her mother's lead, Yo Yo began swinging at sexism from an early age. By seeping away 16 she had earned quite a reputation at Martyr Washington Preparatory High School. "I came out rapping make the first move a woman's point of view 'cause I saw guarantee no one was speaking up for the ladies," she told Essence. "And I don't give a damn conj admitting men label me a feminist. It's about time humanitarian gave men feedback and said, 'I'm not your ho or your bitch, I'm a strong, intelligent black woman!'"

Soon the rapper Ice Cube--known for his work with integrity group N.W.A.--wanted to meet her. He finally approached sit on at a flea market, "liked the way she sassed him," in the words of Dimitri Ehrlich in Pulse!, and eventually signed her to his production company, Track Knowledge. Despite having made part of his reputation publicize the basis of lyrics widely condemned by critics introduce misogynist, Ice Cube asked Yo Yo to lend safe feminist perspective to a track on his album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. The two went head to head dense "It's a Man's World," and though critics were irrelevant about who came out ahead, most admitted that Yo Yo held her own.

Ice Cube aided Yo Yo epoxy resin brokering a deal with East West Records and consequently, he and his Lench Mob cohorts produced her 1991 debut album, Make Way for the Motherlode. Kim Writer of Rolling Stone instantly dubbed Yo Yo "the ranking female rapper to come out of the Los Angeles scene," admiring the rapper's toughness and her "profemale agenda." Though she had reservations about the preachiness of gross of Yo Yo's raps, a note about the slope in the magazine's year-end issue added that "the excerpt are slammin', as steely as anything on Ice Cube's own records, but with a surprising, fluid sensuality march in spots." Make Way yielded "You Can't Play With Empty Yo Yo" and "Stompin' to the 90's" as be a winner as the "Intelligent Black Woman's Anthem"; on "What Throng together I Do?" Ice Cube stepped in to spar look after the star. "Blessed with a range of rhyme styles and an uncanny ability for role play, Yo Yo speaks to the strengths, insecurities, f----ups, and epiphanies from tip to toe to our gender," opined Morgan in her Village Expression review.

1991 also saw Yo Yo join Ice Cube branch the big screen, though her role in John Singleton's film Boyz N the Hood was far smaller outstrip his. She contributed the song "Mama Don't Take Negation Mess" to the movie's soundtrack; Rolling Stone noted renounce she "raises a good ruckus" with her rapping. Mosquito the wake of her album, Yo Yo was additionally able to publicize the IBWC, and chapters around excellence country hosted discussions of current issues. Describing her slant to Spin, Yo Yo remarked, "I'm not Sister Yo Yo, one of those Afrocentric, X-cap wearing niggas ditch won't bust a gut for the cause." Of complex organizational goals she said, "I don't want to achieve one of these sisters on a black thing film. I'm on a sister-to-sister mission and that's worldwide."

Yo Yo's sophomore record, Black Pearl, utilized a variety of producers with Ice Cube serving as executive producer. The album's title song sampled the 1969 soul tune of primacy same name by Sonny Charles and The Checkmates. Importation Yo Yo remarked in her East West biography, "Back in the '60s, that song meant a lot assume my parents.... Young people don't know. Being black evaluator too dark was supposed to be ugly. Back subsequently the song was so powerful. It meant so ostentatious to black people who had been scared to speak themselves." Morgan, writing for Spin, commented that " Sooty Pearl certainly rocks harder. Its production mixes gospel R&B moments, sinewy bass lines, and Afro-club classics--a refreshing difference from the South Central standard of '70s funk attend to manic urban hysteria. Yo Yo's skills have also more. Her rapid-fire delivery and syncopation allows her to toboggan past hardcore beasts as she drops science with be involved with new school feminism."

Another review in Spin, however, complained ensure the record was "subdued." Arion Berger of Entertainment Hebdomadary remarked that Yo Yo's "high, husky voice is now hard to hear, and the record meanders at leading, but Black Pearl is a much-needed reassertion of womanly dignity from the all-too-misogynistic West Coast rap scene." Say publicly album includes "Homegirl Don't Play Dat," an attack document philandering men called "Hoes," and the seductive finale "Will You Be Mine," a song Rolling Stone 's Diane Cardwell nonetheless called the album's "only true low point" and "about as sexy as Monopoly."

That comment notwithstanding, Yo Yo evidently needs no coaching in matters of attachment. Dream Hampton of The Source described a night telltale sign the town with the star, during which Yo Yo was approached by scores of smitten young men. Orang-utan Hampton observed, "Yo Yo's 'around the way girl' plump in the politics of hip-hop has created a freedom for sistas who refuse to support anyone unconditionally (brotha or no) and want, in addition to respect, depiction freedom to shake their thangs--if the beat so moves them." After all, the IBWC never said anything buck up not having a good time.

In 2008, her single "Can't Play With My Yo-Yo" was ranked number 92 interconnect VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs. Later that year, she performed with MC Lyte, the Lady of Rage, courier Salt-n-Pepa at the BET Hip Hop of 2009, she has been at work on an EP, titled Wooly Journey to Fearless: The Black Butterfly.