Teyana Taylor — the new black feminism set to a beat
TARISAI Ngangura wrote last month on the feminist website Jezebel: “So much of Black women’s physicality, beauty and strength is constantly reduced to racist hyperbole, but watching Teyana Taylor own a stage and every corner of the frame is to see a recalibration of what it means to be active and agile in a feminine, Black body.”
It wasn’t a coincidence that Teyana, born in Harlem and of Trinidadian descent, released her new record The Album last month on Juneteenth — to mark the emancipation of the last enslaved Americans, on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas.
“I personally felt like it was only right,” Teyana said, “because it’s a celebration for my culture and my people, to show that no matter what we go through, we always pull through.”
Featuring guest appearances from, among others, Lauryn Hill (We Got Love), Missy Elliott (Boomin’), Erykah Badu (Lowkey) and Big Sean (Shoot It Up), The Album is a 23-song follow-up to 2018’s Kanye West-produced K.T.S.E. (Keep the Same Energy).
In September 2016 in West’s video for his single Fade, Teyana caused a sensation with what one critic called her “lithe, explosive movements, impossibly cut muscle tone, and hip-hop-driven, Afro-fusion choreography”.
Teyana’s pose on the cover of the new album evokes iconic Grace Jones, black and strong, loud and proud.
“I wanted it to be very strong and powerful and representative of my people, of strong women, of my culture,” Teyana said of the album cover.
“I wanted the cover to get straight to the point. My husband [the 2016 NBA champion Iman Shumpert] plays a big part in the inspiration with the hi-top [haircut] and Grace Jones — but it was more so digging into the roots, our African roots. That was most important. That’s why I had the clay dreads and stuff.
“I wanted the core of it to be about strong black women,” said Teyana, born
December 10, 1990, who grew up dancing in Harlem at street parties and got a record deal with Pharrell’s Star Trak Entertainment at 15 years old.
Equal parts tough and vulnerable — but ultimately strong — Teyana is new black feminism set to R&B on The Album, like Rihanna and Nicki Minaj before her. On Concrete, she sings: “Gaslightin’ my emotions/Somehow you got the notion/A woman’s better broken/But n***a don’t provoke me.”
Teyana lays out her position on infidelity on Wrong Bitch, from past experiences perhaps: “I ain’t that crazy/I ain’t sticking round for the runaround.” On Never Would Have Made It, from the K.T.S.E. album, she sang: “Made a lot of decisions based on everyone but me/But now I’m strong enough to let it go/I’m wise enough to take control.”
Echoing Rihanna and Minaj, songs like 1800-One-Night, Morning and are exercises in innuendo. Teyana’s voice is at its lowest rumble on the Afrobeat of Killa, with Nigerian singer Davido jumping in.
On We Got Love, with Hill, she sings of the socio-political meaning of her union to Iman in 2020: “I got house and the carriage/I got black love in marriage/ They gon’ say you can’t have it but I’m like don’t kill the messenger/We gon’ break the stigma up/Huxtables turn to Obamas.”
Teyana Taylor has turned into something special.
‘Teyana’s pose on the album cover evokes iconic Grace Jones...’