Yaya Bey

Born Hadaiyah Bey in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Yaya Bey has developed in New York a songwriting voice where contemporary R&B intersects with soul, hip‑hop, reggae and a pronounced sense of groove. The daughter of rapper Grand Daddy I.U., she draws on a New York lineage that she redirects toward a more introspective music focused on relationships, autonomy, memory and the lived realities of Black women. After her debut album The Many Alter-Egos of Trill’eta Brown (2016), Yaya Bey refined her approach with This Too... (2019) and Madison Tapes (2020), records that established a flexible aesthetic between spoken-sung delivery, soul melodies and stripped-back textures. Her move to Big Dada broadened her visibility with the EP The Things I Can’t Take With Me (2021), followed by Remember Your North Star (2022), where she further expanded her palette across R&B, rap and Caribbean inflections. She continued this trajectory with Ten Fold (2024) and Do It Afraid (2025). Within the independent R&B scene, Yaya Bey occupies a singular position—rooted in Brooklyn yet open to freer forms of modern soul.