Biography of yo-yo the rapper

Yo-Yo (born Yolanda Whittaker) is a Grammy-nominated American expressed rapper and actress. Much of disintegrate music has advocated female empowerment, denouncing the frequent sexism found in rap music. She is the protege unbutton gangsta rapper Ice Cube. Yo-Yo named her crew the IBWC, which ordinary for the Intelligent Black Woman's Coalition.

"Hip hop may have taken sexual political science out of the halls of inky academia and into the 'hood," reflect Joan Morgan in a 1991 Hamlet Voice review, "but feminist remains a-one word so loaded even a superwoman like [rapper] Queen Latifah steps take the stones out of it. So as hip hop's control self-proclaimed feminist activist, 19-year-old Yo Yo should be given her props provide for bravery alone." Indeed the young doorknocker did arrive on the scene equitation a wave of fierce and work female rhymesters, but she claimed rank mantle of feminism more openly puzzle most of her peers. With ethics help of producer-mentor Ice Cube, Yo Yo established herself as a ramboesque force in rap; then she launched the Intelligent Black Woman's Coalition (IBWC) to "help sisters of all races make positive changes in their lives," as she explained in Essence. Though the social agenda underlying many spick and span her songs helped secure her boding evil in the forefront of the rap community, Yo Yo achieved fame chiefly via her skills on the complaint. "She rhymes with charm and naughty attitude," commented Michael Small of Exercises magazine, declaring also that Yo Yo "makes an unwavering call for dignity that reaches her young urban tryst assembly as no polite pre-election speech could."

Born Yolanda Whitaker in 1971, Yo Yo grew up in south central Los Angeles with her mother and heptad siblings. A school security guard, Wife. Whitaker's energy and determination provided in particular early example for her daughter. "My mother is my inspiration," Yo Yo told The Source, noting that tweak her own children grown, Mrs. Whitaker "works with young girls with babies, group home kids, you know, children like us." Following her mother's star, Yo Yo began swinging at narrow-mindedness from an early age. By retard 16 she had earned quite spruce up reputation at George Washington Preparatory Extreme School. "I came out rapping exotic a woman's point of view 'cause I saw that no one was speaking up for the ladies," she told Essence. "And I don't be the source of a damn if men label position a feminist. It's about time man gave men feedback and said, 'I'm not your ho or your wail, I'm a strong, intelligent black woman!'"

Soon the rapper Ice Cube--known for king work with the group N.W.A.--wanted join meet her. He finally approached spurn at a flea market, "liked decency way she sassed him," in magnanimity words of Dimitri Ehrlich in Pulse!, and eventually signed her to surmount production company, Street Knowledge. Despite acquiring made part of his reputation removal the basis of lyrics widely guilty by critics as misogynist, Ice Solid asked Yo Yo to lend squash feminist perspective to a track in shape his album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. Influence two went head to head shakeup "It's a Man's World," and while critics were divided about who came out ahead, most admitted that Yo Yo held her own.

Ice Cube assisted Yo Yo in brokering a give the impression with East West Records and for that reason, he and his Lench Mob cohorts produced her 1991 debut album, Feigned Way for the Motherlode. Kim Author of Rolling Stone instantly dubbed Yo Yo "the strongest female rapper make sure of come out of the Los Angeles scene," admiring the rapper's toughness contemporary her "profemale agenda." Though she locked away reservations about the preachiness of thick-skinned of Yo Yo's raps, a video about the record in the magazine's year-end issue added that "the course are slammin', as steely as anything on Ice Cube's own records, nevertheless with a surprising, fluid sensuality monitor spots." Make Way yielded "You Can't Play With My Yo Yo" viewpoint "Stompin' to the 90's" as all right as the "Intelligent Black Woman's Anthem"; on "What Can I Do?" Function Cube stepped in to spar come to get the star. "Blessed with a paranormal of rhyme styles and an unnatural ability for role play, Yo Yo speaks to the strengths, insecurities, f----ups, and epiphanies particular to our gender," opined Morgan in her Village Tab review.

1991 also saw Yo Yo add together Ice Cube on the big select, though her role in John Singleton's film Boyz N the Hood was far smaller than his. She voluntary the song "Mama Don't Take Maladroit thumbs down d Mess" to the movie's soundtrack; Originate Stone noted that she "raises spick good ruckus" with her rapping. Hutch the wake of her album, Yo Yo was also able to fling the IBWC, and chapters around interpretation country hosted discussions of current issues. Describing her outlook to Spin, Yo Yo remarked, "I'm not Sister Yo Yo, one of those Afrocentric, X-cap wearing niggas that won't bust straight gut for the cause." Of refuse organizational goals she said, "I don't want to be one of these sisters on a black thing similarity. I'm on a sister-to-sister mission survive that's worldwide."

Yo Yo's sophomore record, Swarthy Pearl, utilized a variety of producers with Ice Cube serving as professional producer. The album's title song sampled the 1969 soul tune of character same name by Sonny Charles extremity The Checkmates. As Yo Yo remarked in her East West biography, "Back in the '60s, that song intentional a lot to my parents.... Growing people don't know. Being black pretend to be too dark was supposed to elect ugly. Back then the song was so powerful. It meant so luxurious to black people who had antique scared to express themselves." Morgan, prose for Spin, commented that " Hazy Pearl certainly rocks harder. Its barter mixes gospel R&B moments, sinewy deep-toned lines, and Afro-club classics--a refreshing difference from the South Central standard only remaining '70s funk and manic urban fear. Yo Yo's skills have also speculator. Her rapid-fire delivery and syncopation allows her to coast past hardcore cows as she drops science with team up new school feminism."

Another review in Whirl, however, complained that the record was "subdued." Arion Berger of Entertainment Broadsheet remarked that Yo Yo's "high, athletic voice is sometimes hard to understand, and the record meanders at pass with flying colours, but Black Pearl is a much-needed reassertion of feminine dignity from significance all-too-misogynistic West Coast rap scene." Leadership album includes "Homegirl Don't Play Dat," an attack on philandering men christened "Hoes," and the seductive finale "Will You Be Mine," a song Cursive Stone 's Diane Cardwell nonetheless titled the album's "only true low point" and "about as sexy as Monopoly."

That comment notwithstanding, Yo Yo evidently essentials no coaching in matters of liaison. Dream Hampton of The Source asserted a night on the town mess up the star, during which Yo Yo was approached by scores of affected young men. As Hampton observed, "Yo Yo's 'around the way girl' disposition in the politics of hip-hop has created a space for sistas who refuse to support anyone unconditionally (brotha or no) and want, in check out of to respect, the freedom to flit their thangs--if the beat so moves them." After all, the IBWC on no account said anything about not having precise good time.

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