“It feels so good to be restless.”
(Moving)
It is restlessness which drives her.
There is this urge which impels her never to stand still and to keep growing and learning. The feeling of never arriving yet always being there. The conviction that one must lose oneself first in order to someday, find oneself.
In the life of Y’akoto it is precisely this restlessness which has been the root and motive force behind all her work, the fount of her being and ultimately, the reason why her voice embodies so much more inherent depth, experience and life, than a singer of 23 years of age would otherwise, under normal circumstances, be endowed with. But let’s start at the beginning!
As the daughter of a Ghanaian father and a German mother, Jennifer Yaa Akoto was raised a cosmopolite from her infancy. She was born in Hamburg and grew up in Ghana with sojourns in Cameroun, Togo and Chad before finally ending up shuttling between Hamburg, Lomé and Paris, a wanderer between worlds, a modern-day nomad who has always drawn strength from a state of permanent transition, which she has always seen as the inexhaustible source of her inspiration. “The numerous relocations, all the travel, and the global adaptability this entailed – all these things strongly influenced me.” states Y’akoto. “Yet I feel no sense of displacement or inner conflict. On the contrary, it is all these stages of a journey, all the impressions and experiences en route, which together, form a sum that is greater than its parts – a greater whole – the sum of me, my totality.” And to be sure, this statement characterizes her career as an artist to date, which has turned out to be just as exhilarating and multifaceted as her eventful personal life.
Music has always defined Y’akoto’s life: her father was a renowned artist of the West African Highlife music genre while Y’akoto herself was given piano lessons at a very early age. At the age of 13, she sang in a band for the first time. With their effervescent fusion of Rock, Reggae, Soul and Funk, they toured the youth clubs and won numerous band competitions. At 16, she made a brief excursion into electronic music in a fit of adolescent whimsy which lasted until she ended up in a line-up involving beat box, guitar, bass and vocals. “The turning point in my music only came when I turned 20” reminisces Y’akoto. This was shortly after successfully graduating as a certified teacher of dance when the solo artist Y’akoto emerged full-blown, which meant, in concrete terms: less experimentation and getting down to basics; no more compulsive innovation for its own sake, but focusing upon the essentials. In short: effectiveness meets avant-garde. “Nowadays the most important thing is to tell stories with my songs. That is why the sound is stripped down to the very basics. Less is more. I took great pains to make sure that in this album, things were kept consistently purist and unadulterated.”
This record, her debut album, ‘Babyblues’ is a splendid collection of songs full of meaning and depth which Y’akoto wrote herself in the course of the past two years in close collaboration with Mocky, Haze and the Kahedi production team (Max Herre, Samon Kawamura and Roberto Di Gioia). “A number of songs on the album such as ‘Good Better Best’ or ‘Moving’ have a very strong Afro feel to them, but for me, they are, above all, folk music, because I want to address people at a very personal level. The songs deal primarily with real life, with the things that happen to each and every one of us every day of our lives; stories that everyone has experienced and can empathize with.” In consequence, Y’akoto’s tracks excel so impressively for reason of a fascinating universal validity which they express with no trace of being clichéd.
With her songs, Y’akoto follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Erykah Badu as she manages effortlessly to encapsulate grandly intense feeling in exquisite narrative vignettes, moving miniatures in which the concerns of a single individual become the concerns of many. And yet, Y’akoto is simply on a hegira of soul-searching.
At least that is what a spiritually empowered woman in Africa asserted, who Y’akoto consulted - just for fun, actually - in the course her latest sojourn there. The old lady took Y’akoto’s hand, looked deep into her eyes and solemnly declared that Y’akoto had lost her soul. A short, sharp shock. “Then the old lady said that I was in constant search of my soul, which immediately made perfect sense to me” declared Y’akoto, late of Hamburg. “And I then realized that’s why I’ve always refused to say that I perform ‘soul’ music. ‘Soul-searching-music’ would be the better term.”
And indeed, Y’akoto is actually on a hegira of soul-searching.
One thing’s for sure: a voyage of self-discovery like that can hardly be undertaken alone. You need a crew of capable, trustworthy hands to make a musical manifesto out of this soul-searching mission. And Y’akoto found this crew of kindred spirits in Mocky, Haze, as well as in Max Herre, Samon Kawamura und Roberto Di Gioia aka Kahedi. “What I like best about Mocky is his impulsiveness”, enthused the female vocalist about her work with the Canadian now residing in Berlin. “Without wasting words he knew immediately what I wanted. He always managed to bring the right spirit into our studio work and his love of experimentation was perfectly in tune with my approach to music.” Her collaboration with Max Herre turned out to be similarly rewarding. “Things could get tricky and complicated while recording vocal passages where raw, inmost feelings are revealed, but since Max is a vocalist himself, he has a profound understanding of my needs as a singer” states the 23 year-old about the studio sessions and adds: “Everyone involved were, first and foremost, really great musicians. Each an every one of them, a master of his craft. But what amazed me most was the fact that every one of them poured so much work and love into this project. Everything came so harmoniously and naturally, everything felt so right – it didn’t feel like just another job.”
And this feeling of uncompromising consistency is a recurring theme joyously audible through all the songs of the album. Each effortlessly rendered track leads smoothly to the next, the appeal of each individual song seemingly interwoven with that of every other in the album, within the greater context of an encompassing love for music which is the leitmotif.
Take, for instance, the lively and infectious song ‘Moving’, a musical allegory of melancholy mysticism and effusive sensuality. ‘Moving’ is a track which stays with you, imprinting echoes of itself in your mind, a breathtaking, continuous adventure which seems to have neither beginning nor end, with a compelling melody which stems mostly from Y’akoto’s experimental side, from her penchant for non-conformist artistic expression.
This individualistic bent is also strikingly manifest in the choice of track for her first single off the album: then instead of regaling the public with a cheerful effort like ‘Good Better Best’ styled with the help of Haze into a nimbly catchy world music hymn replete with captivating allusions to the music of traditional African dance, Y’akoto chose the moving ‘Tamba’ where she tells of the terrible fate of an African child-soldier. The song is fraught with mordant images which bury themselves into the listener’s mind like a spray of shrapnel, making the frightful lot of the child-soldier a thing to be heard and felt. “Of course, this isn’t a song that conjures a smile on the listener’s face. But it gives him food for thought” offers Y’akoto as explanation for her choice of ‘Tamba’ as first single release. “Music simply doesn’t always have to present a pleasant face. Sometimes music must hurt to make a difference.” That this album will have lasting impact is undeniable.
‘Babyblues’, where Y’akoto reveals her innermost feelings, is testament to the emotional gravity in which she was occasionally immersed in the course of writing her songs. More than anything, her title track ‘Babyblues’ underscores the mystery and darkness inherent in such an otherwise luminous personality as Y’akoto’s, where, accompanied by delicate strains of the piano, she mines the depths of her soul for that black, lightless pulsing core which she then brings to light, transmuted into a glittering prize. “There was actually a time when I felt the blues within me” confesses Y’akoto and laughs. “I got totally absorbed in the blues and that was hard – still, it was fun. A rather silly, childish sentiment came to life at the time – that’s the reason for the title ‘Babyblues’.”
The way in which the 23 year-old adds astounding weight to the meaning of her words with profound emotion; the way in which she combines her youthful vitality with the technical accomplishment of an avowed female vocalist of stature and experience; the way in which her acute flair for creating moving moments of emotion and sensibility emerges from her supreme artistic composure – all this touches the soul, moves the listener; makes a lasting impact.
There is this urge which impels her never to stand still and always to keep growing and learning. This feeling of never arriving yet always being there. The conviction that one must lose oneself first in order to someday, find oneself.
It is restlessness which drives her.
Sites: De.Wikipedia
Truth
Y'akoto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I feel nothing in between
I, I see you as a man
Not as someone who belongs to me
I don′t possess you
But still, I need you
But if that can't make you stay
Then I will learn to love you
They say that love means to let go
But still you should know
They say that love means to let go
But still you should know
You are the truth
You are my light
You are my spirit
The reason why I shine
You are the truth
You are my light
A seldom spirit
That′s so divine
Eh, you are the truth
You are the light
You are the spirit
A seldom spirit
You are the truth
You are the light
A seldom spirit
That's so divine
You make me shine
Boy if you have to go
You can float on me
Listen...
Even though you were acting so uncertainly
Playing games
Well, yeah
I was always burning
And I was yearning
And ready to love you intensively, unconditionally
I knew one day the wind will turn and he will go
Love always hurts if you love a restless soul
And now all that is left are sweet memories of my desert soul
They say that love means to let go
But still you should know
They say that love means to let go
But still you should know
You are the truth
You are my light
A seldom spirit
That's so divine
You are the truth
You are the light
A seldom spirit
That′s so divine
You are the truth
You are the light
A seldom spirit
That shines on
You are the truth
You are my light
A seldom spirit
That′s so divine
So divine
You will shine
You're so divine
You will shine
Oh you′re so special, ha
You're so rare, rare to find
You constantly shine
Shine, shine, shine, shine
You will shine
Shine, and shine, and shine
The song “Truth” by Y’akoto is a ballad about a woman who has fallen in love with a man who she knows will not belong to her in a possessive sense of the word. She sees him as a human being before the fact that he is hers. The chorus of the song declares that the man is the truth, light, and divine spirit that makes her shine. The woman has a deep love for this person and is willing to let go if he needs her to, but her love will continue to exist regardless of if he stays or goes.
The first verse begins with the woman proclaiming her love for the man and the fact that there is no one coming between them. She sees him as a man and not as a person to possess. She says, ‘I don’t possess you, but still, I need you.’ The next lines show the woman’s willingness to let go of the person she loves if that’s what will make him happy, but she will still love him regardless. The chorus talks about the man being the truth, light and divine spirit, the reason why she shines, and how she will still admire him even if he leaves.
The second verse begins with the woman saying that they say love means to let go, but she still wants him to know how much he means to her. She continues to praise the man as the truth, light, and divine spirit that makes her shine. The song concludes with the woman expressing her desire for the man to be happy, even if that means leaving her, and acknowledging that he is a rare and special person that will continue to shine wherever he goes.
Line by Line Meaning
I love you
The singer loves the person she's singing to
And I feel nothing in between
She has no doubts or reservations about her love
I, I see you as a man
She sees him as a person first, before anything else
Not as someone who belongs to me
She doesn't feel like she owns him or has the right to control him
I don′t possess you
She acknowledges that he is his own person with his own agency
But still, I need you
Despite not possessing him, she still has an emotional need for him
But if that can't make you stay
If her need for him isn't enough to make him stay with her
Then I will learn to love you
She will adapt to the situation and still love him, even from a distance
To love you from far away
She will love him from a distance if she has to
They say that love means to let go
Love requires a certain amount of letting go or surrendering control
But still you should know
Despite letting go, she wants him to know that she still loves him
You are the truth
He is the embodiment of truth in her life
You are my light
He is the source of light in her life
You are my spirit
He is integral to her own spirit or essence
The reason why I shine
He is the reason for her radiance or positivity
A seldom spirit
He is a rare and unique presence in her life
That′s so divine
His presence is divine or godly in her life
You make me shine
He brings out the best in her
Boy if you have to go
If he has to leave
You can float on me
He can rely on her for support during his departure
Even though you were acting so uncertainly
Despite his uncertain behavior
Playing games
Engaging in emotional games or manipulation
I was always burning
She was always passionate and intense in her emotions
And I was yearning
She had a deep and intense desire for him
And ready to love you intensively, unconditionally
She was ready and willing to love him deeply and without conditions
I knew one day the wind will turn and he will go
She knew that eventually he would leave
Love always hurts if you love a restless soul
Loving someone who is restless is painful
And now all that is left are sweet memories of my desert soul
Now that he's gone, all she has are fond memories of him
So divine
He is divine or special to her
You will shine
She believes he will continue to shine even after he's gone
Oh you′re so special, ha
He is very special to her
You're so rare, rare to find
He is a rare and unique individual
You constantly shine
He is always radiant and bright
Shine, shine, shine, shine
He is a source of positive energy and light
Shine, and shine, and shine
He will continue to shine in her life
Writer(s): Jennifer Yaa Akoto Kieck, Fidelis Amo-antwi
Contributed by Christian I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.