Happy 30th Anniversary to Yo-Yo’s third studio album You Better Ask Somebody, originally released June 22, 1993.
[Editor’s Note: You Better Ask Somebody is not currently available in authorized form via major streaming platforms, hence the absence of embedded audio below.]
As both an artist and an activist, Yolanda “Yo-Yo” Whitaker always made people take notice. She channeled righteous passion and conviction through her music and words, using her rhymes to advocate for Black women as well as the entire African American population. With her third album You Better Ask Somebody, released 30 years ago, her insatiable fire is still present, but she focuses it towards a specific urban setting.
You Better Ask Somebody was Yo-Yo’s third album in a little over three years. It came about a year after she released Black Pearl (1992), her sophomore album. Black Pearl wasn’t necessarily bad, delivering some strong feminist and politically aware material, but it sometimes felt like Atlantic Records was trying to push the album into more pop-friendly waters. Yo-Yo’s debut Make Way For The Motherlode (1991) and the single “You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo” had both been commercial hits, and the label hoped to replicate Yo-Yo’s success by softening her approach. The album’s weakest moments were clumsy forays into more radio friendly material. Few, if any, landed.
You Better Ask Somebody was a course correction. Ice Cube executive produced each of Yo-Yo’s first three albums, but his presence is felt the most here. She still represents the IBWC (the Intelligent Black Women’s Coalition), but she also more frequently depicts scenes from everyday life in South Central Los Angeles. Overall, Yo-Yo’s content is more militant and street oriented, as influenced by Cube’s The Predator (1992) and Dr. Dre’s mega-hit The Chronic (1992).
I’m unable to argue with the results. Yo-Yo blends rougher lyrical edges with immaculate production, much of which is handled by QDIII, Ice Cube, or a combination of the two. The beats on the project are at times deeply funky, other times buttery smooth, and occasionally densely chaotic. Everything comes together effectively to create music that is thought-provoking, adrenaline pumping, and sounds great in the ride. You Better Ask Somebody may be influenced by other successful releases, but it establishes its own identity early on.
“IBWin’ With My Crewin’,” You Better Ask Somebody’s opening track and first single, very much sets the mood for the project. QDIII hooks up a jazzy and bass heavy track, incorporating slowed-down horn and guitar samples. Yo-Yo’s verses definitely have a more “gangsta” edge than her previous material. She also captures the feel of rolling through South Central on a warm summer’s day, blazed off good green, and hitting up the liquor store for munchies.
“IBWin’” was one of the first instances that I can recall where two different emcees have used the same beat from the same producer. The musical backdrop for LL Cool J’s “Buckin’ ’Em Down” from 14 Shots to the Dome (1993), released shortly before You Better Ask Somebody, is nearly identical. For what it’s worth, Yo-Yo’s version is superior as a complete song.
“Westside Story,” the album’s second single, is my personal favorite. Producers’ Laylaw and Derrick McDowell went into their Parliament-Funkadelic bag to create the song’s aesthetic, sampling portions of Parliament’s “Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk” and “Mr. Wiggles.” This provides the album’s best balance of laid-back music for the trucks with more rowdy sensibilities, creating an almost dream-like vibe.
“20 Sack” is one of the most incongruously violent laid-back weed anthems that I’ve ever heard. While Yo-Yo spends her verses rolling through the streets of Los Angeles in a 4x4 Jeep that “rolls like a Cadillac,” she spends a good deal of time “ventilating” enemies and crooked police officers. QDIII’s production carries the day, as he crafts one of the best beats un his catalogue, laying down layers of guitars and flutes to put together one of the smoothest beats I’ve ever heard.
Yo-Yo does engage in verbal jousting on You Better Ask Somebody. She reminds her audience that she’s not to be fucked with on “Can You Handle It?”, where she unloads her verbal artillery on those who underestimate her. “Fighting to survive in this world is simply madness,” she raps. “Come and take a bite of Ms. Badass.” The Baka Boyz-produced track is dense and noisy, reminiscent of an early 1990s work by the Bomb Squad.
The album’s title track is another braggadocio-focused endeavor, with Yo-Yo challenging anyone to step to her. She also dedicates a portion of the track’s second verse engaging in one of the favorite activities of women emcees in 1993: teeing off on Roxanne Shante. Shante targeted nearly every emcee with two X chromosomes and a pulse on “Big Mama” on her comeback album, The Bitch Is Back (1992). Yo-Yo engages in some pointed get-back here. It’s not quite as vicious as “Steady Fucking,” from MC Lyte’s Ain’t No Other (1993), released on the same day as You Better Ask Somebody, but Yo-Yo does get kind of vicious. “Nappy-head hooker don’t got no ends,” she raps. “Been wack ever since ‘Roxanne’s Revenge.’”
Songs that feature other artists are hit or miss. “Givin It Up,” featuring a messy P-Funk infected track by producer Mr. Woody, works as long as the spotlight is on Yo-Yo. She does a great job setting the scene over her two verses, recounting heading to Venice Beach with crew in tow, enjoying the car show-like atmosphere, “walk[ing] the beach in our two-pieces.” However, extra verses by Lil’ E and obscure dancehall artist Prince Ital Joe don’t add anything to the song.
Yo-Yo is joined by a bevy of her rapping homegirls on “Pass It On,” a posse cut about the joys of smoking weed. It’s another case of where Yo-Yo shines, but few of her cohorts make a lasting impression (few of them were ever heard from on record again). The beat, produced by Pockets, is another of the track’s strengths, as it’s built around a guitar sample from Webster Lewis’ “Give Me Some Emotion.”
“Letter to the Pen” sports the album’s thick and syrupy G-Funk sound, filled with “Funky Worm”-esque keyboard wails. Yo-Yo provides a unique perspective, narrating letters to her fictional incarcerated boyfriend. The narrative feels lived in, as she expresses her support and describes her struggles to keep her life on track. Martin Lawrence provides some solid comic relief, playing the role of a shit-talking hater locked up with Yo-Yo’s beau.
Ice Cube’s lyrical influence is felt on “Mackstress,” as Yo-Yo recounts three different tales of people who get in over their head in life-threatening situations. The beat is another funky concoction, and QDIII, Ice Cube, and DJ Crazy Toones (RIP), pair the opening keyboard solo from Parliament’s “Do That Stuff” with the drum-track from Audio Two’s “Top Billin.” “Girl’s Got a Gun” features Yo-Yo at her most righteous, training to use her firearm if the circumstances in service of eliminating her oppressors. “Come and check it out, I got the fat artillery,” she raps. “Harriet Tubman’s spirit instilled in me.”
The album ends with “The Bonnie and Clyde Theme,” another successful duet with Ice Cube. Yo-Yo may have first introduced herself on “A Man’s World,” an adversarial war of the words between her and her mentor, but here the pair work together as literal partners-in-crime. The song is a dedication to the duo’s reign of terror throughout Los Angeles, robbing unsuspecting enemies at gun point. The Pockets-produced track, featuring a sample of Bernard Wright’s “Master Rocker,” makes a great sonic backdrop for the two. “You ain’t seen nothing ’til you seen us both jacking,” Yo-Yo declares. “Pulling on the side of fools, straight rat-packing.”
You Better Ask Somebody broke new ground and helped establish new trends in ways that have never been properly acknowledged or celebrated. Yo-Yo doesn’t rap as much these days, hosting her own cooking show and continuing to work as an activist, particularly in areas of education and literacy. While she may be best remembered for her tales of empowerment, she should be remembered for being able to kick a little ass with the best of them.