Queen Majeeda – “Unfaithful Woman” / “The Wait”
Queen Majeeda – “Unfaithful Woman” / “The Wait” – Singles Review
Those of you regular readers out there know that one of my purest joys in life can quite often be found simply by pushing play and not having any real idea of what to expect. Sure, soon enough I’ll end up going down the rabbit hole and learning about the things I can about the people, artists, and bands I’m working with…but that usually happens slightly after I’ve started to have a listen. At first, there’s usually nothing more than exploring the unknown by pushing play to hear what comes next, and I’ve always loved that. Generally speaking, it’s more music – and you probably know that by now if you’ve visited this site before – but sometimes, just sometimes, what comes back through these speakers of mine is art without question, which is what we’ve got here today in the Spoken Word poetry of Queen Majeeda. I was going about my normal, everyday business, pushing play just like I always do, expecting that next song to come my way, when I was delightfully surprised to find this Florida-based Jamaican proudly doing things differently. I love Spoken Word stuff and so rarely get to comment on it here, but let the record show, it has always been a welcome genre…to me, it’s the real bridge between art and music.
So welcome Queen Majeeda! I’m genuinely stoked to feature you up on these pages of ours.
She’s just released her album called Wedding Invitation in the middle of December last year online, and I’ve been checking out a couple samples from the lineup in tracks called “Unfaithful Woman” and “The Wait.” You’ll find the Queen has a wonderfully performative way of approaching Spoken Word – the kind of personality that is perfectly suited to make this kind of art really. As I listened to “Unfaithful Woman,” I kept marveling at the fact she’d get so intensely into the moment – but that’s exactly what matters most in making Spoken Word…it’s precisely what separates those out there that are simply reading text, and those like Majeeda who are authentically performing their material and invest themselves into every word. I love the expressive way she speaks, I love that she’s leaning hard into her natural Jamaican accent & how much it fits with the deep percussion-led sounds of “Unfaithful Woman,” and I love the array of words she’s chosen to create this poem of hers. You see folks, when you’re taking your time with the material you create, you start to understand that it’s not always about filling up a page with a bunch of meandering, extraneous details – it’s actually the opposite effect – you begin to realize that a single word can often say more than any paragraph ever could when it’s spoken with passion. You’ll find the Queen is a true master of the craft in that regard – she doesn’t always go for lengthy passages, so much as she embraces the power of single descriptive words and gets the maximum value out of them as she flows through her Spoken Word art. “Unfaithful Woman” is a stellar example of how she’s able to make an impact often with a string of single words…like when she says ”murderer…liar…persecutor…” – Majeeda sounds fantastic as she describes her main character, and perhaps no more venomous than when she refers to her as “that WOMAN.” So much of this is done so very, very well…to the point where there’s not a thing about “Unfaithful Woman” that I’d ever suggest she’d change. I’m enamoured with the attention to detail that’s been put into the performance, the cleverness of the music, the surrounding details you’ll hear around the beat, and the Queen’s poise. She knows exactly how to make her words as potent & powerful as possible, and it’s a pleasure to listen to. Mysterious and unique…Majeeda piques your interest by revealing her words syllable by syllable on “Unfaithful Woman,” creating a compelling composition that we can’t take our ears off of. Like I’ve always said around these pages of ours, the more YOU are into the material YOU make, so too, are we.
What was actually kind of funny to me, was that “Unfaithful Woman” wasn’t my first experience with Queen Majeeda’s music & art – I actually heard “The Wait” from Wedding Invitation before it. So…I mean, you’ll understand when you have a listen for yourself, but just imagine my surprise thinking that I was going to be in for another regular song of sorts, pushing play, and discovering “The Wait” instead. I was like, wait…what? Is this an interlude of some kind? Have I stumbled into someone’s real-time wedding notes? Was Queen Majeeda recording this to put pressure on her groom to follow through when the big day finally arrived? I was confused about what the heck it was I was supposed to be listening to, but “I love the element of surprise” just as much as she does, sincerely. I had so many questions on that initial spin through “The Wait,” before I learned that she was a genuine Spoken Word artist – then everything made sense. “The Wait” is quite the cute composition, written from the perspective of a potential bride to a groom. Listening to Queen Majeeda dreaming out loud as she speaks was completely beautiful…the joy in her voice is immaculate, and it’s like we get access to a diary or a journal as she details what the special upcoming day of her wedding is going to be like. He sounds like quite the man, I’ll tell ya that! “This is like weddings I have been reading about in ancient times” – she’s right about that…it’s like a hybrid vision of marriages rooted deeply in tradition, with a few slightly modern twists to it. It’s a beautiful moment in time, and I feel like Queen Majeeda detailed this event with sparkling accuracy…it’s really like we’ve stepped right into the mind of a bride and are allowed the opportunity to hear the stream of consciousness of her thoughts as she imagines what the day will be like. Musically, it’s fairly threadbare, but the reality is, we’re here for the Queen! It’s her voice that continually steals the show, and I felt like that’s just as true of “The Wait” as it was for “Unfaithful Woman” beforehand. Of course, context will matter…it always does…so the more you listen to the full lineup of material on Wedding Invitation, I’m sure the more you’ll find with respect to how both tracks like “Unfaithful Woman” and “The Wait” are able to coexist inside the same set-list with such different themes, sounds, and concepts. Queen Majeeda is clearly a born storyteller, so I’m confident that she’s going to wow listeners several times over with her expressively detailed performances & ideas throughout Wedding Invitation. The most you’re going to find me conceding to ya is that a track like “The Wait” makes for an interesting choice as a single…it’ll be the second one to gain that status with more widespread distribution this summer from what I’ve heard. That being said, I mean, c’mon – it’s tough to figure out what the right choice would be when it comes to representing a Spoken Word album, and an argument can essentially be made for any track truthfully…so really, “The Wait” would be just as good as any selection from Wedding Invitation as any other could be I’m sure. In any event, I’m truly impressed with Queen Majeeda’s attention to detail and her natural investment into every word of her material on both these singles from her new album, and I’m stoked to have found another Spoken Word artist that really seems to know just how to enhance her words through her performances, 100%.
Find out more about Queen Majeeda from her official sites below!
Main Website: https://queenmajeeda.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queenmajeeda
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@QueenMajeeda
Bandcamp: https://queenmajeeda.bandcamp.com
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@queenmajeeda
