The Ying Yang Twins on Uptight Assholes, Gays, the Ideal Woman, and Why They Speak for Strippers
Photo: photobucket
By ANNIE ATURA
April 28, 2010
The following interview is unedited. It took place at seven o’clock on April 27, 2010 in the Branford College Master’s House, minutes before the Ying Yang Twins took the stage at Spring Fling. When I entered, there was a massive spread of catering from Popeye’s on the dining room table. Yang was on the couch in the fetal position; he participated in the first part of the interview supine. Upon Ying’s arrival – he had been touring Branford with Master Steven Smith – Yang sat up. The interview was made possible by WYBC Yale Radio.
Annie Atura: So which one are you? Ying or Yang?
Yang: Yang.
AA: So what’s the difference? Do you complete each other?
Yang: Yeah. My brother’s more of the peace; I’m more of the war.
AA: So do you have any feelings about Yale? Education in general?
Yang: We all need an education. That’s the feeling I have about it. As far as college, or anything like that, I never really got into that. My main goal was to just get out of high school. I ain’t never really plan no college or anything. I don’t want to waste my own smarts. Because my family sure ain’t have no damn money to send me to college. So my main accomplishment was just to get a diploma. ‘Cause nowadays, you ain’t got no diploma you can’t even work at McDonald’s, dammit!
AA: What did your parents do?
Yang: Um, shit. My dad painted cars before I was born, and still paint cars. My mom at home. She don’t really have no choice. So now I take care of ‘em.
AA: Are you aware that there was controversy surrounding the Ying Yang Twins’ coming here?
Yang: There usually always is when we go to any college.
AA: Really? Why?
Yang: People always – sensitive people, you know what I’m saying, they don’t like certain stuff. You’re never going to get everybody to like everything. But the main thing that people have to realize when they – uh – pull those type of moves toward the Ying Yang Twins: we are the people’s favorite rap group. So we’re just like, all that other, uh, how do you say, um, when they try to start, that shit ain’t gonna work with the Ying Yang Twins. We provide a fun feeling. And then, how many other people in the world you think parents didn’t like the music they listened to. It ain’t just the Ying Yang Twins. People, the older people, like your parents or grandparents, whoever listened to every person that their parents couldn’t like every person, you know what I’m saying. Everything is a reenactment, over and over. But the thing that people have to realize is that everybody ain’t an uptight asshole.
AA: Well, do you think that your music is misogynistic?
Yang: Um … No. Because we make songs, we let it be known that we make songs for exotic dancers. You know, once we came out. So anybody that was against that, I look at it like this: if you’re not a stripper, if you don’t work at a nudie bar, then you ain’t really have a point to try to make a point against us. Because the same women that you might not be fond of if they work in exotic bars, they’ve got the same type of situation we all have. People have to take care of themselves. I don’t know anybody that lives anywhere in this nation or anywhere in the world that can live off love. Money pays bills. Everybody ain’t going to like everything. I already know that, so I’m ready for the worst. They call me Mr. Worst First anywhere I go. You can’t really – you can’t make me see a closed door. A person that has something to say derogatory every time – although we have derogatory lyrics – in the situations that we represent, to those women, the lyrics are not derogatory. They are helpful.
AA: So: “For real bitch / Don’t take this shit wrong / Thinking I’m nice / I’ll break your jawbone:” that’s something that they would consider helpful?
Yang: I mean, it all goes along with what we promote.
AA: Well what exactly do you promote?
Yang: Um … We, our main objective as the Ying Yang Twins was to make hype songs for women that work in the strip club.
AA: So things that they could get excited about?
Yang: Yeah, versus letting them dance to fucking John Cougar Mellencamp.
AA: Mm hm.
Yang: Or Pink Floyd. You know what I’m saying?
AA: So you think women can get excited about things like, “Fuck you til you cry”?
Yang: Right! Because a lot of the women that know us – the women that work in the exotic clubs – and other women that don’t work in the club, they say, You guys know how to explain, when you talk about us. So, when you make the little gesture about the bitch here, or, trick, or ho there, it’s not as bad as a illiterate person trying to use the same type of lyrics. In other words, you have to have smarts, in order to get smart with a person.
AA: So you think that you actually empathize with women?
Yang: Yeah. That’s right.
AA: How much time do you actually spend in strip clubs?
Yang: Um, that’s our whole career. Like, just like, all right, I’ll put it to you like this. Everything we’ve accomplished over the years we’ve been the Ying Yang Twins, since 1997, all right, over the years, it’s not any type of performance we won’t do. We do squeaky clean shows, we do X rated shows, that’s why every time we come to a college we ask what do they prefer. You know what I’m saying? We already know the stacked deck gonna be up against us but when, we’re not one of those groups that you’re going to be able to just – uh uh uh – downplay. You know why? What is this, New Haven, Connecticut, right? We’ve been at Spring Bling [sic] before, and kids, they be like, We drove all the way from Connecticut, listening to nothing but the Ying Yang Twins! So, you know, far as certain people not liking what you do, you know you ain’t never going to get everyone to like you. So what?
Ying: Well I don’t mean to come in, rude and everything,
AA: No, please!
Ying: But uh, they say we was at Yale. I thought all the deaf people was here ’cause they said Yale. Laughs.
AA: So what is it exactly that draws you to strip clubs?
Yang: Strip clubs – if you ain’t never been to Atlanta, there’s a lot of clubs all over this nation, but we have the best. They get all the way naked.
Ying: You say what drives us to strip clubs?
AA: Yes, right, he was talking about how much he enjoyed strip clubs –-
Yang: Right.
AA: — and how you make a lot of music for the women that work in strip clubs.
Ying: What do women do in the strip clubs? That’s what draws us there! They ain’t got on no underwear! Where your underclothes at! My bad, my bad! My bad, baby!
AA: So describe your ideal woman?
Yang: Ideal woman, what do you mean?
AA: I don’t know. To mate with.
Ying: Cool. Down to earth. Smoke. Drink.
Yang: Lady in the street but a freak in the bed.
AA: Really? That’s your ideal?
Yang: I mean, yeah. When I say lady I mean in every aspect of the word. Uh uh uh uh.
Ying: I guess my ideal woman is my wife.
AA: Would you date an exotic dancer?
Yang: No.
AA: Why? Why not?
Yang: Why? ‘Cause she gets paid to provide a service that requires a certain – uh uh uh uh um – sensitive situation, how I look at it. When someone’s together and they be intimate, that’s a private thing right? Ok. So that’s sacred, whether you be married or not. But if they got a club that I can go – now, say if I’m trying to talk to this lady. It take me six months to a year for her to get comfortable with me. But if she work in the club, I ain’t got to talk to her.
Ying: Takes her sixteen seconds.
Yang: Five or six minutes.
AA: And that’s unattractive to you?
Yang: Um, it’s not actually –
Ying: No no I’m not saying it’s unattractive. But if she’s doing that to me or him or him, how many other men within a day is she doing that to? So if you calculate that within the week, and then you calculate that within the month, and then you calculate that within the year – I don’t want my wife, or anybody who that I feel like this is my soul mate, out there showing my goodies, my goodies, my goodies not my goodies, you know what I’m saying?
Yang: The exchange rate is getting to know a person versus giving them a couple of dollars to take their clothes off.
Ying: Do you want your man showing off all your goodies?
AA: Well, it depends, right? I also don’t go to strip clubs.
Ying: Would you date a stripper? Would you date a male stripper?
AA: Well I don’t go to male strip clubs.
Ying: But would you date a male stripper? Even if you don’t go, even though you ignorant to the point that you don’t go, would you date a male stripper?
AA: Yes. Yes I would.
Ying: So you cool with a lot of other women looking at your goodies.
AA: Yeah.
Ying: No, for me it’s only me, myself, and I.
AA: How much of your day do you spend naked?
Ying: Say what?
AA: How much of your day do you spend naked?
Yang: It all depends on how long you want to be naked.
Ying: I’m just saying though how many people am I showing it to in a day?
AA: I don’t know, how many people are you showing it to in a day?
Ying: I’m not. I ain’t showing it to nobody but me myself and my wife, you know. I don’t even show my homeboys myself like that, you know. So to show somebody else –
AA: How do you feel about things like gay marriage? Are you comfortable with homosexuality?
Yang: No. I’m not with that.
Ying: No, I’m not with that.
AA: You’re not with that?
Yang: Opposites attract. That shit is a no-go with me. You know I mean, straight up. The female was made for the man, the man was made for the female, and that’s how that shit’s supposed to go. All together. There ain’t no way around that shit. You can’t – two of the same motherfuckers can’t reproduce, so that don’t help the world.
Ying: Well I’m not gay and I don’t, um, involve my circle, I’m cool, whatever you do, that’s your life. I have nothing against it.
Yang: I respect gays, ’cause most families have one in their family. I respect them. As far as being with that shit? No.
AA: Do you think they should be allowed to marry?
Yang: I don’t see it.
Ying: Uhhh – by by by by biblical law –
AA: Are you religious?
Yang: Religious is nothing but a pawn of slavery.
Ying: No I’m just saying, biblical law, it’s not supposed to go on. So human law it’s cool. I’m just saying at the end of the day, that person who’s planning to get married and do whatever they have to do to the opposite sex – I mean the same sex – they have to face the Maker at the end of the day. We don’t. So biblically we have nothing to do with that.
AA: So you’re religious (Ying) and you aren’t (Yang)?
Ying: No I’m just saying that’s just the way it goes.
Yang: I don’t choose a religion.
Ying: Biblically, it’s not supposed to go on. But by man laws, since ten years ago, it’s cool to go around and say I’m gay. Ten years ago you couldn’t do it. It was like, you say, I’m gay, and someone almost would whoop ya.
Yang: There’s some sensitive people in this world just like the people in California. All that shit trickles down.
Ying: Ok, ok. When do laws change?
Yang: All the time.
Ying: Laws change when gays become part of politics.
Yang: Laws change all the time, shorty.
Ying: They change every day, that’s what I’m saying. So now that you’ve got more gays in the lawmaking decision, damn right, it’s cool now.
Yang: I still don’t feel like that.
Ying: Shit. Really? Really if you want to tell the truth about it, biblically, they’ve been gay since the beginning of time! They just was keeping it in the closet.
Yang: They been Romans doing that shit.
Ying: Come on, there’s more priests and preachers that mess with little boys than we even fail to acknowledge. But we don’t want to acknowledge that. We done swept that up under the table. All right, let’s talk about these gays and homosexuals we got going on right now, but we ain’t going to talk about that priest that was messing with young Bobby when little Bobby was too young to know what was going on.
Yang: It’s like this, if you gonna point the finger at one thing you gotta point the finger at everything.
Ying: At everything. It’s been going on long before us.
Yang: Yeah so don’t try to. Like a lot of people try to take that shit and apply it wherever someone’s a little rougher than they would like.
Ying: Little Bobby try to build his life around – I’m not this way I’m not this way I’m not this way I’m not this way – and he try to build his life around that until when he try to face the way he is, he has to buckle his knees like a wimpy little girl. To the person that’s not even higher than him. He done have a child, he done married, he done do everything that he think that in G-d’s eyes is for him to do. And that’s why I’m like, why are you sitting around here making like it’s not ok to do this it’s not ok to do this, but when someone else come out and say, Well I’ve done it, that’s close to you, you like, Well I was like that too! I just didn’t really want to say nothing. For what?
Yang: Well you know like people like, that wait ‘til somebody else start something before they say something, those are bitches.
Ying: If you like penis, say you like penis. If you like kitty cat, say you like kitty cat.
Yang: With me? I’m not as sensitive as the world is. I’m not G-d, I’m not Jesus, and I’m not that sensitive, because there’s some ugly shit that occurs in the world every day. And we still be forced to have a look at it and deal with it.
Annie Atura is a junior in Yale College. She is a staff writer for Broad Recognition.
–
Correction: The initial transcript of this interview used the informal spellings “cuz” and “ax.” For the sake of consistency, the revised transcript uses “’cause” instead of “cuz” and “ask” instead of “ax.”
After reading this interview I realize I was not outraged enough that Yale brought the Ying Yang Twins to Spring Fling.
“Ax?” You really felt like that was appropriate? You write out every single “something,” “nothing,” and even “motherfuckers,” all of which would dialectically not be said as such by the Twins (I’ve seen various interviews with them)…yet you choose to write “ax” instead of “ask?” I am not one to easily pull out the race card, but man are you treading a line. I also love that you noted that the catering was from Popeye’s (are you sure it wasn’t KFC?). I wonder if Subway had catered for the Twins if that fun little fact would have made it into your story. I still wonder how their food was relevant to the piece aside from your attempts to immediately cast them in a role.
It’s off-putting that interview was clearly approached with a slant rather than an open conversation with an attempt to recognize who these people are and where they come from.
I was actually impressed by the interviewer’s restraint and impartiality. In an “unedited” transcription, judgment calls for spelling must be made, and she drew her editorial line somewhere else from where you might have. And the chicken was Popeye’s. If you’re a fan of the Ying Yang Twins, stand by what they’ve said and who they are, don’t attack the interviewer with hollow claims of racism and bias that reveal more about your own ideas of what is and isn’t a racial stereotype.
Your journalistic bar is set too low for my liking. Her judgment calls were inconsistent and illustrative of bias, as were some her question and word choices.
I am glad Annie has so many friends, the support network will really help when she can’t get a journalism job (if she’s not going into I-banking).
Seems like you realized this too, as the article has now been changed. What a chickensh*t move.
I agree with “Really?”–even with the revision, it was clear that the quotations were transcribed with an unnecessary concern for capturing every poor particle of speech. Making the ying yang twins look as stupid as they are is easy enough, including their every “um” and “erm” was a frustrating tactic to read through that read like an editorializing rather than accurate quoting.
I’m pretty sure the only one making the leap from “poor particles of speech” to the twins looking stupid is you. The first sentence says the interview is unedited, meaning transcribed as faithfully as possible. Assigning biases to an admirably impartial interviewer reveals more about your own prejudices than about hers.
There are many ways to interpret what these men have said, not least because their English is questionable. It’s great, however, to see that they are self aware, and I choose to believe that there is some wisdom in what they’re saying, even if not everyone can see it.
re: avinash
no, that’s wrong
i saw the ycc member who was bringing them catering and it was popeye’s. it was a very large order of popeye’s. fact.
Ying Yang in this thang!!!!
AA, would you really date a male stripper? Even if it would prove some noble point about the value of every human being irrespective of the fact that they choose to objectify themselves for a living? How would your proud Yale parents feel about that?
1. Whats wrong with pointing out that the food came Popeyes and trying to orthographically express the African American dialect? Black culture is black culture. Trying to pretend like we didn’t notice it or that it isn’t there is more racist than honestly acknowledging it. If you think that eating at Popeyes or speaking in a certain dialect is a negative quality, then what does that say about what YOU think of those people? Seriously, their English is not “questionable.” It’s just as legit as the English you or I speak. It just happens to be a dialect spoken largely by black people. If you or I gave an extempore interview that was transcribed unedited, word for word, our academic, ivory tower English would be just as hard to follow–and would probably contain far more “poor particles.”
2. Avi: Nice turn around from your “their lyrics are too ridiculous to be taken seriously” argument. Come on, every human being is self-aware. The fact that what they say here satisfies you as a justification of their misogyny only shows that your expectations were low to begin with.
Re: y10’s self righteous wig out. i was referring to the “um’s” and “er’s” that were transcribed. If the author was interviewing someone they respected, I’m sure they wouldn’t find it necessary to be like “i think my music is urm..uh..uh..uh…uh…poignant” The would probably just say “I think my music is poignant.” I just thought it was frustrating because it felt like an unfair representation for a purpose. Also, no need to wig, I wasn’t trying to assert my “ivory tower” standards. But glad your ready on the trigger in case some racists roll through this chat board.
Great interview, Annie! I really can’t think of anyone who could have done it better.
I thought this was a provocative joke until i read the comments.
I fail to understand how the Twins lyrics are more offensive or degrading for women than the fact that thousands of strip clubs exist in this country. And from Annie’s (let’s be honest, totally bullshit) response that she would have no problem with dating a male stripper even though she has never even been to a strip club, it seems to me like Annie, and perhaps by extension Yale feminists, has no problem with women stripping at all. If these songs are about and for strippers, and y’all are so down with stripping, what is the problem exactly?
As for the interview in general, “Really?” above is correct.
–Max Brown is a senior in Yale College.
This was an interview conducted and transcribed entirely by one person. Extending her to represent Yale feminists as a group (an attempt that is itself offensively simplistic) is absurdly unfounded.
Y10, you are absolutely right that there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging the dialect and thus transcribing the interview as it was spoken. However, the author did not do this. Since we acknowledge that this dialect exists, let’s acknowledge that words like “nothing” or “something” or “motherfuckers” are not said as such. They are likely to be “nuttin” or “sumtin” or “mothafuckas.” I urge you to watch interviews with the Twins and see that this is the case. Thus, the point is not that the interview was transcribed with the Ying Yang dialect in mind, but that only certain words were chosen to be transcribed as such, one of those being “ax” instead of “ask.” This is a method of editorializing, choosing what the reader should get out of this interview, and a slant, rather than a straight transcribing and acknowledging of the dialect at hand.
Also, no one is debating that they were eating Popeye’s. I just wonder whether if the food was anything else, perhaps Basil Noodles, Bulldog Burrito, or Subway, if that little fact would have made it into the story, as it never really comes up again, is not really a pertinent part of the piece, and is just a passing observation. The mention of Popeye’s is supposed to drive the reader into a certain frame of mind, which the author should really think about.
I think the title of the interview more than anything else proves the unfortunate slant with which the interviewer/author went into this — she very much wants people to have a visceral reaction against them without giving them a chance. Furthermore, I agree with previous posts that it has tinges of racism considering the parts of their slang that the interviewer chose to emphasize while glossing over other parts of their dialect that would not emphasize race. Also, “to mate with?”…um.…who uses the word “mate” outside of animal contexts? How about “marry” or “date” or if you just meant to have sex with, then say “What is your ideal woman sexually”? Very questionable on the race issue. Additionally I’m with Avi in that although the author’s clear intent is to make the Ying Yang Twins seem stupid and horrible, I actually think this article humanizes them. Just because I don’t necessarily agree with the morality of their lifestyle doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have some historical and cultural relevance, and this article actually contextualizes their music (I didn’t know that they started out as strip club hype music, and while I’m not fond of strip clubs, that does add relevant context, a lifestyle that is a reality for a lot of people in this nation, especially if they didn’t go to college). Sure there may be some contradictions in their life philosophy, but I’m pretty sure you can find LOTS of contradictions in the feminist doctrine.…so acting all high and mighty towards them is pretty condescending.
Honest. Necessary. Thoughtful. Interesting. Professional. Thank You Annie.
Annie ain’t a hater.
This is a terrible interview/article. Racist, slanted, and your responses Annie…
I wont re-iterate what “Really?” said, all of which was on point. However, I will request the editors of this esteemed online magazine to kindly not let writers run amok with sensationalist headlines/descriptions and poor journalism ethics in the name of feminism. Or Yale. Or humanity.
I mean, “Yang was on the couch in the fetal position; he participated in the first part of the interview supine.”
Really??
I can’t understand the hate in the comments section. This shit is hilarious. Let the Ying Yang Twins shine through as themselves.
agree with Too Awesome. Beyond the ax issue (which I agree with Really on) and the rapper’s blatant sexism, this interview was funny, let the Ying Yang twins be themselves, and pushed them on some stuff. That’s the mark of a good interview. Like most things, people see what they want in the Ying Yang twins and in this article. I got what I wanted: mildly offensive absurdity. Consider me a satisfied customer.
This is a good representation of what happens when “educated” people interact with “uneducated” people. I don’t think there was a slant. I don’t think there was editorializing. I don’t think there was any attempt to make Ying Yang look stupid. I wasn’t there so reading the transcript isn’t enough to understand the tone of the interview.
This was a textbook example of when worlds that don’t understand each other collide. Most of us here at Yale don’t understand where Ying Yang comes from. Annie can objectively not like what they say about women. Annie can disagree with them. THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANNIE RACIST. Or anyone else for that matter. But it doesn’t mean Ying Yang is stupid, or Yalies are racist. It just means we don’t (and probably will never understand) the world that D-Roc and Kaine live in.
No one said that Annie is racist because she doesn’t agree with Ying Yang.…no one.
As you navel-gazers fret about the dilemmas of people with correct grammer interviewing people with incorrect grammar, you would do well to remember that the point of Spring Fling over the past few years (with the exception of 2009) has essentially been role reversal. Highly-educated Yale students get to sing along to musicians who are making music that ends up emphasizing the class difference between audience and performer. The Ying Yang Twins’ comments give a good example of this: they’re making music for strippers to dance to, music that has nothing to do with Yalies and even less to say to them. It’s a joke on both sides, a big mardi-gras when the kings play paupers for a day: egg-head Yalies wave their hands around to statements that would horrify them if spoken by their peers (anyone remember Ludacris asking the ladies in the audience with “clean pussies” to identify themselves, or T.I. jeering at the crowd?), and the performers get to have the last laugh, because Yalies lower their standards to accommodate them: they pander, they condescend. Avinash Gandhi is the biggest panderer of ‘em all: do adults need to be congratulated for being “self-aware?” Avinash, you sound relieved that the Twins could speak in complete sentences. Wouldn’t want your jesters to embarrass you too much, ‘eh?
Those of you who are hung up over questions of race and class are absolutely justified, but you’re missing the target. It isn’t Annie at all (what was she supposed to do, speak with broken grammar just because her subjects did, or re-write their phrases in complete sentences? That they speak with broken grammar is part of the point). It’s Yale, it’s all of you who congratulate yourselves on listening to rap in the first place, as if you’re breaking a cultural barrier. You’re all proud for seeing “how the other half lives.”
Avinash, final question: is the ambiguous “wisdom” that you spoke of the fact that “that shit”–homosexuality–“is a no-go” with the musicians you’re so intent on defending? All of you who are picking over the spelling of “ax” and “ask” are hilarious. You’re not bothered by the ardent homophobia, the defense of violence against women as educational for women. You’re obsessed with calling Yalies out for any slight offense they might give because you hold them to a higher standard than the Ying Yang Twins. Double standards. Pathetic.
everyone is operating under the assumption that annie is a racist white girl. maybe annie is black. who knows? maybe you should examine your own white solopsism, haters leaving comments.
the ying yang twins said some insightful things and some shockingly mysogynistic things. if you’ve read any unedited interview, you will know that interviewers always leave in the ums. great interview.
First, I’m not sure why language is an issue. It’s an unedited piece. The “um’s” and “er’s” were a bit much, but Annie was true to the form of the interview. We wouldn’t be discussing this if it had been a filmed interview. They would have made asses of themselves without Annie’s help. Second, why is everyone so quick to vilify stripping? Yes, some women are forced to do it because they don’t have the same opportunities as Yale-goers, but some do it because they want to. And don’t pull the exploitation thing on me. Unless you work for yourself, someone is exploiting your labor. That’s right, you are a breed of ho! Perhaps they enjoy the attention or (who’d a thunk) the money! Contrary to popular assumption, I’m sure there are some strippers out there who respect themselves and demand respect from others. It’s clear from this interview that the infamous duo despite their we-want-to-inspire-strippers-by-rapping-about-cracking-their-jaws attitude doesn’t hold strippers in high esteem. Third, depicting two mediocre rappers as they are does not make someone racist. Though I do know Annie personally and I suspect she’s not as tolerant of diversity as she acts. That’s said with love.