Yaksta caters to the ladies on upcoming album

Despite being told to leave "certain types of songs" to others and to remain on a particular path, St Mary artiste Yaksta, who became the talk of the town after releasing the conscious hit Ambition, has made several attempts to answer the call for 'gyal tunes'.

Now, he says that while there is a song for everybody, six of the 18 songs that have made the tracklist for his soon-to-be released album Yaksta 22 are for the ladies.

"Me have girl songs fi days. Me think me have more songs inna my catalogue weh me feel woulda appeal to the females more than the man dem. However, me a find say females loved the hardcore gun tunes. I gave them Clap, dem never run wid it, then Tic Toc and dem never run wid that either," Yaksta said.

He continued, "Ironically, Ambition is a dancehall song weh a throw word, just speaking real life things. But there are some persons who think dancehall is not conscious. It is because that level of consciousness is what introduced me to many persons, they expect that same tier of work. But it's just that the way you perceive yourself, is not the way perceive you to be."

Yaksta admitted that there is some amount of pressure to maintain a particular image, lifestyle and creative expression and opined that oftentimes, the fans can be unforgiving.

He said, "It can be very pressuring to the artistes, worse when you come from a community that is predominantly conscious, or because your brand is one that is holistic. Sometimes people don't realise you are human and have different sides of you that needs to be expressed."

The artiste and songwriter addressed how the industry and consumers of the music can be hard to satisfy in his recent single Controversy.

"I'm just trying to change the narrative as time progresses. I'm not going to attempt to compete with Ambition and its success, but to make sure that when I put out projects, the next project has to be more solid than the first. Me accept say certain tracks don't get the justice they deserve or is not embraced as we would like them to be," he said.

He proclaimed that 2023 is a project-driven year and with the release of Yaksta 22 scheduled for next month, he is making every effort to keep all the members of his audience engaged. It is also the reason he has conceptualised a free live concert to be executed at Mandela Park in Half-Way Tree on February 24, three days before the album is slated to be released.

He said he will be doing a series of live shows alongside Chronic Law and other major acts.

"The other live shows in Portland, St Ann and Montego Bay will be paid events and there is a lot more to come after," he said.