Interview: AJA is Back with a Vengeance
The Drag Race alum spits fire on their second studio album, Crown
Although AJA has moved on from RuPaul’s Drag Race, their memorable appearances on the TV juggernaut have kept them in the public eye ever since. There is an elite tier of performers that stay relevant after their first post-Drag Race project, let alone their second. AJA belongs to this elite group. Their new, sophomore album Crown has been met with fanfare from queer people and allies across the world, and I spoke with AJA about the fiery album’s genesis.
Derek
Hi, AJA!
AJA
Hi Derek, how are you?
Derek
I'm good, how are you?
AJA
I'm doing well, just getting my daily dose of caffeine that I'm trying to run away from but it just keeps finding me.
Derek
Same with me, same with me. So I last spoke to you in person visiting the site of your “Bitch I'm Kawaii” and “Ayo Sis” joint music video. So it's exciting to talk to you again.
AJA
Wow, that’s insane, I love a full story moment.
Derek
Are there any music videos planned for your new album Crown?
AJA
So as of right now it's a little difficult because of the pandemic, but I am aiming to have a music video. I'm actually in the process of planning two to be attached to two of the future singles, so I'm really excited to dip back into the visual aesthetics, because it's been a while. And I feel like when there's a visual with the song, not only does it make people listen to the song more, it just kind of feels good because you can go back through the look of it and be like, “Oh I did that, and I brought my vision to life.”
Derek
I loved watching you create on your set of the “Ayo Sis” music video, that was just great to watch you in your element.
AJA
Thank you. Yes, it would also be interesting because I feel like, aesthetically, I've evolved a lot. I’m like in a whole different era, so it would be fun for people to see where I have taken my approaches to fashion and music, because it's way different now.
Derek
Where did you get the inspiration for the title of the album?
AJA
So, the album is called Crown. And I really garnered inspiration from my spiritual faith, but I feel like, you know, like everything in life, the title Crown has so many different facets because it's not just a spiritual project for me. It's also, quite literal, I feel like I have this history, and I really found a lot of myself emotionally, mentally and artistically through drag, and you know we all have the title of Queen and I've always been AJA the Queen. So I feel like, regardless of where it takes my career and my trajectory, I'm always going to be AJA the Queen, or AJA the Royalty or of some sort. And I really want the Crown to attribute to that idea of just, you know, I don't have to win a crown, I don't have to. I don't have to call myself a queen, you just know the crown is there.
Derek
Yeah, definitely. And what's your favorite track on Crown?
AJA
Oh, wow. I'm so all over the place because every track has such a part of my life written in it, and unlike any other project I've done because I really put my guard down for this one and I went in a direction where I realized that I was going through a lot of things and, you know, maybe somebody else might be going through these things I should write about it. But as of right now, my favorite song on the album is titled “White Couture,” and it’s a solo track; it’s just me, I don’t have a feature on it. It's just very to the point, and I think it's in terms of writing, one of the best on the album — in terms of wordplay and being a rapper. But overall, there's many tracks. I literally was just listening to the album right before we hopped on the call, like, I'm still not over it and I've been working on this album for two years, so I guess that says something.
Derek
I love the album artwork, how did that come together?
AJA
So, on the album artwork I'm wearing a traditional gala outfit from the African diaspora Lucumí. Otherwise, more commonly known to America and the world as Santeria which is a spiritual practice that came about because of survival. And this happened through, I believe it’s the West Atlantic or East Atlantic slave trade, but it’s transatlantic. There we go, the coffee is kicking in. With the transatlantic slave trade, that caused a lot of cultures from West Africa to make its way to Cuba and Brazil, and Puerto Rico and all these places, but it's a traditional gala outfit for someone who might be initiated into the practice, and I really gained a lot of inspiration for the pose, which we would call moforibale. It’s the act of prostrating yourself on the ground to salute someone's crown. So I'm doing the moforibale pose, and I really got the inspiration from the singer La Lupe, and even in the 80s, she released a single, and the cover was her in the same position as she was also part of the Lucumí faith. And I saw that album cover and I was like, Oh my God, I need to emulate this, it's so true to the culture, and it's also just iconic and La Lupe is, I think inspiration for me as an Afro-Latino, so I really wanted to put all of those pieces together.
Derek
That's beautiful. You have a lot of collaborators on this album. Is that important to you?
AJA
So, when I first wrote the album I wrote it as a solo album. And I actually did everything myself, like I did all the sung parts. I also wrote most of the album — there’s a lot of parts that are sung, or that are hooks that I wrote and [the] features just delivered and they killed it, and it was amazing. But I somewhere down the line, I thought, “You know what, I don't want to just have this experience for myself.” There are so many people who are so talented that I know. And I just think it will be so cool to have to include everyone that I'm kind of a fan of on this project. I feel like I did put a lot of very underground artists, pop artists, rappers, etc. Because I feel like they should be seen and one thing about me is that I really love to share my platform with people, regardless if I have a huge one or a small one. I always like to share it with someone, because I know how it is to sort of feel like you're in an artistic limbo. And it sucks, because sometimes you'll just feel like nobody's watching you. So it was really important for me to kind of just snap into it and think, you know what, I should put some pieces on this album, also it makes it multifaceted even more, and added a lot of layers so I'm really happy I decided to do so.
Derek
Sounds awesome. I'm really excited, because I love your previous album and your EP too.
AJA
Thank you so much. I'm really excited for you to hear, I feel like everyone who I know has heard this project has been like, oh my god, this is different from anything you've ever done, but especially in terms of vulnerability because I touch up on a lot of subjects in the project from feeling lost in my career trajectory to, you know having angry outbursts of feeling unsupported and misunderstood. I even touched upon things like suicide, and thoughts of hurting myself. I get really deep into this project and that's something I've just never done before because a lot of my older projects were either really bubbly, or just is very, like braggadocio rapper like, you know, I got this, I got that. This is more like, here's my heart. You know here’s my blood, sweat and tears. And I just want you to know this is me, baring my entire soul.
Derek
Yeah, I love that. And that actually leads into my next question — you have mentioned that this album explores suicidal thoughts you've had — it must have been cathartic to let that out. What compels you to be so honest in your writing?
AJA
You know, it's funny because at one point in my life, I just felt like I needed to put on an act, always like, if I was suffering or going through anything. I had to put a smile on or I had to convince the world, otherwise. And, you know, being someone who's younger and getting shot into this big world of fame and people are just looking at you, there’s millions of eyes that just know your every move. I fell into a really hard depression, and I realized that I wasn't being honest with myself, I was hurting myself, I was hurting the people that I love the most, I hurt all my friends and I was very unaware of it, because I was so, so hurt. So really opening up and learning that I could put that into my music, it was extremely cathartic. I was actually very inspired from my writing. And this sounds kind of weird, but it makes sense to me at least. I’m very inspired by Billie Eilish because I feel like in her music, she bears her soul. And there's just things she sings about and talks about that are just things that we’re told not to speak about, and I really admired that and I really wanted to do the same. So in a way I kind of feel like she gave me the courage to just to write about it and say, this is it. I don't want to revisit this no more. I can listen to this and not feel triggered and just feel like it's out in the air, and I can breathe now.
Derek
That's a really great answer. One thing I haven't spoken to you about is your upbringing in Brooklyn. For fans who wouldn't know, what is growing up there like?
AJA
So I grew up in Brooklyn, like in the ‘90s and 2000s, and I really got to witness gentrification from beginning to end, but I think a lot of people, even people who live in New York, so they say, don't even really know what it is like to grow up in Brooklyn. We're so used to kind of calling Brooklyn, quote unquote the ghetto, but it never really was a ghetto. It was just a community, and it was very heavily populated by a rich Latino and Black community, and that's what I grew up in. I grew up in the R&B and hip-hop culture. I grew up with, you know, reggae and dancehall and, you know, West Indian food, the courage to get into oxtails and the rice and peas, but then up the block you still have like the rice, beans and chicken in the Dominican restaurant that was really what I grew up with. And at the same time that's like all the rich cultural stuff, but there was a lot of gang violence and there was, you know… I've gotten jumped before. I have fucked people on the street, you know, it was a game of survival in a way as well. And being a queer person growing up in that, you sort of feel that you have to defend and protect yourself. You know, which is ironic because at the end of the day even when all that was done I feel like when I rose to… I want to say stardom. I hate referring to myself as a star, like I know I am a star, but I just don't like to get caught in the egotistic terms. But as I rose to exposure and having a platform, I realized that I felt a lot of those same feelings of being attacked and having to defend myself. So, you know, I feel like if anything my upbringing in Brooklyn is a huge reflection of who I am and how I navigate and handle the world. You know, nobody hands you a shiny diamond compass and, like, here you go, you know, you got this, you kind of have to figure it out on your own. When you come from these types of neighborhoods where it's rich in culture, but it also has this violence, that's difficult to do in the mainstream.
Derek
Did your upbringing in Brooklyn play into any of your lyrics and your new album?
AJA
Absolutely. I'm very inspired by artists like Jay Z. I love hip hop music, I love old school hip-hop too. There’s even a track, on track number three. It’s not number three, it's three to me because I don't count the interludes as full songs, but on “Crossbow,” I make a reference to Left Eye Lisa Lopes from TLC, but also make a reference to Slick Rick, which a lot of queer people may not really even know about Slick Rick. And that leads me to another thing, where it's also difficult navigating being at the intersection of being black, and Latinx, but also queer. I think that some people don't understand that that intersection of culture is difficult to navigate as well, because a lot of queer people are not really — especially if they’re non-black or non-POC — they kind of sort of look at hip-hop and rap, as extremely homophobic, so they don't indulge in the culture as much.
Derek
Yeah and that's a shame because there's so much great queer rap and hip-hop out there.
AJA
Oh, absolutely. I'm very inspired by any queer rapper who really takes the stage because, you know, people don't really… people sleep on us, and I'm really inspired by people like Cakes da Killa… Mykki Blanco… like, you know, they're just powerful black, queer people who are literally just speaking their truth. And they're doing so well, and I wish that more people tuned in to what they have to say, because girl, they're killing it.
Derek
Yeah, definitely. And that was my last question for you, so thank you for your time. It's always a pleasure to speak with you.
AJA
No, thank you. You have such a soothing voice that I was like not even realizing that time was passing by.
Derek
Oh, thank you. This is my, I think, third or fourth interview with you and you're always so gracious and amazing.
AJA
Thank you so much, I truly appreciate that.
Derek
Yeah, thank you so much for your time.
AJA
And I look forward to speaking to you again in the future. I know we will.
Derek
Awesome, definitely.
