We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maya Kay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Music has been an outlet for me for pretty much my whole life but I didn’t even think about pursuing it professionally until I graduated high school. I have been apart of ensemble music since I was five and playing instruments since I was 8. I did not enjoy performing or playing music until i was a junior in high school, 16 yrs old. On top of that I had always been told that there was no money to be made in music or in education. So that led me to aspire towards other professions like sports medicine. Then one day I was practicing my saxophone and after I’d packed up all my things my mom stepped in my path as I was approaching the top of the stairs, looked straight in my eyes, and said “you should pursue music. If your music makes others feel even a little bit of what it makes me feel you need to share that with the world.” And that has always stuck with me because for 17 yrs I had never heard anything like that. People always enjoyed and supported my talent but never encouraged me to pursue it seriously until then.

Maya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Although I have been involved in music my entire life I just started pursuing it professionally in 2017. I have loved hiphop for what feels like my whole life. I always had support with instrumental and vocal music but when it came to rapping it was different. I wasn’t even allowed to listen to hiphop until I was in high school. Prior to college I didn’t feel like I had what it took to rap and it wasn’t for lack of trying, but once I got to school something clicked and I realized I actually had some bars. My big cousin was a rapper and someone I admired in more ways than one. I honestly think about him every time I do anything concerning my music. I was writing my first verse when I got the news that he had been killed. I remember being so excited to share it with him and in an instant that was impossible. This pushed me to keep writing but at this timeI still didn’t think I had what it took to pursue it professionally, this was back in 2013. Me getting started honestly happened because my friends saw something in me that I didn’t yet see in myself. After some rigorous self healing I was able to see it too. So I jumped in!
I felt like I never saw myself mirrored in the music industry. I wanted to make people feel seen, both physically and emotionally thats why I’m transparent in my music. The message isn’t alway spiritual or uplifting but its always real, and my hope is that my transparency gives people the courage to live in their truth and shows them that they are worthy of everything positive that they desire.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was that talent is not enough. It’s about who you know, who can work with you, and who is willing to persevere. This was tough for me because I always had this idea that my talent would make room for me so I didn’t need to focus on anything except my craft but that wasn’t true at all. This was revealed to me when I started seeing that people that were “less talented” than me, in a technical sense, were doing more numbers than I was and what they all had in common was their proximity to people that could help and their tenacity to go after what they wanted. Now don’t get me wrong talent is important but there is so much footwork that’s necessary before your talent even plays a factor. Talent gives you longevity but more often than not it’s not what gets you through the door.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This actually happened recently. For the past year I hadn’t been really focused on my craft as I should have been. There were more than a few factors. I just seemed to be bombarded with trouble. My mental, physical, spiritual, and financial health had all been suffering and taking its toll in 2022. The largest obstacle though was my finances. Being short on money amplified everything else going on because, on top of whatever ever physical, mental, or spiritual issues I was having I didn’t have the money to address the stressers that were causing those issues. So I shifted my complete focus to getting some form of financial stability, not music, not my dreams, just money. It was difficult, and on top of that life continued to gut punch me all the way until now, as I’m writing this. I got in a really bad car accident that has kept me from working for the past month. There goes the financial stability I sacrificed all my time for. Still, I am so grateful to have been able to walk away from that accident with my life. So I decided to be as productive as possible during this extended break. That event sparked something in me that has been driving me and now I have a different level of awareness and focus.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mayakay_music
• Twitter: @mayakay_music
• Youtube: MayaKay
• Other: [email protected] Tiktok: @mayakaymusic

Image Credits
Roy Oliver @oliversfiles