YATTA’s PALM WINE is the product of years of travel, reckoning, solitude, and troubling love alchemized into a joyful return to home, God, and clarity of mind. Recorded in London, LA, Houston, and NYC over the course of a transient, winding, and introspective five years, PALM WINE follows YATTA’s critically-acclaimed poetry album, WAHALA (2019).

PALM WINE, the album’s title, is at once a play on the traditional West African drink, the musical genre of the same name, and the folk music project, Iron & Wine. Through their research, YATTA learned that S.E. Rogie, a pioneer of the genre, was their granduncle.

While PALM WINE is not a palm wine album in the conventional sense, it takes inspiration from the genre’s storytelling, lilting vocals, and slant towards levity, ease, and play. A departure from the poetic noise of YATTA’s previous releases, PALM WINE sustains an experimental spirit while delivering something entirely new, expansive, and more pop-leaning.

The project is buoyed by collaborations with pop producers like felicita (of PC Music, Caroline Polachek), So Drove (Cupcakke, Lil B), Myles Avery (Tate McCrae), Carlos Hernandez (Hawa, Princess Nokia), who executive produced the album, and Maxime Morin (Beyoncé, HER), who mixed and mastered the album.

Speaking about WAHALA, their previous release, YATTA quoted Maya Angelou: “She [Angelou] says to keep a room in your heart just for god. My room is full of rage, questions, confusion, and pain—I’m trying to get it clean and pristine, baby!”

YATTA’s room is now clear.