Artist Spotlight :: JB The First Lady ::

JB The First Lady
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Born: Jerrilyn Webster

Affiliation: Nuxalk & Cayuga Nations

Born in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Jerrilyn Webster (a.k.a. JB the First Lady) moved frequently throughout her childhood either “living large or in poverty” in a single-parent home. In a Christian household, Webster at first had very limited exposure to music: “We weren’t really allowed to listen to music at all, really, expects Christian music or ‘50s music like Motown,” Webster recalls, “We never had television; we had AM radio.” Yet hip hop managed to find her when as a teenager Webster received a mixtape from her cousins in Rochester. “Salt-n-Pepa was my frist tape, which was kinda controversial as a young girl,” Webster says, “but my mom saw the empowerment of being a woman and doing hip hop.” Talk about foreshadow…

            Webster recalls that she never experienced much overt discrimination until she settled in Vancouver. “It was about my personality and how I was caring and how I engaged with people, not the color of my skin,” Webster says, “But when I moved to Vancouver, it was high-level racism, and I learned about all the different stereotypes of our people.” In an eye-opening first hip hop concert, Webster found solidarity: “I was Kinnie Starr and Skeena Reece, Ostwelve, Manik1derful, and they just had so much pride about who they were and where they came from.” Webster became instantly hooked, claiming “I wanted to encourage other young people to stand up for the injustices in Canada pertaining to land, water, Aboriginal rights. [The performers] talked about decolonization and colonization and I was like ‘Woah.’”

            When a youth worker at Vancouver Friendship Centre encouraged Webster to try her voice in the Centre’s free studio, a hip hop star followed. As JB the First Lady, Webster “wanted to be that artist that could really capture the moment and the environment that we’re in, but come with a female perspective.” However, the female aspect and her specific lifestyle has resulted in, what she calls, “resistance in silence” from many male counterparts. “[I]n Native hip hop there’s a lot of gangersterism influence or stories,” Webster explains, “because I wasn’t in that lifestyle, that’s where the shade would be thrown towards me.”

            At one point Webster even thought about quitting music altogether until a friend played her Keep Shining by Shad, whom rallies women to rap: “ There’s no girls rapping so we’re only hearing half the truth/ What we have to lose? Too much/ Half our youth aren’t represented, the better halves of dudes.” Needless to say, Shad is the first person Webster thanked in her linear notes, despite having never met him. Webster and the struggles of Native people would in turn inspire Shad, evident in his song FamJam.

            Webster continued to remain true to the lyrics she spits: “using my words to go upwards/not backwards.” Movements such as Idle No More have cemented Webster’s determination. “Living in a city like Vancouver where there are missing and murdered women, talking about injustices, it’s not even a hobby anymore,” Webster asserts, “it’s a duty to talk about it and bring forward these voices.” Her music is saturated with positivity, as Webster hopes to inspire the indigenous youth. “It’s so engaging for young people and I want to empower other young people to do the same, through hip hop or through their own art.”

Encouragement is prevalent in all of JB the First Lady’s songs, with constant reminders that the listener is capable of change. The song If You Want It is perhaps the smoothest, softest assertion of self-power in any hip hop song: “Today, today could be the day/ You open your eyes/ And realize/ And see your potential strength” JB raps in one verse. The chorus echoes “If you want it/ You got it/ You got the light/ to fight the right,” though with such a sensual lullaby voice fighting is the last thing that comes to mind.

          Always utilizing a calm and collected style, JB the First Lady is able to magnify her voice through hip hop despite sounding like a hypnotic whisper. While most hip hop is jarringly aggressive, JB soothes the listener into a reassuring trance. “Get ready/ Get steady/ It’s gonna, gonna, gonna, gonna, get heavy” the chorus goes, as if JB is a mother to guide a child through the tough times. For those in doubt, JB tells them “Creator is there/ Creator is aware” and that “You never know what’s next/ You never know your effects."