Biography:

Okplayer review:

Aja Monet ain’t no joke. She’s no docile doll baby to be played with and discarded. But she’s also not void of love or of the void of love. She needs to be loved and held too, even if she does wield a deadly weapon, and walk with a straight back and a hip-sway, her lips, both snarling and puckering at the same time. At least, that’s what I deduce from her latest album, Scared to Make Love/Scared Not To – that she is a woman. Whole. Open. Closed. Free. Her. A nine-track celebration, Scared to Make Love/Scared Not To is made up of the sonic seduction that is Aja Monet’s voice and lyrics, over a variety of sounds, whether it be a sultry soul track, or an intergalactic (a motif Aja uses a bit on the record) Moog- splashed, Bootsy Collins circa “Munchies For Your Love” beat. The music, though different enough to stay interested, still comes across as cohesive, thoughtful and carefully executed.
But let’s be honest. People who know Aja (which is a lot of people) know her for her work as a poet. Her words are what people want more than anything. And my concern when I decided to review the album, is that she would try so hard to create something musical, that the integrity of her work as a writer would slip. I’m so glad I was wrong.
One of the strongest examples of Aja Monet’s word sorcery, is on the cosmic, non-sexual yet uber-erotic song, “Recess,” in which Aja Monet confesses in the chorus, Your a jungle gym in my chest/A playground in my soul. Her layered voice goes into a schizophrenic fit, of I want to rip our arm off and glue it to my lower back, and I want to use your moan as lotion on my skin, and I want to make your back my railroad and ride it to and fro work everyday. Recess indeed.
Scared to Make Love/Scared Not To is a manifesto about womanhood, love, freedom, and how all three could and should be synonyms for one another. What it’s not is another spoken word album, complete with heavy bass, boring under-produced music, and stale poem-raps about…whatever. Aja’s done a great job at doing the “Aja thing,” that her supporters know and love, even in the midst of her creative expansion into music which isn’t always easy to do. If you dig poetry, this is for you. If you dig music, this is for you. If you are a woman, this is for you. If you a man, yep, for you too. Hell, if you an alien…
-Jason Reynolds