Born in La Paz, Mexico to a Mexican father and Turkish mother, Maya Jupiter grew up in Sydney. Signing to Mother Tongues, an all-female rap label at 20, she released her first solo album in 2003. Maya’s lifelong love of hip-hop led to her breaking through as a TV host/producer at Channel [V] and host/producer of the ABC’s triple j hip-hop show.
Maya is a renowned activist who is now raising a family in Los Angeles. She released her third solo album, produced by Grammy winner Quetzal Flores, in 2018, titled Never Said Yes, named after her song about affirmative consent. Songs like “Crumble” address the school to prison pipeline while “Inshallah” is about the hope Maya experienced while pregnant with her first child.
In 2013, Maya co-founded Artivist Entertainment to support artists creating positive social transformation. She currently sits on the advisory board at Peace Over Violence, where she has been a spokesperson for their Denim Day Campaign since 2014 and was recognised with their Voice Over Violence Humanitarian Award that same year. In 2017, Maya won Tiyya’s Owliya Community Leadership Award and was honoured by the Justice For My Sister Collective. In 2018, she received the East LA Community Corporation’s Mujer Guerrera Award, and in 2020, Maya was the co-recipient of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Social Justice Fighter Award alongside her husband, Aloe Blacc.
Maya is among a panel of hiphop artists discussing the work of female hiphop artists working across different regions in Australia. The live event will be held on 15 March in Australia and an online event will be held on 18 March. Info here.
