Yaeji
From Whisper to Hammer
Born Kathy Yaeji Lee on 6 August 1993 in Flushing, Queens, Yaeji is a Korean American producer, DJ and singer whose hushed vocals in Korean and English over house beats broke through with "Raingurl" in 2017. Her 2023 debut album, With a Hammer, turned a confrontation with anger into one of the year's most acclaimed electronic records.
- 15 min listen
- Electronic producer
- DJ
- Singer
Yaeji’s full 15 min audio biography, From Whisper to Hammer, is available on Lyfestori for iOS. Listen to a free preview below.
A life in brief
Yaeji: life and timeline.
Kathy Yaeji Lee moved from Queens to Atlanta at five and to Seoul a few years later, always the outsider — different-looking in one country, different-sounding in the other. At Carnegie Mellon she found the campus radio station and Pittsburgh's after-hours party Hot Mass, taught herself Ableton, then moved to Brooklyn to work as a graphic designer. In 2017 a Boiler Room set and the whispered, bilingual "Raingurl" made her a dance-music name. Her debut album, With a Hammer, was about learning to be angry.
- 1993
Born in Queens
Born Kathy Yaeji Lee on 6 August in Flushing, Queens, to Korean parents. The family moves to Atlanta when she is five.
- 2002
Back to Korea
Worried she is losing her Korean, her parents move the family to Seoul when she is in third grade. She switches international schools almost every year and spends time at school in Japan.
- 2011
Carnegie Mellon
Leaves Seoul for Pittsburgh to study conceptual art, East Asian studies and graphic design. She starts DJing on the student radio station WRCT and at the after-hours party Hot Mass, which she calls her "indoctrination into nightlife".
- 2015
Brooklyn
Graduates and moves to New York, working as a graphic designer by day and going to DIY parties at night. She begins releasing her own tracks online under the name Yaeji.
- 2017
Boiler Room and two EPs
Her self-titled EP arrives in March. A Boiler Room set in New York in May, including her version of Drake's "Passionfruit", spreads widely online. EP2 follows in November with "Raingurl".
- 2018
Coachella
Named on the BBC Sound of 2018 longlist, she plays Coachella, leaves her design job and starts touring internationally.
- 2020
What We Drew
Releases the mixtape What We Drew on XL Recordings in April, just as the pandemic cancels her tour. Its Korean lyrics read like diary entries about family and friendship.
- 2023
With a Hammer
Her debut album arrives on 7 April on XL, built around the anger she began confronting during the pandemic and an alter ego called Hammer Lee. Pitchfork names it Best New Music; she returns to Coachella.
- 2024
"booboo"
Releases the bright dance single "booboo", and in 2025 a run of collaborations including "Believe in Ya" with T-Pain and Girl Talk.
Major achievements
Yaeji: major achievements.
- 01
A new voice in house music
Her half-spoken, half-sung vocals in Korean and English, delivered almost in a whisper over club beats, gave late-2010s dance music a sound nobody else had.
- 02
"Raingurl"
The EP2 track became her signature: an understated house song with a deadpan hook that crossed from club playlists into the mainstream.
- 03
With a Hammer
Her 2023 debut album won Pitchfork's Best New Music and near-universal acclaim for turning anger into a gentle, genre-blending record of jazz, trip-hop and techno.
- 04
Total creative control
A trained designer, she directs her own videos, draws her own album art and designs her own merchandise, keeping a visual identity as distinctive as her sound.
Turning points
Yaeji: defining moments.
- College
The radio station
A breakup during college led her to Carnegie Mellon's WRCT, where everyone was encouraged to play the strangest music they could find. Being shy was suddenly an asset. Hot Mass, Pittsburgh's after-hours queer techno party, completed the education.
- 2017
Going viral
Her Boiler Room set in New York, where she stepped to the microphone and sang over her own mix, circulated around the world. Within a year she had left graphic design for festival stages — and, as an introvert, found the attention close to unbearable.
- 2020–2021
Meeting her anger
During the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests and the rise in anti-Asian hate, she found a well of anger she had never let herself feel. She journalled, took a songwriting course and visited a Brooklyn rage room. The hammer became the symbol of her first album.
What you’ll take away
Lessons from Yaeji’s life.
- 01
Outsider status can be a sound
Never quite fitting in Atlanta or Seoul, she built music that moves between two languages without choosing one — and that in-between quality is what made it distinctive.
- 02
Quiet can command a room
She did not shout over the beat; she whispered. The intimacy drew listeners in rather than pushing them back.
- 03
Feelings you avoid do not disappear
With a Hammer came from facing an emotion she had suppressed her whole life. The result was not loud, but it was honest.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Yaeji.
What is Yaeji's real name?
Kathy Yaeji Lee. Yaeji (이예지 in Korean) is her Korean given name, which she chose to use as her artist name instead of Kathy.
Is Yaeji Korean?
She is Korean American. She was born in Flushing, Queens, to Korean parents, grew up partly in Atlanta and partly in Seoul, and sings in both Korean and English.
Is Yaeji K-pop?
No. She makes electronic dance music rooted in house, with elements of hip-hop, trip-hop and jazz, and releases it on the independent label XL Recordings rather than through the K-pop industry.
What genre is Yaeji?
House and electronic music. Her early EPs are built on club beats, while her 2023 album With a Hammer mixes synth-pop, jazz, techno and ambient sounds.
Where did Yaeji go to college?
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she studied conceptual art, East Asian studies and graphic design, graduating in 2015. She began DJing on the campus radio station WRCT.
Did Yaeji write "Passionfruit"?
No. "Passionfruit" is a 2017 Drake song. Yaeji's own version of it, featured in her Boiler Room set that year, became one of her best-known early recordings.
Where is Yaeji based?
New York. She moved to Brooklyn after graduating in 2015 and built her career in the city's DIY party and club scene.
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15 min · one sitting