What were your influences growing up?
I lived in Brooklyn in East New York, you would just hear music playing everywhere, from boomboxes. I was pretty young when I moved there, but I have older brothers and sisters, and they used to come and visit and they had made friends. These friends became my stand in older brothers and sisters when they weren’t there. And they would listen to different music and they would rap and do battle raps. They would come over to the house and they’d just be freestyling and stuff in the front room. I’m there, the little 10 year old who they call ‘Buzzed out Barbie’ and I’m trying to secretly write rhymes. I wanted to be a rapper, I still secretly do!
Jay-Z is my ultimate favorite rapper. I remember when I first heard Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri, they had a song together and I thought they were like a duo. Like I thought it was them two together and actually I really liked Jermaine Dupri because he was on the hook and that was a catchy bit and the bit that I like really understood as a kid. Eve was also like, and still is, one of my ultimate favorite rappers. I loved how she was like the only girl in a super aggressive male dominated crew. I loved that because she was, she wasn’t really overly sexualized. She was still, she carried herself with a lot of class and I loved her lyrics as well. They were super appealing to me.
I remember listening to Eminem for the first time and that was when I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is like real poetry type stuff, like you could really get deep and like really vulnerable in your music. And The Roots as well, that’s when I realised that, you know, it had like that soulful element of it.
But then also I was still a kid, so Lil Bow Wow was, you know, my husband, and I had pictures of him all over my walls. And, you know, Destiny’s Child and that kind of vibe as well.
What stuff are you listening to? Is there anything that’s on your radar or you’re playing on your show that people should be paying attention to. Any emerging artists coming up?
Yes right now I’m just addicted to a R&B soul vibe in terms of the UK music and someone like ‘Jerome Thomas’, he is one of my ultimate favourites and he’s been around for years but not many, not enough people know about him. ‘Iyamah’, she’s also a great talent with that soul kind of vibe, her name is actually Sophie Bond. Another Sophie, ‘Sophie Said’ is also great. ‘Coops’ is also a great one. There’s so many to be honest, I could name a hundred right now. The more I name, the more I think, oh my God, they’re really good.
What were your influences growing up?
I lived in Brooklyn in East New York, you would just hear music playing everywhere, from boomboxes. I was pretty young when I moved there, but I have older brothers and sisters, and they used to come and visit and they had made friends. These friends became my stand in older brothers and sisters when they weren’t there. And they would listen to different music and they would rap and do battle raps. They would come over to the house and they’d just be freestyling and stuff in the front room. I’m there, the little 10 year old who they call ‘Buzzed out Barbie’ and I’m trying to secretly write rhymes. I wanted to be a rapper, I still secretly do!
Jay-Z is my ultimate favorite rapper. I remember when I first heard Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri, they had a song together and I thought they were like a duo. Like I thought it was them two together and actually I really liked Jermaine Dupri because he was on the hook and that was a catchy bit and the bit that I like really understood as a kid. Eve was also like, and still is, one of my ultimate favorite rappers. I loved how she was like the only girl in a super aggressive male dominated crew. I loved that because she was, she wasn’t really overly sexualized. She was still, she carried herself with a lot of class and I loved her lyrics as well. They were super appealing to me.
I remember listening to Eminem for the first time and that was when I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is like real poetry type stuff, like you could really get deep and like really vulnerable in your music. And The Roots as well, that’s when I realised that, you know, it had like that soulful element of it.
But then also I was still a kid, so Lil Bow Wow was, you know, my husband, and I had pictures of him all over my walls. And, you know, Destiny’s Child and that kind of vibe as well.
What stuff are you listening to? Is there anything that’s on your radar or you’re playing on your show that people should be paying attention to. Any emerging artists coming up?
Yes right now I’m just addicted to a R&B soul vibe in terms of the UK music and someone like ‘Jerome Thomas’, he is one of my ultimate favourites and he’s been around for years but not many, not enough people know about him. ‘Iyamah’, she’s also a great talent with that soul kind of vibe, her name is actually Sophie Bond. Another Sophie, ‘Sophie Said’ is also great. ‘Coops’ is also a great one. There’s so many to be honest, I could name a hundred right now. The more I name, the more I think, oh my God, they’re really good.
