New York-based singer, songwriter, philanthropist, author, and GRAMMY member. She is a Billboard-charted artist and was also nominated for the Josie Music Awards for “Best Female Artist of the Year” for independent artists. Plus, she is an activist with a non-profit of hers that she talks about in this interview. Her official YouTube channel has a combined total of well over 850 thousand video views. And, one of her songs has more than 1.1 million streams and another has over 800 thousand on Spotify, where she has over 21 thousand monthly listeners. Her latest single was released in late February. She even tells here how she got the opportunity to do a commercial with Samsung, for which she was the creative director. She also details an opportunity she got to speak at Google (NYC).
"Sometimes I have songs that just come to me, like, spiritually. I call it a spiritual thing. And when my mind goes a certain way when I write, I visually can see, like, the video of it in my mind, and I write it out."
"Sometimes you have to hone in on your craft and you have to study more... Some people, just like myself, I had to go through a class. I actually went through a songwriting class to help me hone in on more ideas, to open myself up more."
"People don't realize, Cardi B was in my circle, in my cul de sac, in the middle of the night recording her song before she became a big hit."
"If you feel as though you can produce, be open. Be open to learning other genres to help you expand."
"It's gotten to be this point where a lot of artists now, they just find a beat and they'll go along with it. And I think for me, I was stuck in that place for a minute, and I got out of that because I learned so much."
"I say to myself, 'I want people to have this song on Repeat. Why? Because I want it embedded in your mind.' That's what I think about when I produce. I want people to enjoy it. I want it to be where it stands the test of time."
"I started my own label, I got my own distribution deal and everything, because I got tired of having to conform and be told all the time, 'You need to sound like this. You need to sound like that.' I said, 'No. I'm gonna show you how I'm supposed to sound. I don't need you to tell me how I'm supposed to sound. I know how I'm supposed to sound. I know the songs I need. I can do this myself'."
"I'm also a network engineer, by the way. I build and design computer networks. So, I am a girl geek."
"Somehow our song got in the hands of one of the representatives in the United Nations for the country of Portugal."
"We did all this recording across the world. So, they were in Uganda, I recorded in New York, Vincent recorded in Portugal... and we also got one of the representatives, a cellist from the philharmonic."
"I like actually performing in, like, cozy rooms where people are close together and it's more inviting like a family affair. That's the type of artist that I am. I like just drawing people in."
"Do not, do not stop your dreams. Do not let anybody tell you that you can't go or knock down a door."
"That's the magic of being an artist. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to make people see things that they cannot see."
"I would love to win a GRAMMY and be one of the artists that actually walk up there and say, 'I have a day job'."
"Found"
"Waterman"