Friday's Five Random Questions with @TiyePhoenix

Tiye Phoenix is a dope emcee, who just happens to be a woman. A strong woman. I won't front and say that I've been following Tiye throughout the span of her career but since discovering her sound last year, I've been a fan of what she does. She's been featured on the blog a gang of times, with the likes of Eternia, Little Brother and on a few episodes of both The Mad Bloggers Show and Hip-Hop Breakfast. Her music, it's dope.

Until September, Tiye flew under the radar of a lot of folks, until her comments on Nicki Minaj on the the BET Documentary, My Mic Sounds Nice. I agreed with her words. Every word. Tiye doesn't hold her tongue. You'll see that below in the answers to her questions. With that said, Tiye decided to take the challenge this week. Check out how she answered five random questions, after the jump.
Hometown: I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland
Current City: I've lived in or around the NY tri state for over ten years. I live in Jersey now.
How long have you been doing music: Ive been doing music for over 15 years. I learned to play the piano as a child (like around the age of 7).

Discography:
"Reflections" Runaways UK (Three Sixty Records)
"Hip Hop for Respect" Project (Rawkus Ent)
"On My Way" (skit) from "Train of Thought"Album Talib Kweli/Dj Hi-Tek Reflection Eternal (Rawkus Ent)
"The Banger" Last Emperor f/ Tiye Phoenix (Rawkus Ent)
"Can I Keep It" Kendra Ross (f/ Tiye Phoenix & Talib Kweli) (Lolas Child)
Break Glass Album - The Polyrhythm Addicts (Babygrande Records)
"Countdown" Heavy "Jazz Money" LP (BBE Ent)
"Too Late for Us" Little Brother f/Tiye Phoenix "And Justus for All" LP
"Half Woman Half Amazin" LP (Babygrande Records)
DJ Spinna "Sonic Smash" (High Water Music)
Dynas "The Apartment LP" (BBE Ent)
"Ladies and Gentlemen" Eternia f/The Polyrhythm Addicts The Set Up Mixtape
Shabaam Sahdeeq (f/Tiye Phoenix & Emilio Rojas) "Water the Seeds"
"The BBQ" (f/Tiye Phoenix,Jean Grae,Rage,Rah Digga) "At Last" Limited Edition EP Eternia (Fat Beats Records)
"Right Moves" El Da Sensei (f/Tiye Phoenix) GT2 LP (Coalmine Records)
various songs on The Planet LP Dynas (yet to be released)

Describe your music in 5 words or less: Hip-Hop Music with no sonic boundaries. Meaningful driving beats, moving poignant words, melodies and harmonies, whether sung or rhymed. It's constantly evolving.

TMB: Okay, first question. Your celebrity crush at age 10, 15 and now?

Tiye: Wow. You're really causing me to think here (laughs). I had a crush on Ronnie DeVoe from New Edition and Ralph Tresvant (I think)... I cant even really remember (Laughs) and I definitely had crushes on Michael Jackson and Prince (but no big surprise there, who didnt?) Let's see - who am I crushing on today? Like, who makes my heart melt that I just cant wait to meet? As of today, no one.

TMB: What TV character would you be?

Tiye: I don't really watch television so I can't really answer that. Characters on tv are no longer imaginary glorified heroic people anyway - they're all tormented insecure housewives, or dramatic imbalanced brats, etc. Reality tv stars. Who wants to be that? I'm not being difficult, I'm just sayin. Is there any character who embodies all of the characteristics that Im striving to manifest in myself that I've seen on tv in recent times? No. But I really don't wanna be anyone but me anyway.

TMB: What's your biggest Fear?

Tiye: I can't speak on any fears cause you give life to what you speak on. Fear is rooted in ignorance anyway - it's the ego's reaction to the illusion that it will lose something... you know, they say FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real ... so given that Fear isn't real, and words give life, you actually crystallize phobias by speaking on them, so nope.

TMB: What three songs would be on the Soundtrack of Your Life?

Tiye: "Nights Over Egypt" The Jones Girls- describes my identity.. Tiye Phoenix is a Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) name
"Star of the Story" Heatwave (I feel like I was born a star)...
"Sun Goddess" Ramsey Lewis f/Earth Wind and Fire (mind expansion, chakra opening music)

TMB: You hop into a cab in Brooklyn. Jesus is the cab driver. Where do you ask him to take you and what's the convo?

Tiye: Well, I would begin by telling him that I'm not going to call him Jesus, given that there was no "J" in ancient language, so I would call him "Esau, or "Yeshua". Secondly, we'd most definitely chop it up about how unfortunate it was that the conquerors/invaders/imperialists/colonialists - whatever you wanna call them - manipulated this now legendary globally accepted story surrounding this character that has been placed upon him. Given that there were many people during that time with his name, his story, (which has to be one of the most remixed stories in world theological history) is simply both a gross misinterpretation of the true meaning of Christ Consciousness (which is not a human being, and never was - its a state of being) and a horrible manipulation of historical facts and spiritual/esoteric principles. However, given that he knows this already (laughs) I would tell him to hold an "Age of Aquarius" press conference to mentally "free" his followers. Give them the research/info they don't have to finally clear all of this up. And to underscore for them that an intermediary is not and was never necessary to achieve God Consciousness, so they understand that the "rulers" who sold this idea to the world never meant for people to achieve God Consciousness. They simply wanted control over the minds of millions of people, and it worked (laughs). Man, I can only imagine what the topics of that convo would be like- transcendance into 5th dimensional reality, pineal gland activation, etc. It wouldnt end. I mean - who gets to speak to a 7th dimensional being who's a cab driver on this 3rd dimensional plane? (laughs) I'd ask him to recommend a book for me to read. Lastly, I would thank him for the ride home.



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