Siya hails from Bed-Stuy Brooklyn by way of California and was raised by her grandmother in the Eleanor Roosevelt housing projects, one of the most violent projects in the five boroughs of New York. The young artist started writing when she was only seven years old as a way to cope with her mother’s drug addiction. “I started writing and poems turned to raps, and raps turned to this,” Siya says about the progression of her career. Siya may have started off young but despite her youth has managed to achieve greatness that would make many older more seasoned artists green with envy.
Her very first official live performance was in a place where blossoming artists only dream of performing. At age thirteen, Siya opened up for Fat Joe and Fabolous at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. “The experience was scary as hell,” Siya says, “but it helped me get over my fear of performing in front of large crowds.” A connection between her manager, who is also her cousin, and Busta Rhymes landed her the premium gig as opening act.
When Siya is not performing, she’s working on an endless list of projects. In 2008, Siya released two albums on EP, 7 for 7 and Follow My Lead, which led to her conducting her own tour called “Follow My Lead,” and getting airplay at nightclubs from New York to Miami. She also has a following in Europe, particularly Germany where she was featured on a television show called Traxx Arte, which was viewed by over 15 million viewers and allowed her following to expand to Sweden as well. She is also a part of an artist development team called Governed by Loyalty, which signs artists and helps to assist them with their promotions, development and management. Currently artists Mums and Grip Plyaz are signed to Governed by Loyalty.
At the end of this month, Siya plans to release her latest mixtape, State of Mind, which will be available online, at Vintage Styles, as well as RockSmithTokyo.com and Flipelican.com. She is also currently working on her latest project, The Reference, which will be a collaboration of songwriters and artists, including artists LyricWrite and Everything. The album will be a blend of R&B and Pop music and will allow the multi-talented artist to flex not only her rhyming abilities but her writing abilities as well.
When it comes to her passion though, performing is at the top of the list. “I love everything about it,” says Siya, “seeing everyone’s face as I perform; there’s nothing like it.”
If there’s one thing Siya wants from her listeners, fans and fellow musicians, it is respect. “Respect me as an artist, not a female artist,” says Siya, who does not want to be pigeon holed into any particular category. She simply wants to be understood as real, expressing real issues and real emotions or as Siya puts it, “Real recognize real and I’m looking real familiar.”
