FEATURE: Spotlight: TiaCorine — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

TiaCorine

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A hugely exciting artist…

who has been making music since she was in the third grade, North Carolina’s TiaCorine is someone that should be on everyone’s list of who to watch this year. A huge fan of Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking, and someone who combines Anime and Trap in a dazzling and cinematic way, this is an artist that is going to keep on rising and rule. I will come to some 2022 interviews with TiaCorine. First, heading to 2020, she was promoting her debut eight-track E.P., 34Corine. Coming from North Carolina, one can only imagine how hard it is to get noticed and progress. I recall hearing her name mentioned when her When her 2018 single Lotto caught up and founds fans in A$AP Rocky, SZA, and Rico Nasty. She delayed the E.P. from then, perhaps feeling she was not ready or it was not the right time. Around the time of 34Corine’s release, Interview Magazine spoke with the rapper. It is great to know that her hometown inspired her music and drove her:

“On 34Corine: “[The title] comes from my hometown, Winston-Salem. We call Winston-Salem the tre-fo, so the 3 and 4. A lot of people in our city look at me as the city hero, because no one has made it out of Winston and gotten this far. It’s like I’m carrying my city on my back right now. And everybody here believes in me. And they’re like, ‘You’re going to get people to pay attention to Winston-Salem.’ I’m like the city’s savior.”

On getting praise: “When you see the cover [of 34Corine], you see people handing me my flowers. There’s a saying where people are like, ‘Oh, let me give my flowers to SZA, because she’s just an amazing artist,’ and things like that. So I feel like for a while, a lot of people have avoided giving me my credit. So I feel like when I drop this project, it’s like, ‘You don’t have a choice but to give me my flowers. You have to show me more respect.’ This is the time where everybody is just going to be like, ‘Wow. She is just great! We don’t have no choice but to respect this.'”

On North Carolina: I do feel like my hometown has inspired the music I make. I really think it’s a mixture of my hometown and my parents. My mom was playing ’80s and ’90s music, and then my dad was playing more hip-hop, like The Sugarhill Gang and things like that. My favorite part about my hometown is the fact that I can be anywhere in the city within 15 to 20 minutes. With no traffic. I’m always late and somehow I still get there on time.”

On social media: “It’s a love-hate relationship. I do love it because you get to meet so many people, and you can get connected so fast. You just see so many different and creative things, and it just is inspiring. But at the same time, you have to watch what you say. It’s just so toxic sometimes. It leads people to think you have to live your life a certain way, and it’s just a lot of smoke and mirrors. I don’t really care for it. If I didn’t have to use it, I wouldn’t”.

The stunning I Can’t Wait was released year. A remarkable album (or mixtape) from one of the most talented and phenomenal artists in the world. I feel this year will be another tremendous one from the North Carolina native. TiaCorine has transformed Rap and Drill and taken it to a whole new audience. Pioneering and in a league of her own, Swindlife spoke with an artist who, with regards to her new album, wanted to make it undeniable - and leave people in no doubt that she was hard and a force to be reckoned with:

“TiaCorine, the immersive North Carolina-born artist’s road to stardom, has allowed her to reach a goal most independent artists dream of. After crashing on the scene with her 2018 hit “Lotto” (16m+), Tia has proven her ability to push the boundaries of contemporary rap with her versatile flow, commanding cadence, and vibrant personality. Her unique artistry and storytelling have allowed her to carve her musical path in an era where it’s hard to stand out. With accolades that continue to put her in the limelight, through it all, Tia stays grounded and lets her music do the talking because every time she drops, she makes it her priority to make a statement—and she did just that with her new album “I Can’t Wait.”

At 15-tracks, Tia displays her undeniable talent and how versatile she can be as an artist throughout “I Can’t Wait.” There are songs like “FreakyT” produced by legendary Honorable C.N.O.T.E., where Tia shows she has the swagger to ride any beat. But at the same time, a track like “Kite” with vibrant hyper-pop production proves Tia is expanding her sound and refuses to be stagnant as an artist. Everything about this release backs up my theory. Tia doesn’t have anything else to prove to doubters, yet she’s still determined to make an example of them and succeeds on this project.

I have to talk about the concept. How did this album come together?

I just put it together because I record many different sounds and songs. I wanted to do something where there’s at least one song for you if you don’t like the whole project. I tried to put different genres on there because I’m a genre-bending artist. I didn’t want it to be just one thing. A lot of times, I see artists make one sound, and later in their careers, they want to do something else. Then people are like, “I want the old you.” So I wanted to make sure I gave them every flavor so they know always to expect something different when it comes to me.

What is the meaning behind the Kingdom Hearts-themed artwork?

It was a collaboration of Kingdom Hearts, mixed with Wizard of Oz and Final Fantasy. It all goes with the theme of “I Can’t Wait.” If you’ve ever played the Kingdom Hearts series, you know how they tell a story and ask you to choose what you want to do in your life—I have the first Kingdom Hearts on PS2, so it asks what direction you would like to go in your life. That was the reason why I had the pink trail. I feel like throughout my music career, I’ve been through a lot of stuff. I wouldn’t say I’ve been fighting demons [laughs], but I have been through many negative things and dark times. I feel like now I’ve reached that point where I have seen the light, and I could see the “land of Tia,” the “land of Oz,” the “land of everything I always wanted,” and what I actually am. And not just this grey area between being underground and being mainstream. So this was my way of saying, “I can’t wait to get there.”

That’s fire that you kept the NC connection. What was the hardest part of the journey working on the project?

Probably picking the songs to go on there. I have so many, and choosing them and putting them in the right order was tough. Usually, when I do a project, I want to add transitions and sounds. But this time, because I had so many different songs, I just wanted to make sure that it vibes. Like it goes up, then it goes down, like a rollercoaster. I wanted to keep people in. So making the tracklist and picking the songs were hard for me”.

I am going to wrap things up soon. I wanted to finish up with an interview from Alt Press. As so many were keen to find out more when it comes to I Can’t Wait and TiaCorine, I wanted to highlight this great interview. It shows where TiaCorine has come from and how, as a teenager, you could tell that the seeds had been planted. A determined and hugely talented artist who has now evolved into a powerhouse who is going to influence a generation of women:

“Tia found her sauce when she first entered the booth at 16 years old. Surrounded by aspiring rappers as friends, Tia was a singer known for her childhood Aaliyah karaoke sessions at neighbors’ houses and love for everything from Usher to Queen. When it came time for her to do her thing in a makeshift studio at her friends’ mom’s house, her peers were already impressed with her abilities.

Hip-hop came to Tia easily thanks to her affinity for Minaj, Weezy and Juelz Santana, and while most people in her circle applauded her and her Auto-Tune-laced early cuts, not everyone was on board with the TiaCorine movement at first.

Back when she was working at a clothing store at her local mall in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Tia stumbled into work 10 minutes late one morning after a late-night recording session. Her boss at the time wasn’t too thrilled.

“He always got on my ass. He's like, ‘You won’t get paid for that shit. You ain’t shit. You ain’t nobody.’ Like going in on me,” Tia remembers. “Now he be in my messages. He be like, ‘What’s up?’ It’s like, ‘Bruh, you really said I wasn’t gonna be shit. Fuck you.’”

Tia didn’t enter the position to curse out her former employers until around 2020, when her 2018 track “Lotto” (which Drake may or may not have infamously bit off of) began to pick up some momentum nationwide. At the time, she was wrapping up a degree in exercise physiology, which made focusing on music a little tricky. And even on the same day of her college graduation, Tia traveled eight hours to Ohio to perform at yet another college. “I was nervous. I only had three songs out,” she remembers. “And it was going crazy. I couldn’t believe it.”

Since “Lotto” amassed its current 6.9 million streams on Spotify and since the release of her 34Corine project in 2020, Tia’s made it her mission to show fans just how different her stuff can get. Case in point: her 2022 single “FYK,” which not-so-secretly stands for “fuck your kids.” Of course, Tia loves her own child, but the song was made during a time when she was outright pissed at someone else entirely, and that’s when she freestyled the lines “I don't give a fuck about shit/ I'm not your bitch/I just get money, ho, fuck yo' kids.” It was jarring at first, but explosive.

“I had a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and a fucking vape, and I go in there," she says. "That was real. I just thought, ‘I can’t believe I said that.’”

The video for “FYK,” a track that she effectively screams on, portrays her showing off a dangly choker, bob hairstyle complete with a knife on top and two active middle fingers. She knows it’s punk as hell, too. “I just do what I want, how I feel,” Tia says. “And you can like it or you can not. I don't care. It's just letting loose, like that feeling of walking around naked. You know when you walk around naked at your house and be like, ‘Hell yeah, it’s my house.’ Like that”.

I am going to end here. Go and check out the brilliant and stunning TiaCorine. I think we will get a lot of magnificent music from her this year. Following the sensational and hugely memorable I Can’t Wait, all eyes are aimed the way of the North Carolina Rap/Trap artist. The future is hers for the taking. Make sure that you follow this…