R&B artist Queen Naija said growing up in Michigan has given her a hustler’s mentality.
From a young age, Naija — born as Queen Naija Bulls in Ypsilanti — was forced to readjust as she moved to different cities and changed schools several times, which always made her the new girl in classes.
“In my 30 years of living, I have lived so many different lives,” Naija said, speaking to The Detroit News earlier this month on a Zoom call.
The musician has leveraged her life experiences to adapt and evolve her music career, keeping pace with the times.
Queen Naija rose to prominence by recording YouTube vlogs and further expanded her fan base by appearing on “American Idol” in 2014. More than a decade later, she has established herself in the thriving R&B scene, with songs like “Medicine” and “Butterflies.” She has further evolved into a media personality, utilizing Twitch streaming to give fans a deeper insight into her life and music.
In June, Naija performed a duet with Detroit rapper Big Sean, titled “Hate Your Love,” during “A Night with the Orchestra,” in which the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sean, Skilla Baby, Tee Grizzley, Illa J, Nasaan and Naija paid tribute to late Detroit-based rapper J Dilla.
Naija is preparing for a new phase in her personal life and career as she turns 30 on Oct. 17. She’ll mark the occasion with her aptly named EP, “30.”
Naija reflects on how she underwent a mindset change when she turned 29 and realized it was time to “lock in” and become unapologetic, which motivated her more than ever to take the music world by storm.
Q: What did you want to express with your upcoming EP, “30″?
Queen Naija: I’ll be upfront, I finished my album and I went to turn it into my label and I realized that contractually, I still owed my label an EP because I promised to release two. Once I turned it in and they told me that we have to put the EP out first, I did not want to take songs away from my album. So I decided to fly to Miami. Myself, No I.D. and Poo Bear were in the studio for four days and we came out with a full EP.
At first, my intention was to be smart with the label and be like, “Here, take it!” I was going to name it, “Here, Damn!” Once I learned how much I loved the music and how much it grew on me and how free I felt recording it, I decided to pivot. Because I am turning 30 on Oct. 17 and the EP is dropping right after, it felt like the EP symbolizes this new beginning.
Q: What did working with No I.D. and Poo Bear add to the project?
A: It’s a full-circle moment walking into my 30s with No I.D. executive producing the EP; he was the person who signed me to my first record label and that was back in 2018. I’ve always looked at him as a legend in the music industry. As well as Poo Bear, who writes hits!
I was always used to writing my own lyrics but I was open minded about accepting songs that were out of the box. Once I did, I felt liberated and confident and I was able to make a couple of those my own. I also made sure that I kept some songs in there that I wrote myself, just freestyling. I started doing Twitch recently, so a couple of those songs I was already freestyling and I made them real songs. [The EP] symbolizes a new beginning for me. It’s fun, lighthearted and free-spirited.
Q: You said that you were originally going to name the album, “Here, Damn!” Did you need a mindset change within the first couple of days in the studio to really lock in?
A: Well, it didn’t help because they gave me some good food there! They made me feel so comfortable and brought these cookies there. They made me feel so welcome and the atmosphere was just perfect. I was very much in this liberated space. This didn’t just start in the studio; I had a brain switch as soon as I hit 29. I was like, “OK, this is the last year of my 20s!” My mind is just changing in so many different ways, I’m looking at things more maturely than I used to. It was just so easy for me because it was so new. It was a pivotal moment.
Q: What did that mindset switch look like? Do you feel more motivated and driven as you approach your 30s?
A: The switch was that, “I have got to lock in.” This is not just my livelihood; this is my calling. This is my purpose. If I didn’t take it crazy seriously before, which I did, now is the time for me to lock in and take it seriously.
Also, I need to focus more on Queen. I’ve always worn many different hats in my life and been responsible for a lot of different people and people’s feelings and thoughts. I really have to lock in and hone in on me and what I was meant to do, which is music. I look at it so differently. I just felt a little more selfish in this moment because I felt like I had to be. Even leading behind my kids, I had been locked in for a while with just being a mom at home and being very domesticated. It was time for me to get out there again and go hard.
Q: Has this led you to explore other avenues such as Twitch to continue evolving?
A: I had to evolve because you’ve got to move with the times. The times are changing. I started out ahead of the game because I was already a personality on YouTube and that was just the bridge to get to music and it gave me supporters. The new thing is that everyone is on Twitch and if that’s the way that I’ve got to get on there and show my personality and interact with my fans and build a community, then I want to do that as well.
Q: What do you want from your life in your early 30s?
A: I want to knock s**t down. I want to walk in rooms like I belong, and I just want to be bold and be fully confident and not scaled back. I don’t want to dim my light anymore. But I want to just walk right into what God needs me to walk into and what I was always called to walk into.
I just want to be fully unapologetic about making my own lane and making my way back here. It’s never giving, “fell off.” I’m just eating it up in the lab. That’s for my career.
Q: And personally?
A: My children, I want to just make sure that I can still balance life out with them and make sure they look at me as an inspiration but also still have their mom there, so they won’t resent me for working too much.
Just being able to be consistent with things. I want to get myself a nice schedule and be a little bit more structured than I was in my 20s.
Even when it comes down to my health, I realize that my health matters so much and taking vitamins and stuff, things that I’ve never done before. I really need to lock in, I’m a grown woman and I have to take care of myself so I can be there for my music and my kids and all of the people that love me later on.
Q: Whether it’s with age or experience, do you feel like you can express yourself better than ever before in your music career?
A: I got a lot of experience talking on YouTube but I do feel like I’ve gotten a lot better with articulating what I want to say over the past [few] years, although I could still improve. But, I used to scale back a lot and be very apologetic or didn’t want to say certain things if it made me feel not humble. Overall, I feel like I’ve grown more confident with what I want to say. Even if I get asked questions that I don’t want to answer, I’ll keep it real and I know how to swerve when it comes to certain things.
Q: You also recently signed to Motown, congrats! Growing up in Michigan, what did Motown represent for you?
A: The crazy thing is that I’ve always grown up hearing that Motown has the best talent. It’s another full-circle moment for me. It’s perfect and so on-brand for a girl who made it out of Detroit. It makes so much sense for me and I’m just happy to be one of those people who is working towards becoming a legend as well, like the people who have come before.
Q: How did your Detroit upbringing help shape and prepare you for this moment in your life now?
A: We say Detroit, but I kind of grew up everywhere, all down the river. I was born in Ypsilanti and I went to so many different schools where I had to readjust so many different times. I was always the new girl at school. That could have been a blessing and a curse. It made it easy for me to readjust if I needed to, but also it was a traumatic thing, too, because I have never been able to get my hopes fully up for something to stay, even down to friends.
Another thing, I don’t want to say I grew up poor, as God has always provided what we needed. But I have always grown up with a poverty mindset. I didn’t have much and it made me want to hustle and work hard as soon as I was able to get a job. Back in Michigan, I think you could start working at 15. As soon as I turned 15, I had this crazy work ethic and I didn’t care where I worked, I wanted to get money. I was tired of struggling. There were things that I had to take care of in my household, even as a child, as my mom got injured and couldn’t work anymore. A lot of pressure had been put on me to lead and be responsible, but it has also kept me grounded growing up in that way.
To sum it all up, growing up in Detroit has allowed me to stay grounded, to be able to readjust well and have a hustler’s mentality.
Q: It’s poetic that you started your life always adjusting to new schools and situations and now you are doing the same with your career and adjusting to new avenues like Twitch.
A: I always have to readjust. In my 30 years of living, I feel like I’ve lived so many different lives and phases. When is the next life coming? What do I have to prepare for next?
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.detroitnews.com ’
