Tish Hyman is a female African American lesbian. Those factoids only make up a sliver of the artist who has been making a lasting impression on a multitude of established artists and industry personnel. This past summer, she garnered critical acclaim and much respect in the same breath with her seven-song EP, Dedicated To, which covered more ground than a landscaping company. From rap to R&B and back to rap again (whenever she feels like it), her blossoming career has been allowed to flourish on the music, above everything else.
While chopping it up with HipHopDX, Hyman recalled her humble Bronx beginnings which has afforded her the ability to live and thrive in L.A., because it’s the place to be.
Later on today, September 29, you can catch her alongside Joey Bada$$ and Jojo on MTV Wonderland performing the very same tunes we discuss in this interview.
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Tish Hyman Once Recreated A Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ Mixtape
“Freestyling is kind of just like normal in my hood when I was growing up. I started freestyling probably like at 8-9-years-old; you know my mom’s freestyled, my brother freestyled; he’d have little parties in the house, everybody be rapping. I started taking it real serious like 11-12. I started really like wanting to rap, stealing my brother’s wraps and plagiarizing them and then I learned how to really like my own raps. I started recording songs around 14 or 15. I got into my first studio recording my first record … it’s been a long time. I did battle rap the whole time from the Bronx and then I kind of stopped battle rapping when I was like how it looks when he was 21. I just got tired of yelling, it was that simple. I got tired of yelling at people [Laughs].
I was listening to Biggie, was listening to [Big] Pun, I was listening the M.O.P. I was listening to Noreaga — a lot. My favorite line was “Gettin’ head in the whip, and not, crashing it!” I was like, “How you do that???” [Laughs]. Eminem, Jay Z, Nas, Mobb Deep. All the hardcore shit. All the New York shit.
I did the whole mixtape off of Get Rich or Die Tryin’. I did every song over. 50, like I just loved his beats, I loved his whole situation. I was like “Yeah! He was down! Label dropped him! They thought he was done! He came back!” And I love that Eminem went and got him and it just made me like Em more. I was like, “Em is a fuckin G!” He just went and picked the black sheep of the game and put him up. And Dr. Dre, they don’t give a fuck! And I like that. So in my mind, I was like gonna be like 50 because I was always strong bitch and I was like, “I can fuck somebody up” so I’ll just talk mad shit like I’ll just say whatever I want and if somebody wants to fight, we can fight! So that mixtape was just all raps and hooks. I just thought I was on one. I love 50 Cent.
The Making Of Dedicated To…
Coming off her critically acclaimed Summer 16 EP, Dedicated To, Tish Hyman exclusively breaks down the making of the project — from the colorful boundaries of “Subway Art” to the Ty Dolla $ign/Fabolous trifecta of “Dreams” and everything in between.
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Listen to the album below and buy it on iTunes.
