Multi-talented artist Fiya has, so far, made his name in Kentucky on the rap scene -- though to label him simply as a rapper would be a huge mistake. The 23-year-old is the president of Street Mindz and younger brother of the label's founder, Lonnie Rogers. But he's also one of the company's most exciting artists, thanks to his ability to write material that crosses genres and aims for worldwide appeal.
Fiya first got his start making music at 14 years old, when, influenced by groups like the Hot Boys camp, Juvenile, and Dipset, he started rapping privately in his bedroom. Battling was huge in his Louisville, Kentucky high school, and though he was shy, he quietly crafted his bars with plans to take the scene by storm.
"I had a list of people I had to be better than before I exposed my raps," he recalls. "So I sat at home with the list and wrote 16 bars for every person on that list." One day in the school cafeteria, he threw down the gauntlet -- and money -- and challenged the school's top battle rapper to a duel. After Fiya came out victorious, he was swiftly invited to join the popular Louisville independent group, Y.N.H.
Still, though his clever verses crushed the competition and raised his group's profile, Fiya was never interested in just rap. "I was really a universal type of person. I was into all good music, whether it was R&B, hip-hop, or alternative rock," he says. "I used to listen to Oasis, then take out Oasis and listen to Lil Wayne."
After his old group dissolved and Fiya struck out on his own, he gained the confidence to express all of these musical sides of himself, modeling his career on crossover pop stars like Kanye West. "If you're good at rapping, and another guy's good at rapping, plus he's got something else other than that," Fiya says, "who's going to stay around longer?"
To that end, Fiya's got two projects in the works that will showcase more aspects of his talent than were seen on his previous rap mixtapes, Won on One and On the Way Up. The first is a full band he hopes to name FU, for Fiya University, which will blend hip-hop, rock, and R&B, with co-ed singers.
The second is a full-scale video musical, The Dark Before Dawn. Scheduled to be released this summer both digitally and on DVD, the project started as an individual song, then grew into a long-form, 45-minute video linking five original songs with a full plot, and even commercials. Fiya wrote, directed, and stars in the production, which chronicles a tale of love gone wrong, but travels nearly every musical mood, from love songs to party raps to serious street tales.
It's just the beginning of Fiya's big plans to rise to the top of the industry. "Every time you look online, there are 20 people doing the same thing, and they're alright with that. And I'm alright with them being alright with that, because then they'll just wonder how I did what I did," he says. "I'd rather be a trendsetter!"