Meet Arian Nicole Muhammad

I was born in Peoria, Illinois and fell in love with songwriting and music production at an early age. I was inspired by the records spinning on my mother’s turn tabel from Earth, Wind and Fire, Roy Ayers to hip-hop legends like Guru and Rakim. When I heard Rakim I knew what it was.I wanted to do. I took my silver dual cassette player and beatboxed drum patterns over my mom’s old cassette tapes and played them back to record harmonies over the beats.

However it was the magic of Stevie Wonder that unveiled the power of songwriting for me. Patrice Rushen, a female vocalist and musician inspired me to pick up musical instruments. I played the saxophone, violin as well as tenor drum throughout elementary and highschool. I’ve always felt music was a tool that could be used to heal traumas of our surroundings. My apartment complex was full of stories you probably wouldn’t expect an 8 year old girl to be acute to and I knew and always carried a desire to be a producer of a musical “balm”. So with the inspiration of pianist Keiko Matsui and Patrice (from my mothers collection), I purchased a guitar, djembe drum, and keyboard for music production. You can hear guitar licks and timpani drums in my single Stay Lit.

I stepped into my first professional recording studio the summer of 2001 after we moved to Flint, Michigan. My first live performance was at a spot called Good Beans Cafe. From there I entered into the underground poetry scene sharing stages with prolific female MCs like Mama Sol and Amber Hasan. The first DJ to give me airplay was my Latino brother Tomas Tello, aka Eduardo Scissorhandz through Kettering University’s local college radio.  I had a nice buzz developing and a fellow activist sister of mines Dawn Demps believed in my skills and had me open up for my inspiration Rakim. I also performed with hip-hop icon KRS ONE at the annual Community Cultural Fest. I closed out his show and he lifted me up in the air screaming I was an “MC.” This is my journey before moving to Phoenix AZ. Thank you Flint for the memories. ♡

I got ahead of myself and delved right into that lol.  Well over the years I’ve come to see myself as a poet of songs. Some might be surprised that my roots are actually in visual art and poetry reflecting. My classmates would ask me to sketch self portraits of them and that’s what I became known for amongst my peers. My flow has always been a form of humanitarian lyricism. My mother introduced me to a lot of politcial and cultural history as a child. I believe as artists we all at one point come to understand our power to grab and place humanity into one class. A “classroom” in a literal sense yes.. but more-so a class with no division.

One of the jewels I took from KRS ONE during a recording session in Detroit was the definition and meaning of Hip-hop. He stated that it was a movement of intellect. He said the ‘Hip’ stood for intelligence and that Hop stood for movement. We know education is a means of raising human beings from one stage to another so at its root it’s an evolutionary artform.

That meeting gave way to a new chapter in my artistry. The collaboration with KRS led to me linking up with a social studies teacher in Miami, FL named Tony Muhammad. Shortly after I was flown into Florida International University to speak in front of 50 high school teachers and collegiate professors on how to  incorporate Hip-hop into everyday curriculum. That conference was a unique grassroots/collegiate forum including political rapper Jasiri X, and freestyle artist LaGuardia Cross Jr who is now the curator of a popular YouTube series “New Fatherhood Chronicles” documenting the growth of his two daughters.. it’s hilarious and definitely worth the follow. I’ve been blessed to know and grow with many talented individuals along this course.

Do not worry about money. Perform and make music how you can, with whom you can. Don’t stress the creative process. When you start moving the resources naturally come to you by law of attraction. Rock out an open mic , become friends with other musicians. Networking and forming relationships is the real gold that takes you places. You just have to get and fuel your desire.

When I moved to Phoenix a powerful and good sister of mines Yonasda Lonewolf introduced me local radio personality Leah Marche and said I was really good. Later Leah became a producer of an groundbreaking jazz poetry series and invited me to feature in various shows paying tribute to greats like Donny Hathaway and Gil Scott-Heron. The sold out shows were filled with on the spot improv and live band perfomance exposing me to a new world of jazz theatre. Another good thing for aspi4ing artists to do is enroll in a community course to increase your skills. With consistency the money comes.

Ah yes :-).. You can find my music on iTunes, Spotify, and Tidal as well as my direct website ariannicolemusic.com.  I’ve released self produced singles and I’m excited now to be working on my first full album project with a Grammy award winning producer that worked with Outkast, George Clinton and wrote for Curtis Mayfield’s “New World Order” he also put Jay Electronica in his first recording studio(for my Hip hop heads).

In the midst of it all I’m putting the finishing touches on my first international collaboration with a rising production team in South Africa who asked me to feature in a new genre called “GqomTronic” ..its big and hard hitting. They were dancing in the streets when they heard the rough draft of our first single “Asambe Bambelela” I pray it impacts here at home the same way.

• Website: ariannicolemusic.com
• Email: Ariannicolemusic@gmail.com
• Instagram: ariannico1e
• Facebook: Facebook.com/ArianNico1e