We were lucky to catch up with Tiye Cochran recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tiye, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
My confidence comes from my childhood. When I was a little girl, my Mom would tell me I could do anything because I was Tiye. If I was doubting myself she would say, “ You are Tiye, you can do it!”. I find myself repeating those words internally when I begin to falter. My family was very supportive and insistent that I carry myself with pride and confidence in any situation. I was very tall all throughout elementary school ( the boys didn’t catch up to me until 10th grade), so I would hunch over to seem smaller. My Grandmother would tell me to stand with my shoulders back and my head held high. Being told to do so used to annoy me as a young girl, but I had no idea that they were subtly instilling confidence and self-pride within me.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a HipHop artist, an Emcee and Guitarist. Overall I am a lover of music. I began playing guitar around the same time that I started orchestra in 6th grade. My family is from NYC so HipHop culture and rap were something that I was naturally exposed to. My Mom and Uncle were immersed in the culture being that it was the youth culture of New York prior to spreading across the world. With that being said, the art form and expression that came with that energy was given to me instinctively. I was also exposed to many different genres of music through my Mom, she’s a true GenXer so her taste in music ranges from disco to yacht rock. My passion is fusing both hiphop culture and my many different influences together. My music is a genuine blend of the genres that I was exposed to in my childhood. Moving forward in my career, I’ll be focusing my efforts on building my independent label BrookLanta Entertainment and the accompanying projects that I have as an Emcee and host.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would say the most impactful skills and qualities for my journey have been
1. Self-validation. In these times, there are so many opinions that people offer whether solicited or unwarranted. I find that I have gotten this far by not seeking external validation, not asking what anybody thinks about what I’m doing. Every time that I ask for or care about opinions, I stop moving. We gotta keep it moving!
2. Imagination. Thinking about possibilities and believing they can occur, knowing that anything is possible is the key to creativity. Without Imagination, I fall into a rut, and life begins to feel limited.
3. Self-reliance. Support from others is cool, but people come and go. Its best to have the ability to produce and make things yourself. Going to school and learning how to engineer for myself was the best thing I did artistically. If I have help, dope, of not I got me.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest obstacle that I am overcoming is analysis paralysis aka Overthinking. Social media has completely revolutionized the landscape for creatives. We have the ability to create content and deliver it to our audience on a whim. However, with that comes the ability to see who is or isn’t “liking” your work. That aspect is something that causes me to think myself into not putting out what I’ve made or done. I love live performances and events, I have no issues in person! But social media has become a very integral part of being an independent artist. Over the past 4 years socials have evolved and become somewhat of a toxic place. People can be looking at your posts but not engaging with them and the algorithm will bury you. So my challenge at the moment is to break that hesitant nature.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @TiyeCochran
- Twitter: @TiyeTheTalented
- Soundcloud: https://Soundcloud.com/TiyeCochran
Image Credits
Anthony “ Truth” Gary
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