Breakthrough beats

She captivates her audience and has even moved some to tears with her soul resonating choice of words and a magnetic stage presence.  

The female Cincinnatian that delivers transcending urban hip-hop fused with electronic beats and beat-style verse is none other than Abiyah - a diamond in a pool of stones. 

"I wrote poetry when I was in high school and was published in the Seven Hills Review, a literary journal in Cincinnati until I was 21. Then I stopped writing for nine or 10 years," said Abiyah.  

She then started doing open mic poetry readings to get back into the art scene.  

"I started hanging out with all these hip-hop MC's and as a consumer I was bored with what was available in the genre," she said. 

Abiyah asked someone to make her a track that she could put behind her verse and from there grew what she initially referred to as floetry. 

"There is a group now, called Floetry, so I have tried to steer away from that association. What I do isn't rap, but it's not spoken word either: It's my own venue for expression," said Abiyah. 

She attributes a lot of her success to the Cincinnati music community as a whole.  

"I really can't sit still; there is a beautiful pool of musicians to pick from here that are all willing to contribute to what I am doing - you don't get that in the hip-hop circles," she said. 

The real support and encouragement for her break out music style was apparent once she stepped into the local music scene rampant in Cincinnati. 

Sometimes Abiyah calls fans or fellow musicians in the audience to come up and play an instrument behind her.  

She has worked with DQ of Animal Crackers, Sean Rhiney of Clabbergirl, Amy Constantine of Spiff, Michael Bond of Coltrane Motion, Datawaslost and many others.  

"Michael Bond really does some amazing things; he just has an incredibly creative mind when it comes to constructing beats. We are actually meeting up in Chicago for The Warp Tour this summer," she said.  

Abiyah will be traveling to some of the Midwestern cities on the tour.  

She has also received numerous nominations for her unique addition of ground-breaking sound locally. 

In 2002 she was nominated for the CityBeat Entertainment Award for best hip-hop performer and in 2003 she was nominated for a Cammy for the best urban/hip-hop band and best urban/hip-hop vocalist.  

Abiyah says her ideas for songs come from life experiences and streams of conscienceness. 

"A lot of time my stuff comes from communication: communicating with myself and with other people. I will hear something or see something while I am driving, a little catch phrase and from there a whole song comes together," she said. 

"I try to think about it as if I was in the audience," she said. "I try to decide what they would want to hear and if I am playing the same song. I will switch it up somehow, with a different beat or band or instrument - something to keep it fresh." 

The title of her album, "Free Wild Muse" came from a conversation with a friend on AOL Instant Messenger.  

"Fatherless Townships" is a local favorite that is about her son's father and his life experiences.  

She said she writes most of her songs when she has something motivating her like Midpoint Music Festival or Taste of Cincinnati. 

Abiyah can also be found on the 2003 Midpoint Music Festival Compilation and the 2004 Cicada CD put out by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.  

"The whole thing with Cicadas happened really quickly. Once they chose me to do it, I was working on it with [everyone] for two months, but it was really cool," she said. 

She tries to stay away from spoken word because she says she can't really write slam-style poems. 

People still respond enthusiastically to what she writes, attributing it to the genre of poetry despite the urban earthquake of beats accompanying most of her songs.  

Abiyah is performing during the Cincinnati Fringe Festival Saturday, May 22.  

She will also be at Taste of Cincinnati May 31.  

For more show dates and information visit, www.abiyah.com.