NEW
YORK (Syncity) In Hip-Hop, there are numerous barriers for a female who
is trying to get in the game, whether it is a lyricist, producer, or
even the hardest to accomplish, a DJ. Welcome Hip-Hop's first quadruple
threat, enter Syncity. At only 22 years old, she has beaten down the
door of limitations to all areas of music; she is a DJ, a producer, a
Lyricist, and is one hell of a Break-Dancer. Add to her many
accomplishments, she has a hustling spirit, the
take-over-anything-in-Hip-Hop attitude, and she works for Bad Boy
Entertainment as well as being the official DJ for
Nicole Wray of
Rocafella Records. In '05 Syncity is poised to make Hip-Hop heads
re-evaluate the way they look at women in the game. Not only is she an
elite female DJ, but she is an elite DJ period. With ghost producing
credits under her belt and a background as a dancer as well as a
lyricist, Syncity is determined to do what most females only dream
about. Her plan: Take Over the Game in '05.
Like many aspiring
stars, Syncity has dealt with her share struggles. Growing up in
Montreal, Canada with a single mother, Syncity was left in the homes of
other families while her mother worked a full time job. She never knew
her Father and in the words of Syncity herself, "that kinda stuff
leaves a lot of malfunction in a kid's heart." she found it hard to
express her feelings as a child until she found the love for music. At
the young age of 17 she made the decision that it was time to make
things happen for her by choosing to leave Montreal and head for the
glitz of New York. Times were hard for Syncity when she arrived in NY
Without a steady job or income. She found herself staying with friends
and for part of a year completely homeless. To pay the bills and make
ends meet she would break-dance in Times Square, but for Syn that was
never enough. She still sought out bigger and better things for
herself. Being entrenched in the Hip-Hop crowd lead Syncity to be
around lots of DJ's, which introduced her to Christie Z. Paboon.
Christine ran the DMC competition and got Syn a job at Cornerstone,
since her back up dancing gigs could not consistently pay the bills.
During her 2-year stay at Cornerstone Syncity found her love for
DJ-ing. On her lunch breaks she would practice on the turntables in the
lounge. Surely enough, with help from record spinning greats like Green
Lantern and Scrap Dirty she soon mastered her craft. She found great
inspiration in Q-Bert, Lazy K, and the X-ecutioners. Ironically,
X-ecutioners member Roc Raida would later on bless her with her very
first set of turntables.
She began to look for other avenues
to express herself, which led her to Herbey Love Bug, the man who
started Salt-N-Pepa, and the man who would eventually give her the name
"Syncity". Herby wanted to make her a rapper and since she was so
desperately looking to find her niche she went with it. While rapping
she come across a few other female artists and formed a group called
Koyote Uglee. Syncity grew weary of waiting for beats and paying for
studio time and engineers. True to her resourceful nature, Syn took
matters into her own hands, believing she could learn how to do these
things herself instead of waiting on others. She then decided to leave
the group and once again was on her own. Syn had been an assistant to
Self (producer of DMX's smash "
What's My Name" plus other hits) which
gave her both insight and credentials. She began to intern at a studio
where she would never have to depend on anyone else to make her music.
While at Legendary Studios in Manhattan, Syn was able to find another
mentor Saga, who taught her about Pro Tools.
She spent most of
her time fronting like she knew what she was doing, " Fronting got me
everywhere in this world, I fronted my first dance audition with Foxxy
Brown and got it, I cheated Foxxy's audition and got it. I feel like if
front like you know what you are doing [others] will believe you do
also." She told them she was a trained dancer, but they found out she
did not know how to follow dance counts. Sky says, "Foxxy kept it
gangsta and kept me, I could never [hate] on that broad she took me off
the streets." With Syncity mastering different angles in the game in
'04, she was finally ready to begin her takeover in '05.
Motivated
by success in the DJ scene, in '04 Syn started getting into another
endeavor: the mix tape scene. She caught the mix tape bug and soon was
featured by one of the biggest Hip-Hop sites on the web: allhiphop.com.
With her exclusives posted on the site and DJ-ing gigs in Philly, soon
her name was on people's minds. As if that weren't enough, Syn found
yet another way to reach the Hip-Hop masses with an online TV show
called The Circuit. The Circuit is an entertainment show focusing on
anything hot, trends, music, and fashion. The show alone, reaching 7
million viewers all around the world helped her tremendously, and she
began to be approached by major players in the industry. One of them
just happened to be a representative from Bad Boy Records. With P.
Diddy's massive Vote or Die campaign in swing, he wanted to flood the
mix tape scene. Although many mix tapes flirted with the theme, only
Syn's stuck to the political concept, and as a result of staying true
to his theme, P.
Diddy hosted her tape. As if that weren't exclusive
enough, Syn had her hands on yet another hot track: a rap done by
Britney Spears. Her tape became widely successful and showed her mass
appeal, further expanding her fan base to include a more diverse crowd.
The effect of the mix tape didn't end there; in fact, it helped Syn win
a spot on MTV news during the Mix Tape Monday segment. But her
television appearances wouldn't cease there. "What really got me big
was BET Rap City: Da Basement, that's when everyone was hands down,"
Syn says. "It's like a big thing for a DJ, if you weren't on it, you
are NOT official!"
Since then it's been nothing but one success
after another for Syn, who was hired to work at Bad Boy as a director
of mixshow national assistant. She's also the official DJ for Rocafella
Record's R&B songstress,
Nicole Wray. She's made it this far and
there's no stopping her. Syn has done some acting work and appeared in
the movie "Rollerball" but she plans on making a splash on the big
screen later in her career. She wants to put out albums, like DJ Clue,
and she also one day plans on writing a book about her life. Of course,
she also wants to release more mixtapes and grow as both an artist and
a DJ. She truly wants to take over the game and eliminate not only wack
DJs but those who release tapes without actually scratching on the 1's
and 2's.
With so many projects on the horizon, not to mention
many more mixtapes to come, Syn has worked her way up, going from
nothing to having a bright future. Her story is a true story of where
persistence can take you. Syn's work ethic and determination can only
continue to help her career grow. In '05 Syn will not only take over
the city, but the Hip-Hop game as well.
