{ Articles + Interviews } { Articles + Interviews }
Article 
{ Word Up Magazine }
Re: Solé's Life
She has the kind of look the mainstream likes [simultaneously pretty and
exotic] marketable in the extreme. Sole understands the Madison Avenue games
artists must play to move career forward, but her heart and mind belong to
memories of her own reality. She's a single mom from Kansas City, Missouri, who
has two young daughters to raise and a job to be done.
Born Tonya Johnston, Sole says she's been rapping since the age of 10. Her dream
to become a rapper, however, didn't materialize until three years ago when she
met her manager Chris "Tricky" Stewart, who allowed himself to be convinced that
she could make it as a rapper with a track she wrote that debuted her skills on
JT Money's single "Who Dat".
A merger of attractive packaging and hardcore inner strength, Sole often talks
about the two sides within. "...I was a tomboy growing up," she explained in an
interview in The Source magazine. “I grew up fighting and playing sports, doing
all the ‘boy things.’ But I was into all the girl stuff, too. I used to model.
I’m the nice, sweet, cool person, but still the don’t-f----k-with-me person,
‘cause I can get ignorant if I have to. I have all those different sides to me.”
If still waters run deep, then Sole’s personality is perfect reflection of
saying which touches on the idea that our experiences leave an impression buried
below the surface which shapes us for lifetime. Sole’s debut album, Skin Deep,
is a collection of songs which offer a musical definition of the saying, her
real-life experiences explored in ways which show that the habit we have of
stereotyping folks based on surface visuals in an exercise which does nothing to
enlighten our mind.
“When people would meet me and I said I rapped, they would look at me and
stereotype me on the way I looked,” continued Sole in The Source. “Nobody looked
at me and said: single mother, two kids and gone through what I went through. We
titled it [her album] Skin Deep because there is more to me than just the
outside.”
Undeniably beautiful, Sole doesn’t worry about folks who use what they see on
the outside as a reason to label her as lacking substance on the inside. She
characterizes herself as a serious emcee who has always done her own writing
since the age of 13. In addition, even for this beauty, with the unlined face
and tranquil eyes that can flash fire if necessary, life has been anything but
easy.
At one time Sole found herself in an abusive relationship in a state of deep
depression. “…I was just depressed for, like, a year,” she said in an interview
with mad rhythms. “I never left the house much. I just played with my daughter
and didn’t care of she was dead or alive at one point. You can’t make nobody be
something or do something they don’t want to. So finally I cam out of [the
depression]. But I was still involved with that person and getting back with him
on and off, and ended up getting pregnant again. We were trying to kill each
other in the relationship.”
A true believer in doing for oneself, Sole speaks with the wisdom if hindsight,
advising women to always do for themselves and not let a relationship drag them
down. “I had to learn the hard way,” she said.
Credits: Christa.