AZIA (Pronounced as “AY-Z-YAH”) graced us with her golden-blonde vibrant presence on EmEz’s YouTube formatted show, “The Sitdown with EmEz.” She has multiple talents outside of rapping such as acting, modeling, & designing but she is best known from being a star on BET's docu-series, "Hustle In Brooklyn." She took the time to catch us up with all that is going on in her life both musically & professionally, while also giving us some insight on what we should expect next from her.
Even before all the recognition and success, AZIA has always been a creative, ambitious little girl following her dreams in Brooklyn; the place that established her foundation of drive & determination. Her father, Brent “Faraoh” Toussaint, has more than enough credits in the music industry and takes credit as the person who embedded the musical roots within her at a very early age. AZIA has two new singles, “Eat It Up” & “I’m Done” which can be streamed on all digital music platforms. She discussed how the main source of inspiration behind her single “Eat It Up” was from the beat of the song and her vision of how she wanted the music video to look, before actually writing the lyrics. She also discussed how even though “I’m Done” wasn’t about her own relationships, it was still very relatable to some experiences she faced in the past. Music has been really good for AZIA with her recent dropping of back to back singles, and her new music with new features coming out with some “dope girls & an R&B song coming out with a world renown Neo-soul artist.”
Outside of music, AZIA is passionate about the advancement of people and equality amongst all. She fiercely stated to EmEz, “It is my truest, moral atom, something that is in me and that I always cared about; it matters to me, definitely.” She attended George W. Wingate High School in Brooklyn, a school known for their public service, and that is where she was introduced to activities focused on social activism, community service, and philanthropy.
This summer, AZIA challenged herself by attending protests for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Whenasked what did she see while protesting, AZIA states, “I am definitely not a frontline girl, I actually do not enjoy being out there, because its not cool nor fun, but it was necessary and I wanted people to see if I can do it then if you wanted to do it, then you could do it as well….I was shocked to see a lot of white people and everyone helping one another out with water, and the commodarity was super dope. I was shocked to see cop cars being painted on and being burnt, it was crazy and lit for real.” AZIA made it a point to emphasize that protest and involvement comes in many forms, and one form that is extremely beneficial to the movement and black culture, is the support of Black Owned businesses, which leads us to what else this huster beauty has in store for us.
AZIA recently launched a new cosmetic line, “Brownies Couture” which was inspired by her being “a brown skinned girl.”She created this line with women of color in mind especially in reference to lip and eye shadow colors. “I wanted to come up with a solution for a problem that most brown skinned girls have, which is a lack of flavor in certain lip shades that don't look as good on us (brown skin girls) as they should….It doesn't really go with our hue. A lot of times we have issues with nude colors where we have to do a special magic trick to make it look good, so I wanted to come up with a nude collection for women of color with lipsticks, glosses, and eyeshadows; they are multi- purposeful.” As stated on her website,all of her colors are carefully hand selected to complement ANY skin tone and lip color pigmentation. You can find her cosmetic line at www.bcbashop.com.
AZIA, being the huster that she is, also has a few other businesses she is about to launch. One including a CBD oil line with one of her best friends in Nigeria; a very advantageous market since CBD is not huge overseas just yet.
Life after Hustle in Brooklyn has been “very cool,” for AZIA. She is expanding her entrepreuHERrial skills, being a hustler (which is never going to change), and dropping music every chance she gets.
Catch the full interview below on EmEz’s Youtube Channel “The Sitdown with EmEz”.