About Me
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Jonah Arc as she is known, brings a fresh of breath air to the industry with her captivating voice and rhythmic flows. Born Tatianna Gilliam and raised in Compton, Ca she learned to cultivate her flows on the infamous streets of the city. Entering into the rap game at only the tender age of 10 years old, after a comment made by her brother that she could not sing. My mother brought a recorder from this woman in my building for me who was having a moving sale; it came with the tapes too! all for 6 dollars and boy was I a happy camper. My friend Kim and I went to the corner store and brought a bunch of junk, ya know chips, sodas, some candy, and then we went back to my room and played with that recorder all night! We were acting like anything from radio host and listeners that call in, to having our own TV shows, to singing. My brother decided he wanted to join in on the fun but I wasn't done yet plus I didn’t wanted to share with him anyway I really disliked my older brother, he started fussing with me about the recorder and yelled out " LET ME SEE YOU CAN'T SING ANYWAY". I was crushed, sadden, devastated but finally some one had told me the truth, I, could not sing. I was about 9 years old when that happened; I knew then that I would never sing another Color Me Badd song again. Being moved by a Kris Kross sprite commercial, Joan of Arc didn’t know the words to; she immediately began to fill them with her own. It was in this moment that she realized that this was what she wanted to do. After several years of being in and out of several local groups and doing small town talent shows, she decided to go solo and pursue her music career on her own. In her senior year of high school, she had been persuaded to join the Navy and at 17 years old signed up to serve her country. I can’t say that the military was a bad thing for me, but I can say it was bitter sweet. I learned a lot from being in the service, a lot about how the way the world really was outside of Compton, heck before I went to the military the farthest I had been outside of Cali was Vegas. It showed me the need to have a sense of discipline in everything you do, that’s how things get done. But after meeting my ex-husband my life was sent into a whole new direction; he was the biggest mistake I ever made, and it impacted me deeply, but yet the greatest thing came from it; my son. At 19, she had been married and gave birth to her first and only child. After her refusal to give up her music career for life as a military wife, she and her child’s father quickly split after only a year and a half of marriage. My son is my soldier, and very intellectual like me, I feel proud of him because he reflects me in such a great manner. Returning to California, she immediately began pursuing her music career once again. She entered into the studio with then Columbia Recording artist “The WYLDE BUNCH†and recorded material produced by the group. I shopped the demo for a while and came across an entertainment label that was called The Blueprint Entertainment, but they had to change the name or it could have been some kind of copyright infringement with Jay-Z, so it became Remixxx Entertainment, I actually gave them that name. Joan of Arc stayed with Remixxx Entertainment for 3 years and saw that her career had developed to a certain point then went into a stand still. I can’t knock Remixxx for taking a group of street kids in and trying to develop them. It gave us a sense of purpose; ya know something to keep fueling our dreams of making it one day. But it felt like I was only getting so far with the label and they didn’t have faith in me like I did, so I left. At only 24, Joan of Arc has performed in a barrage of different shows, and collaborated with numerous artist and producers to form her now authentic style of rhyming. She has even had her voice appear in the motion picture film Dickie Roberts starring David Spade. In 2004 she added another skill to her repertoire, recording engineering. She began attending Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA and graduated with a 3.8 grade average obtaining a journeymen’s certificate in Recording Theory, being the only female in an all male class. Her lyrics are melodic yet vicious, puts her in the ranks of the greats, and has created a style she is now ready for the world to hear. I had to go on a hiatus for a while, gather my head, gain some more knowledge, kick back and get some more stories to tell the world. Her influences include, Mc Lyte, Lauryn Hill, Missy, Tupac, Jay-Z, Lady of Rage, her mentor and friend Breeze, the Dogg Pound, Linkin Park, Snow Patrol, Match Box Twenty, Nirvana, Evanescence, Cold Play, and many, many more. I pretty much draw my influence from anything that moves me. Different music gives me different moods, different feelings, so I’m able to think of off the wall things to rap about. In anything I do I try to stand out, I’ve always went against the current not with it. I am a woman of substance, you can tell by the way I speak and my interactions with other people; I am a very rational person. I think that people should be themselves, because having an aura that stands out is the only thing that separates you from the rest. I like to make music that leaves you thinking, but still makes you bob ya head, or make you dance or do whatever. Adopting her name from the infamous French Saint, Joan of Arc is a definite leader and feels that she has a point to prove to the industry about female rappers. I think that we stand equal to men in this male dominated field but are not given as much credit as them because we are women. I want to show that girls are just as good as boys, sometimes better, and that we can captivate the masses, just like Jeanne d’Arc. AP="1" alt="AnimatedPlayer"
