Corinne Stevie is a lover, a cynic, an intellectual, a fighter, an extremist, and an optimist. But above all she is the epitome of the word "artist." From her studio apartment in the heart of the Midtown area of Atlanta, surrounded by unfinished canvases and paint brushes dipped in cloudy cups of water the emcee/painter jokingly explains, "Corinne Stevie is none of the things you've seen at the same time."
Clearing her throat she asserts herself and says, "Corinne Stevie is the oddity."
An oddity she is indeed. From the epicene beauty of Grace Jones to the sheer lyrical genius of Lauryn Hill, Corinne Stevie is exactly what fans of Hip-Hop have waited patiently for while Foxy and Kim flirt with jail time, Queen Latifah and Eve flirt with Hollywood and Missy Elliot and Ms. Hill herself flirt with obscurity. Corinne Stevie is the difference between rap and Hip-Hop. But, don't think you'll catch her dissing the current music scene. Corinne is more than content reveling in it, whether true to form or not.
"Hip-Hop right now is just in a different place," Corinne explains. "I'm bringing back a memory of a feeling of a time in Hip-Hop."
Striking a conversation with the Miami native will reveal at least one thing, she's always eager to speak about her love for art and music. In fact, it's this strong devotion that drives her whether she's creating visual art or a song. As different as these mediums of self expression may seem, for Corinne they become intertwined one constantly fueling and pushing the other. So much that when she's not painting or studying illustration at the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art & Design she's using her Mac mini to record music in her home studio.
"When I can't write a song, I'm drawing," Corinne explains. "My art is very intertwined with my music and if I didn't draw I don't think my music would be as creative and if I didn't write [songs] I don't think my art would be as creative."
It's these creative songs—each essentially pieces of artwork—that find a home nestled together on Corinne's debut album, The Oddity. Synthesizer heavy dance tracks juxtaposed with nostalgic Hip-Hop odes create a unique sound that permeates through the 11 track project. From dance music ("Time Travela" "Set Me Free"), to old school Hip-Hop ("I Can Go Across The Globe" "Mornin' Sunrise"), and new school hipster rap ("Hackerz" "Club_Kidz") Corinne does it all with a lyrical skill of a polished emcee not afraid to transcend genres.
"I want to do something else, I want to create my own genre," Corinne says of the sound of The Oddity.
The Oddity, will be released online using the Radiohead "pay what you want format" October 23rd by Nouveau Music the music label division of Art Nouveau Magazine via her website www.corinnesart.com . She plans to release a mixtape entiled "The Other Sister," immediately after and will also continue selling prints of her artwork.
Finding a purpose or a mission is something every artist tussles with at some point. Bouncing her head to her theme song--Santogold's "L.E.S. Artistes"--Corinne's mission is simple. She looks to the future and hopes for two things: money and that her work will inspire others to be themselves.
"I want my work to be inspiration," Corinne says. "I want to encourage people and say you can just be everything, just express yourself and be who you are and not be afraid to see your different sides."
Well, mission two accomplished.
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Styling by Phillip Holmes
Photography by Kendrick Daye
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