Empress of Prophecy continues to explore her spirituality and creativity through her art creation and education.
Empress, 24, grew up surrounded by art and artists, which has greatly influenced her relationship with art and its mediums. Her cousin who raised her, was a teacher who helped organize a program for middle and high school students named PRODIGY HALL in the early 2000's. During her teaching, her cousin used her experience as a member of the 90's rap group Sudden Change.
"I watched her fully invest herself in helping students not only advance academically but also through her talents. . . I saw how what she did transformed those kids' lives. I always admired it and aim to do something similar."
Witnessing the power of art and education, Empress studied dance and entertainment and expressed her inner thoughts and feelings through poetry. She followed in her cousin's footsteps and pursued teaching as a dance instructor at Newark School of Arts. Throughout college, she continued working in art education as a program assistant for Alianza Mosaic Beacon, where she also instructed dance and helped curate creative expression through yoga and meditation. However, familial financial struggles forced her to drop out of college and leave her position. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after, making it difficult to find work.
Still, that didn't stop Empress from creating. She pivoted to another passion of hers, hair care. She founded Smooth EZ, LLC, and started selling hair care products. To gain professional hands-on experience, she started working at a salon. However, this endeavor was short-lived, and she returned to her childhood passion.
"Hair care is something I still do, but only for those I consider 'sanctioned' because it's something I consider sacred. I'm a very sensitive person, and hair contains a lot of energy, so I have a select group of clientele whose energy I'm comfortable with because I do an entire crown chakra cleansing on top of the regular hair styling services."
Empress became drawn to music.
"I realized that the many poems I wrote could also be pieces of musical art. I started making raps with no beats and just performing them for my friends, and their reaction motivated me to actually go into the studio and make more."
Due to her dance background, pop music significantly influenced her poetry. Because of her Haitian-American upbringing, she wasn't introduced to hip-hop until later in life. Eventually, she learned how the storytelling in hip-hop and poetry go hand in hand.
Inspired by Landon London, Lil Baby, Megan THEE Stallion, and J.Cole, Empress started experimenting with music and poetry.
Specifically, Lauren Hill was a big inspiration because of her music image and background.
"Ms. Lauren Hill is from East Orange, and I'm from Orange, NJ. As an artist, she is always unapologetically herself and didn't have to use sex appeal in her lyrics or image to be great, and I try my best to adapt the same into my music."
Ready to release music as a part of her music journey, first, Empress had to create a stage name.
Although friends frequently called her "Queen," she didn't feel the name resonated enough. Inspired by her last name, Prophete, and her poetry and music carry a message, she decided to name herself Empress of Prophecy.
"I like to tell people my name is Empress for short, Empress of Prophecy for respect."
With a name, resilience, poetry, and a sense of artistry, she created her debut single, Respectfully Disrespectful. She wrote the chorus after a challenging time.
"My ex was harassing me, my father just assaulted me, I was losing friends left and right, and my landlord was a slumlord who would walk into my apartment and talk to me like I was property. At the time, I was filled with so much rage and anxiety because I felt like people were taking my meekness for weakness, and that's just never the case."
Later, she went to a friend's house to hunt for beats that matched the chorus she wrote. Once they found the perfect beat, she finished the song in an hour, saved it on her phone, and didn't start production for another year when the stars aligned in her favor with financial abundance.
"This single's creative process was definitely one of those 'I gotta get this out my system NOW' moments."
Despite her newfound interest in music, Empress has not abandoned her love for art education. As a Creative Expression Instructor, she creates a safe space for students to express themselves through any artistic medium. She teaches mindfulness, physical conditioning, and dance etiquette.
"The ultimate goal is to make sure my students trust me and to provide a safe space for release, community, and creation. . . I want to be that support and spark that ignites them to think that the things that they thought they wouldn't be able to do are possible."
It may seem random to get pulled from dance to poetry to education to hair care, then to music, but for Empress, it's not random at all; it comes from her need to create and learn more about herself.
Empress believes her art helps herself and others understand herself.
"I make art when I feel the most misunderstood because people seem to understand me better when I translate it into art. I call myself a multifaceted enigma. I decided art is just my way of introducing people to another aspect of me. Sometimes, I can't wait and start creating immediately because I can't hold it. Whatever I'm feeling needs to be released at that moment."
Empress sees her artistic journey as parallel to her spiritual journey.
"Being a spiritual person means dedicating my life to God, growth, and being my dual authentic self. There is more to this life than my human experience, and I know that through the supernatural life I live. As I grow in my spiritual journey, I see my music growing in quality as well."
With God and art on her side, Empress considers herself privileged not to have faced many obstacles on her journey.
Overall, she hopes success in her art career will allow spiritual people like herself to connect. Through her work in art education, she hopes to provide inner-city children with easy access to art education. She sees her music as a different form of education.
"I always say we don't listen to Lauryn Hill enough because the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was her schooling us on the topic of love. I want to make music like that. It's timeless, and the educator in me doesn't care to try and do anything but that."
Overall, art education and creation are about mastering and spreading what she calls Empress Energy.
"I want [my art] to connect with more people like me, spiritual beings going through this wild human experience, people who can't be defined and don't care to be. I just want to spread the messages of the unheard."
Empress's debut single, Respectfully Disrespectful, releases on all streaming platforms on November 2nd.
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Keep up with all of Empress's work here.