“How I met HER…” is the interview series powered by Lady on the MIC
1. Introduce yourself. Who are you, where are you from and what do you do in life.
My name is Emily, E, E5 (Phife) or simply Soulcat. I react to all 3 of them. I was born in Dominican Republic and I live in Vienna, Europe now – where I mostly DJ or rap, record and perform, while I’m also always watching out for additional things I can get busy in – as long as they make me grow as a person somehow. I love all arts, I love the universe and nature, kids, my boyfriend, my daughter and my family so there’s always something to do and get happy with for me.
2. How you met H.E.R.? How did you find Hip-Hop, or how did Hip-Hop find you? Share some memories about that? When and why did you decide to make music yourself?
I’ve always been jammin’ to my favourite songs or the rhythms of nature and urban area, really, as a kid I could never hush. I think I’ve always been a musician somehow, I should have practiced harder than everyone else though, besides making a decision on what I wanna do for real. I think lyricism has always been my strength. I come from the Austrian upper Styria jazz scene but I never brag about that which is why a lot of people underestimate me a lot. But I don’t give a fuck – I believe that if you humble yourself great things will come to you. And it happened! Hip Hop found me once when I was a teenager struggling in life and the second time when I moved to the big city in my early twenties tryna find a job. I just started meeting the right people – it felt like that thing people call being at the “right spot at the right time”, you know what I’m saying. It helped a lot that I’ve been experimenting on the machines and the one’s and two’s making beats for a while before I left town to head to the metropolitan area, so I really had a great topic to talk about: BEATS n RHYMES!!!
3. What do you want to say with your music? What is your message? Can you live from your music already? What are your future goals?
I want to keep on doing it as long as I can and get better with every show and every recording, and not only better but stay innovative. That, to me, is the most important thing. I never want to lose the connection to this inspiring spiritual voice of mine that talks to me whispering all those memories and poems and punch lines. What I want to say varies from song to song – sometimes I talk about my life and what I came to see, sometimes I talk about spiritual, higher realm philosophies and sometimes I just want to go off on how fly the beat is and how we came to make it and what happened when I stepped into the studio and who I’m hanging with – the message delivers itself, you know what I’m saying?
Well, when it comes to what pays my bills – like I said, I get busy in many of things so I can say that my way of life helps me to get through and eat but if I want to travel and do additional things, I add some more DJ Gigs to it. I also do jobs that don’t have anything to do with music, but this is not what it’s about, right? 🙂 If I get busy in a regular day job, I do it to gather impressions.
4. In your opinion, what is the key to success?
Persistence and creativity within a great character.
5. Your shoutout to the other Ladies living Music.
I wanna give a shoutout to my sisters in the Vienna nu-soul team Soia and Nomadee who really resembled not only great friends but also great & genius colleagues as singer/songwriters. I have a feeling we could lyrically produce double LP’s on the song writing. Or even do poem books. Or some other off the hook stuff!!! That’s how much our sound and our energies meet. Then again I wanna give a shoutout to MC Soom T from Glasgow – we had the opportunity to share stage and have long conversations on the road – we think alike and we definitely vibe n’ connect. That’s the most important thing! I’m also giving shout outs to my girl Manmeet Kaur holding it down on the mic for the ladies of hip hop in INDIA!!! You rock and we will create – if it wasn’t for hip hop, where should the 90ies Kids find peace? haha. Further I wanna give thanks to all underground catz on the mic who do & dig rap – you don’t know how much y’all are part of all dope femcee’s success. We’re all a huge team with no competition but cooperation and we should all respect each other. That’s how I feel. PEACE!
Lady on the MIC 