I moved to Toronto in 2012, I've lived in the east and the west ends of the city. Where are you from? In the city, and otherwise? I feel like if I've ever heard it and appreciated it, then I've probably been influenced by It. There's really so much I am influenced by. I also listened to a lot of rap from Biggie, Nas, Tupac, Outkast. I started listening to a lot of neo-soul from artists like The Roots, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild… the list goes on. When I got into high school, I started to discover music for myself. I also listened to Boyz II Men, Blackstreet, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Stevie Wonder. Growing up, my mom had a lot of albums by in the house like Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Brandy. I'm very influenced by R&B from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Where she draws from and where she goes to, through her music, is greater than her present - that much is for sure. Audacity makes it clear that Faiza is in conversation with more than her contemporaries. “ Audacity for the 99's and the 2000's,” she tweeted in promotion of the project, referencing the Cash Money reign of the early 2000s, an era that’s been vital to Faiza’s sound and look, both pre- Audacity and with the EP release. There is no emulation, she says in so many words. But it is in her snarl on “Thick & Melanated” that Faiza’s most audacious: “Now its just so cool to be a Black girl/Now you wanna be all up in my world/Now you wanna look like me, talk like me,” she recites, listing off the ways in which they got her fucked up.

“Bands” has Faiza leaving phony niggas lonely, choosing to chase her hustle instead. On “Won’t Do”, she refuses to lay herself down, plain and sacrificial, in the name of romantic love. Following what she calls an “intermission,” Faiza returned last week with Audacity, a six-song EP about clear-eyed decision-making and shed skin. Faiza, a Torontonian singer-songwriter by way of London, Ontario is one of many Black women strong-arming space in a local and international industry that prefers its Black artists to, well… be anything but.

The audacity of this b