My, my, Mya - interview with singer-dancer Mya Harrison - Interview

Interview, March, 1999 by Dimitri Ehrlich

When the Grammy-nominated "Ghetto Superstar" ruled airwaves and dance floors last year, it was nineteen-year-old newcomer Mya who anthem of urban heroes as if she were hip-hop's conscience. That was just the beginning

If you were to draw a chart representing Mya's entry into the national consciousness, it would be a line going straight up. The nineteen-year-old Mya Harrison first made her mark singing on Pros Michel's "Ghetto Superstar," the Grammy-nominated hit single from the Bulworth soundtrack. Her self-titled debut has since sold nearly two million copies. Her career will probably cause even more whiplash in 1999: Recently named a spokesperson for Tommy Hilfiger's Tommy Girl line, Mya has also landed a role in the new movie In Too Deep (featuring Pam Grier), and contributed the first single to the soundtrack of the Eddie Murphy film Life.

With the lean musculature of an Olympic gymnast and eyes that look like they're hard-wired to an electric power plant, Mya has sex appeal to burn. But her voice is her most provocative asset. On "Ghetto Superstar," she brings several lifetimes worth of yearning to each phrase, easily holding her own with Wu-Tang's Ol' Dirty Bastard and Pras and Wyclef of the Fugees.

Mya began her showbiz career as a dancer, first in 1990 as a member of the troupe T.W.A. (Tappers With Attitude), and then studying with Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk star Savion Glover. An audition in her living room for the president of University Records landed Mya a record deal at the age of seventeen. Although she's not even twenty, Mya is determined to run her own show. In the video for "It's All About Me," she choreographed acrobatic fencing scenes and serpentine dance sequences and also designed a red micro-mini outfit that's both regal and revealing. When she spoke with us, Mya sounded less like a bubbly adolescent R&B singer than a highly disciplined ballerina, just as in control as she is in demand.

DIMITRI EHRLICH: You strike me as being more superstar than ghetto. Where did you grow up?

MYA: I was born in Washington, D.C., but when I was little I moved to Maryland. We weren't rich but we weren't living in the ghetto. My mother was an accountant and my father was an entrepreneur and a singer. He was always traveling and singing at bar mitzvahs and weddings. But I did have other people in my family who went through more difficult times, so I can still relate to that.

DE: I read somewhere that you're a shy person. How do you reconcile that with being a performer?

M: Well. inside I feel really aggressive, but externally I'm quiet. I guess I grew up with my parents not talking to me that much and yet they were always pushing me to do things, like take dance lessons. Now I have something to prove: that I can make it on my own, and do it independently.

DE: In Bulworth, Halle Berry plays a young black woman who falls in love with an older white man, played by Warren Beatty. What did you think about the movie's politics?

M: Well, it was one of those movies people either liked or hated, so I thought it was good that it got people thinking. The message was that you shouldn't prejudge other people. Personally, I don't have any issue with that - I think people of all races are attractive. My father is black and my mother is white: she's Italian. They always told me it doesn't matter, you're made of love, but I remember people staring at them and sometimes saying things when I was little. I remember feeling uncomfortable.

DE: You were the only woman on the Smokin' Grooves Tour [1998] with Busta Rhymes, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, and Gang Starr. Is it weird for you to be around all that raging testosterone?

M: Actually I like it because even though I'm out there dancing in high heels, inside I'm a tomboy. Plus, when I was dancing I was usually the only female tap dancer. so I'm used to it. I see it as a challenge because I feel like I should be able to do anything a guy can do.

DE: I saw you perform on the 1998 Vibe TV show with Pras and Wyclef and ODB, the day that ODB announced that henceforth he would be known only as The Baby Jesus. What did you make of that?

M: Well, he had been talking about it beforehand in the greenroom. Everybody was getting ready to perform and he was saying, "I know y'all are nervous, because you've never heard the voice of God before." We were all like. "OK, whatever."

DE: The single "Movin' On" is about being cheated on. Have you ever experienced that in real life?

M: Yes. It was really minor because I was so young. And then I went through it with my parents.

DE: Meaning one of your parents cheated on the other one?

M: Year.

DE: And what was the minor incident when you got cheated on?

M: Well, I was really young and naive. And I just believed everything this person was telling me until I finally realized who he was and that I couldn't change him. Every time I saw him he was with another girl. What really changed my mind was that I was writing the same thing over and over about him. When I read all that back, I said, "The problem isn't him, the problem is me."