Hip-Hop Virtuous
Intriguing best describes Shayshahn "Phearnone" MacPherson, member of indie hip-hop band Planet Ubiquity. A kid raised in the Bronx during the birth of hip-hop playing the violin: surprising. But Phearnone's talents don't stop there; add violist, percussionist, and a lyricist to his repertoire. Over lunch at a noisy restaurant in Brooklyn, Phearnone gave me a guided tour of his journey to becoming a successful artist.Emmanuela Maurice: I described you to a few people- Black guy, about thirty years old, rocking a blow-out 'fro, and has a unique sense of style. I asked them to guess what instrument they thought someone fitting that profile played. They answered either drums or saxophone. How have you been able to overcome people's preconceived notions about you?
PHEARNONE: I actually like preconceived notions because it gives me an element of surprise. It's like the little person who'll put a 230 pound man in a choke hold and make him submit. Still to this day, when I pull out the violin people do a double-take. That's why Miri Ben-Ari blew up. I always felt like I was doing the hip-hop stuff before her. I hate to say that because she's good. She's an excellent jazz/funk improviser with great technique on the violin. But she's not hip-hop. I'm hip-hop. I'm from the Bronx, where hip-hop started, and I rhyme. If there's ever a chance, I'ma battle her.
EM: Bring me back to the moment you realized a musician lived in you?
PHEARNONE: I was in the house with my father and grandmother, and some Janet Jackson song was playing. My grandfather's sax was there-mind you I don't know how to play. I put it together and started trying to play the words on the sax. I would do it over and over again. Now, it's in the heat of the moment and everyone's like, "Oh that's cool." But when everybody was like, "Okay I'm tired of it," I was still there trying. It was almost like an obsession to play it.
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