ATLANTA — For popular hip-hop artist, producer and actress Naja Flythe, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.
Music has always been in the blood of Queens, New York native Flyt.
She recalled having to change her name from Najaworld because of a label mate with a similar name. She later shortened it to Flyt because of her last name.
The word “Flyt” pronounced “flight,” means my lineage. I feel like everything fly. You’ve got to have faith in the flight. Don’t be delayed. Everything that has to do with flying,” she said. “It’s pretty much my last name and I wanted to carry it.”
Flyt has been in the entertainment industry since she was a kid.
“Music is a part of me. I was born into it,” she said. “My family is full of musicians. I come from a musical background. Growing up, my parents were strict. I couldn’t go outside until I practiced piano, karate and dance.”
Flyt says her mother enrolled her in acting classes and magazines when she was younger. Her father Alvin made the song “Jamaica Funk with Tom Browne.
“Everybody in my family does music, we always come up with production together. It’s fun, but it can be frustrating at times. I was told I come from greatness. Duke Ellington being my cousin, I would say that is legendary,” she said.
As a kid, Flyt was schooled on music pioneers such as Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, Monica, and Brandy.
“My mom once told me that I should listen to music by Lauryn Hill. “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” was the first album that I ever got,” she said. “I remember opening it up, listening and knowing all the words. She was a huge influence on me, as well as Missy Elliot.”
Among the biggest influences in her life is icon Michael Jackson.
“When he passed away, it broke my heart,” she said. “I couldn’t make music for a year because I felt a huge connection to him. Michael really was my idol. I idolized his hard work, what he put into the music, and how much he cared about humanity.”
She said growing up in the same area of Queens as hip-hop icons 50 Cent, Nas, and Nicki Minaj was inspirational.
“I love Nicki,” she said. “Nicki comes from an era of you had to work hard to get to where you wanted to go. It wasn’t like how it is now where music is really accessible to anyone. I’m super proud of 50 Cent because he turned from a gangster to a mogul. He is doing his thing and he’s putting on a lot of jobs for people in the area as well. I love him.”
Among her biggest influences is Michael Jackson.
“I studied Michael Jackson when I was a child. In his Jackson 5 days. My mom used to make me sit down and write down all the lyrics to really learn it and learn how to sing. That’s how I learned how to sing.”
Flyt says she learned how to sing when she was 5.
“I was singing Louis Armstrong “Wonderful World.” That was the first song I ever recorded when I was 5,” she said.
Flyt blew up on TikTok around 2020 and her reels, skits and videos earned her hundreds of thousands of views and likes. That gave her the confidence that her acting career would continue to take off.
“I made stories off of the things that I was going through, and just made it relatable to the people who were watching,” she continued. “I just made people laugh. I’m such a character, so I came up with different characters. I’m huge on creative direction. That’s where my social influence came from.”
She is also excited for fans to listen to her new songs “DNA” and “Smoke and Mirrors.”
“I came up with a song called “DNA,” where I was talking about loving this person so much, but knowing that I can’t be with him. You’re a part of me and I can’t get rid of you because you’re a part of my DNA,” she continued.
One day, Flyt says her friend Avery encouraged her executives at Compound Entertainment studios were looking for new artists.
“He told me to keep coming up there to show my face and be active. I was up there every single day and I was consistent,” she recalled. “I was using my last coins to go to the studio and get on these records. I sang and rapped on my demo.”
Flyt was given a song called “Like You Mad” and she only had two days to learn it.
“I went back to the studio, killed it and I got signed,” she says. “I met Ne-Yo a few months after that in 2021.”
She later learned about the ugly side of the business when executives refused to listen to her as an artist and creative.
“A lot of times, when I was with that company, nobody listened to me. I was at the point where I didn’t want to say too much because I was still getting my foot in the door. I was telling them they weren’t listening to me and what I was going through. I was writing music that wasn’t correlating with my life.”
That’s when Ne-Yo stepped in.
“Ne-Yo sat me down and asked what was going on and really listened to me,” she recalled. “He said, ‘I love the music that you did, but I don’t feel that its connecting because I don’t know who you are through the music.’ One thing about Ne-Yo, when he’s writing for you or writing with you, he really listens. It came together sonically.”
She experienced anxiety attacks because there was a lot of toxic energy and the wrong people around her who tried to make her feel like she was lesser than she was.
“I used to have chalkboard wallpaper that covered my whole wall,” she said. “I would put up affirmations for myself, so every time I woke up, I would see it before I went to the studio.
Flyt says the song “Smoke and Mirrors” has a deeper meaning and is something that a lot of people experience.
“A lot of time, you may like someone, but there are smoke and mirrors because of alcohol or smoking weed, and it clutters your visions for who the person really is. Once the smoke clears, you see the person for who they really are.”
She eventually got out of her contract with Compound Entertainment and felt she was in a better place.
Five months after Flyt started working at Trap City Café, she told DJ Cookbook that she was an artist and had a record called “Nasty.”
“I was promoting music in every club in Atlanta,” she says. “DJ Cookbook encouraged me to promote my music more. He asked me to send the record and they started playing it in Trap City Café. One day, TIP asked who is that on the song? And they said, ‘that’s her’ and he loved it. They played the song four times in a row. The record started getting traction, then it was being played on the radio by Swamp Izzo.”
Flyt continues to soar to new heights in her life and career. Recently, Flyt visited Miami and isolated herself to help improve her creativity. She’s been working on a project called “Soular Return.”
“It’s about getting back to my roots,” she said. “I grew up around a “funkified” family and live instruments. I’ve been making more music that is 1980′s and 808 driven. I’m focused on creating something special.”
Flyt offered words of wisdom to anybody chasing their dreams.
“Michael Jackson once said, ‘no matter what, you have to believe in yourself,’” she said. “You need to self-motivate yourself. You have to have the desire to win, it has to be in you.”
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