By Candice Richardson
Special To The Medium
Shariffa Nyan’s voice is quiet and she speaks a few octaves above a whisper but even when she’s speaking there’s an essence of musical quality.
“She’s so soft-spoken when she talks, but when she sings she has a power to grab people’s attention,” says Emman Doctolero otherwise known as DJ em-D. He often shares the stage with Nyan for Christian-centric shows and concerts throughout the Northwest.
“I’ve heard plenty of great singers in gospel and mainstream. You can definitely feel the anointing when she sings,” says Doctolero.
The fact that the concept of mainstream and gospel music comes up in the conversation is a testament to her recently released EP, “Every Part of Me.”
Lyrically the project contains traditional content often found in the Christian music genre. Musically it’s an eclectic mix of soul, R&B, funk, pop, and hip-hop.
“I listen to neo-soul, jazz, hip hop,” states Nyan. “Those sounds are what I grew up to and I like. I wanted to make music that was content-rich and edifying and also have a sound that moved you. So [Every Part of Me] is really the best of both worlds.”
Nyan’s singing voice isn’t totally opposite from her speaking voice but it’s close. When she sings, the notes are strong and clear, her voice is commanding. She doesn’t like labels and it’s clear she prefers not to be boxed in any one genre, but she’s coined a term for her style of music calling it Neo-Gospel.
“I call it Neo-Gospel not just because it’s a fusion of neo-soul and gospel music but it’s ‘neo’ in the literal definition meaning new,” Nyan says. “This is a new gospel that incorporates a familiar sound with a wholesome message.”
“She has a beautiful voice and a great spirit,” says Pastor James Reyes of the Charisma Christian Center in Lynwood, WA. “She’s always smiling…always helping out…She has an attitude of looking after other people and always looking at the best in others. She’s never judgmental.”
I want people to know I’m a woman of faith but I’m trying hard not to be pretentious,” Nyan says. “I’ve been through things, seen things, done things.”
Nyan grew up in Moses Lake, Wash. Her mother, originally from Toppenish and her father originally from Jamaica, divorced when Nyan was two years old. Her mother remarried but Nyan’s stepfather was murdered by an acquaintance when she was nine years old.
“That experience changed my mother a lot. It made her withdrawn. It made it harder for her to trust, more emotionally void. I felt that an early age I had to be that shoulder [to lean on], that support system,” says Nyan adding that as a child she had witnessed domestic violence, alcohol and substance abuse.
“Through it all my mother still kept her faith in God and because of that I kept mine.”
Even though they would remain in a relationship until his death, Nyan’s mother removed her from the home she shared with Nyan’s stepfather, getting a home of their own. Times were difficult, the family was on public assistance and lived in section-8 housing. Music was the relief.
“It was tradition that every Saturday would be cleaning day and while we would do chores around the house mom would play music,” recalled Nyan.
Nyan says her mother had an eclectic taste playing everything from Shirley Caesar and Mahalia Jackson to The Beatles to Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper to Reggae to Chopin. That’s when Nyan would act as a ballerina, dancing to the classical music.
Nyan was four years old when she sang solo for the first time. She stood atop a milk crate performing “He Arose from the Dead” on Easter Sunday at the Galilee Baptist Church in Moses Lake.
Nyan remembers the supportive reaction from the crowd and calls it an anointing.
“Music has always been a critical point in who I was in the church and the ministry. My mother cultivated that early,” says Nyan adding, “I come from the church but it wasn’t always with me.”
As a budding teen singer/songwriter Nyan says she strayed from Christian and Gospel music, choosing instead to focus on secular R&B when she wrote and recorded music. She also had what she calls “stumbling blocks” as she grew older that included struggles with “depression, alcohol, and fornication.”
“I wasn’t always living according to a biblical standard. I was criticized for that,” says Nyan.
A turning point came when she found out she was pregnant with her oldest son, Zion, at the age of 23. At the time she was a pre-med student at UMASS Boston and was worried that she had let her family down.
“I chose to place my personal and educational pursuits on hold in order to nurture and cultivate a future for my son,” says Nyan. “At that time in my life, doing both wasn’t a viable option; so rather than following my dreams, I followed my heart”.
“At first it was a hard decision but he was a blessing. All my children are,” she added.
Nyan would later get her degree from Shoreline Community College in their Dental Hygiene Program. She went on to marry the father of her second child, Nyisha. Through it all music called to her but she was no longer living the life that fueled much of her earlier song content.
Everything clicked after she attended an open mic event at a local café and watched the duo Blessed Side, a Christian rap group, perform. Nyan says she was inspired to see Christian music represented in other places outside of the church. Previously she had been featuring on other artist’s tracks before she began to record for herself again, first releasing the EP “Kingdom Come,” and now “Every Part of Me.”
“I felt like I had come full circle as a woman, mother, friend, sister, and woman of God,” says Nyan on her decision regarding what to name the EP.
She says every track of the project represents who she is on some level such as “Convert’s Creed” which “is my promise, this is my mission, what I stand for. This is a life I represent. I’m about community. I’m about Christ and I’m not ashamed of it;” and “A Time Such as This (Remix)” which touches on everything from the Black Lives Matter movement, wars overseas, misogyny, and issues of hypocrisy in the church.
Most poignant though is the intro and outro “Heart Song.”
“[This track] is my heart’s and soul way of just telling God thank you for everything. Thank you for never leaving me, thank you for bringing me through all the things I’ve gone through, all the trials and tribulations, all the ups and downs, all the losses and gains. Thank you for keeping me and sustaining me. It’s my heart’s way of telling God and those who supported me, family and friends, I love you and thank you.”
“You’re looking at a new woman,” says Trudy Baidoo, one of Nyan’s closest friends and former classmate from the University of Washington. “Shariffa’s been through things most of us can’t imagine or will never see, but she’s here, she’s happy and amazingly she doesn’t harbor any grudges. I’m so proud of who she is and as a close friend and knowing what she’s come through she inspires me to keep on keeping on. She’s a light, gifted singer and truly an amazing friend.”
For Nyan she says the secret is always believing in a power greater than yourself. Having that faith means there’s always someone or something to lift you up even after you’ve hit rock bottom.
“Nobody’s too flawed for God” says Nyan. “You can still be an inspiration.”
Shariffa Nyan’s EP “Every Part of Me” is available digitally worldwide.
