Recently on her Facebook page, local hip hop artist She Speaks posted a video of a 2003 performance she was a part of as a teen. That video shows how long She Speaks— real name Robin Jones-Shaffer— has been performing.
From making joke songs for friends to playing with a live band at Culture Clash Records, She Speaks has been making music for a while. The previous two-time winner of the City Paper’s Best of Toledo award for Best Hip Hop Artist in 2019 and 2020 spoke with us about her early career and future plans.
Early Beats
“When I was about 7 or 8 I started doing poetry and talent competitions,” she explained. “I used to sing, but realized early on that I could also rap. I loved the poetry of it and I really liked playing around with the music.”
A favorite childhood movie prop helped She Speaks find her voice. “I was a fan of the Home Alone movies, and had a Talkboy and Talkgirl, the things you could record your voice on. I would play an instrumental from one of my mom’s records, and record myself rapping over it. Back then I made mixes and I’d pass those out to friends.”
Adapting to technology has been a big part of She Speaks’ act. “As time went on and as music and tech evolved I’d rap over my pager message. Fans could call my pager number and listen to the track. It got to a point where my number got passed around the city and all kinds of people and artists could hear me.”
How She Became She
Though the pager messages brought her exposure, that was accompanied by problems. “I heard people would steal from those messages, so I had to start tailoring the lyrics to my own specifics. I learned to be more forceful and identify myself, putting more of me into the lyrics.” On top of putting herself out there with the messages She began performing around Toledo with groups like Self-Expression Teen Theater and Mad Poets’ Society.
She finally got into the studio a few years ago thanks to a local program. “I got a loan for stage time from the Youth Entrepreneurship Program, which laid the foundation for me to be a professional artist. I was able to get studio time and actually look at music as a business.”
She Speaks has performed at Culture Clash, 912 Monroe St., twice in the past few months, for both Record Store Day and a special April 20th performance. “The owner of Culture Clash reached out to me. He let me work the hip hop portions of their Record Store Day performances. But the 4/20 show was special. I was playing with a live band backing me, which led to a very intimate and eclectic performance. It was amazing; performing with the raw feel of a live band was definitely a bucket list item for me.”
You can find She Speaks on YouTube, Spotify, and other music streaming services, or visit whoisshespeaks.com
