Columbus’ Own: Mental health and relationship challenges fuel R&B artist Binta Phatty

Maisie Fitzmaurice, Andres Ibarra
Thu, 01 Jul 2021 01:43:21 +0000
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Columbus-based R&B artist Binta Phatty said she finds her sense of self through music after a childhood spent moving around the world. Credit: Andres Ibarra | Arts & Life Producer

By the time R&B artist Binta Phatty moved to Columbus in 2016, she had already spent time living in the U.K., The Gambia, New Jersey and Maryland.?

Moving around the world at a young age made it hard for Phatty, a second-year in journalism, to find a feeling of home. Despite the hardships that came with jumping from one place to another, she said she has learned to see it as a strength that makes her stand out.?

“I wouldn’t change my experience because I don’t think I’d be nearly the person that I am today if I didn’t move around all those times,” Phatty said.?

Phatty started writing her own lyrics at the age of 13, but she said she didn’t start fully investing her energy into music until she graduated high school in 2018. She said each of her songs hold significant meaning for her because she bases them off of personal experiences.?

Music became her biggest outlet when struggles with mental health, relationships and friendships inspired her writing, she said.

“It’s like a diary entry kind of — the lyrics in my songs, I feel like they’re very understandable,” Phatty said. “But to me, they have a completely different meaning. ‘Third Eye,’ for example, people just think, ‘Oh, she’s talking about whatever,’ but to me I’m talking about a part of my life. So, if you listen to them carefully, I’m telling a story.”

Phatty said her most recent album, “Limbo,” released in 2020, takes on themes of depression, heartbreak and finding self-worth.?

“I felt like I was in a stage of limbo in my life,” Phatty said. “A lot of stuff wasn’t going the way I needed to. So I just came into a realization of a lot of things, like a spiritual awakening, I guess.”

Imani McCullough, a Columbus-based R&B artist, started collaborating with Phatty while the two were attending high school together. McCullough said she was impressed with Phatty’s songwriting abilities and her unique sound.?

“Her style is just different from everybody else, especially now at our age. It’s just different, it’s like a really neo soul type of style,” McCullough said. “I think that’s what she really worked up with. That’s what she’s really good at.”

Phatty was born in London and lived there until she was about 10 years old. During that time, she said she was a minority in her school as a Black daughter of Gambian immigrants. That all changed when her family relocated to predominantly-Black The Gambia in 2009.?

Later, when she moved to New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio, she found herself again as a minority.

“I had to pick up social cues, it’s just a different experience,” Phatty said. “I don’t want to say I was getting bullied, but I had to really figure out what kind of person I was and how I was gonna? stand my ground. And I don’t think, if I hadn’t moved from New Jersey to Maryland to then Ohio, I don’t think I would have been as confident and sure of myself as I am now.”?

R&B artists like Jhene Aiko and Alicia Keys serve as inspiration for Phatty now, but growing up, she said she struggled to find successful women she could identify with.?

“Other than people in my family, just outside when I went out, I didn’t really have any role models or people that I feel like I could connect with, and it’s not that big of a problem now,” Phatty said. “Alicia Keys, she was writing songs and producing in her bedroom, and that just makes me laugh, because I’m doing the exact same thing.”

Phatty released her single “Wonder” on all music streaming platforms June 18. She is currently working on her upcoming album and collaborating with other artists in the U.K. this month, she said. She is also planning on performing in The Gambia in December.?

McCullough said she doesn’t think music will be the only artistic endeavor that Phatty opts to take on.

“She has a really creative mindset, and I think she’ll really make it far,” McCullough said. “She has a lot of streams and she has good connections. I think this year is going to be the one where she really pops off.”

Clarification: The headline was changed to remove a reference to Phatty’s childhood.