- country:USA
- style(s):Hip Hop, Soul
- label:not signed
- type:Solo
- gender:female
- instrumentation:vocal
- artist posted by:BAM!
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Toni is an international champion of hip-hop culture, known for the irresistible, contagious energy of her performances. She spits rhymes and flows in the footsteps of Nina, Miriam and Gil Scott. All hip-hop and all soul, Toni channels in the tradition of jazz greats improvising lyrics and poetry to which both elders and youth raise their hands in approval. A lyrical folklorist, her work as the first U.S. Hip Hop Ambassador to work with U.S. Department of State has taken her to places like Senegal, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, D.R.C, South Africa, Swaziland, Brazil, Europe, and Southeast Asia. For the past ten years Toni has performed her music with m'balax, highlife, soukous, afrobeat, zouk, and with traditional instruments. On the cutting-edge of AfroHipHopSoul Toni continues to push the envelope recently sharing the stage with Tiken Jah Fakoly, recording with Yoro Ndiaye and performing with drummer extraordinaire Gene Lake.
Born and raised in California's Bay Area, but growing up at Howard University in Washington, DC, exposed Toni Blackman to diverse sounds, legendary poets, musicians and performers. In her first year of graduate school Toni realized she missed hip-hop and launched Freestyle Union Cipher Workshop, a groundbreaking project using freestyle to promote social responsibility in music. Toni accepted her love of the Boom Bap as a part of her lifelong artistic journey. It's no surprise she has shared the stage with artists like Erykah Badu and the Roots, Mos Def, Wyclef, KRS One, Nas, Charlie Hunter Quartet, as well as Sheryl Crow and Ricki Lee Jones, and performed with Craig Harris, James Blood Ulmer and Vernon Reid. Her discography includes projects on Universal Records France, BMG Novus, Nova Records (Radio Nova), Big Dada Recordings, High Note (Taiwan) and others.
A lyricist, poet, producer, actress, master teacher and director, Toni is truly an artist pushing boundaries. 2011 opened several doors for this Brooklyn-based Renaissance woman and she is finally poised to complete her own album "Miss Blackman in the Buildin" which hones in on her Hip-hop soul sound and a few exciting collaborations recorded on the continent of Africa. Toni rocks with her own band and is in her third year as a member of the Earthdriver Collective. She tours Southern Europe with James Blood Ulmer early 2012.