By Brittany Hamlett
A guitar solo with an Indian vibe blasts through the speakers on the seventh floor of a midtown Manhattan recording studio as the P.O.E.T. — in a blue hood, jeans, and sneakers — bops his head to the beat and raps whatever pops into his head. “I feel naked right now,” Ibrahim Saddiq later says, giddily, while preparing to promote his new album, “Vintage Soul,” in Puerto Rico and Europe this fall. “Not many people see the creation process… I feel like exposed, but it’s cool.”
Spoken Word artist. Musician. Teacher. Painter. Photographer. Actor. All describe the vegan P.O.E.T., who, first and foremost, is a communicator. “I can’t dance. I am not a dancer,” the artist confides. Despite “two left feet,” the 25-year-old Afro-Caucasian-Cherokee native of Peekskill – now living in the Bronx — has no problem waltzing through the song of his life. Growing up, he explored painting, culinary arts, and music.
“I wasn’t a bad kid, just mischievous,” says Saddiq, a thatch of thick ringlets tucked beneath a white do-rag. “But I always loved to learn.” Life took a negative turn in his teen years when Saddiq found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time — and, at 18, stuck with a criminal record. The school where he was teaching let him go. So did his family, leaving Saddiq homeless. Crashing from one friend’s place to another, he did what he had to in order to get by. Today, he has no regrets. “Where I’m at is where I’m supposed to be,” Saddiq says. “And where I’m going is where I’m supposed to go.”
After three years as a couch hot potato, he was back on his feet and on a path that brought him to a more peaceful, productive place. It’s not bringing attention to himself that drives him, but giving to others. “[He’s] someone who could open up your eyes to new things, like a role model,” says Saddiq’s sister, Janna, 22. “Anyone who’s encountered Ibrahim will know one thing: He lives what he speaks,” adds fellow actor Steven Pena, also 22. “Don’t wait for your life to give you purpose,” Saddiq says in one of his spoken-word raps. “Give purpose to your life…. If a negative state of mine is what you know, that’s all your life will ever show.”
“My name has a lot to do with who I am,” he says. “My middle name, Asad, means ‘heart of a lion,’ which is cool because I’m a Leo. “Sometimes my passion can be overwhelming to some people. They think I’m yelling at them, but I’m just really passionate…. I feel that people lose their passions because of the everyday hustle and bustle of life, and we should try to live it as best as we can.”
For that reason, Saddiq cannot tolerate ignorance. “When people don’t want to know about things they should know about, I guess that’s my pet peeve,” he says, sharing his view on politics, veganism, and the unknown qualities of milk. “Opinions are only as good as the information they’re based on.”
It also upsets him when people suggest he choose one ethnicity over the other. “If you take two colors like blue and red, they make purple,” Saddiq says. “But if you look at the purple, you don’t ask is this more blue or more red. It’s its own color…I think of that as who I am. I have all of these parts that make up me, but I don’t just have to identify with one. It’s all who I am.”
The artist certainly has no problems showing his true colors when it comes to his music or spoken-word raps. He finds inspiration in anything and everything – even in the shower, Saddiq says, he likes to “feel vibes and get into the groove of things.”
“If you’re not making music from your heart,” he says, “then you’re wasting your time.”
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY IBRAHIM SADDIQ
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