In an exclusive interview with Amazon Music'Phylicia Fant, HipHopWired talked about her love for music, her career journey and her motivations.
As Black Music Month gets underway, we appreciate the artists who bring us the music we remember, as well as those who have worked to support these artists in their careers through their own visionary efforts. Phylicia Fant, who currently serves as head of music industry partnerships at Amazon Music, is certainly one of those figures.
Prior to taking on this role, the Marietta, Georgia native built a distinguished career as the former head of urban music at Columbia Records and vice president of publicity and lifestyle at Warner Records, after establishing herself as a PR genius working with numerous artists including Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse with her label, The Purple Agency, in 2008. HipHopWired had the opportunity to speak with Phylicia Fant about the importance of music, connections, and how it helped her understand and use the “first” on the journey of her career.
HipHopWired: What was your first real connection with music? And how did that love lead you to work in the music industry through PR?
Phylicia Fant: I think the real connection always comes from — I won't say always, but I think if you grew up in the church, then you're connected to the music in the church. This is something I think when parents try to find activities for you. My dad is a minister and my mom is a minister. My great grandmother on my dad's side was a pastor, which was rare for women in the South. So music has always kind of been in your life. Now, I can't sing at all. [Laughs] Okay, I'll make sure to say that. But you know, they're always good with kids.
But what you recognize in those moments is a certain feeling. Even if you're not the best singer, there's nothing like that energy where you get up, sing in front of the congregation and they support you, right? That's the kind of talk it is. And then when the soloist comes out, and they tear people up, you understand the effects of the music that way. This is the exciting experience.
My dad played the piano too so I would have vinyl in my room growing up. And then my first concert was to see Michael Jackson with my parents. So I always had parents who kept me in different places of music and culture, and I think between church, between the vinyl that was strategically placed in my room, which was Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and the first Sugar Hill. Gang record, these are the ways you will discover music, even though you may not understand it [then].
What I've learned over time is the importance of pivoting and how many times I've pivoted, but at the same time, within those pivots, how I'm still true to what I love at my core.
How has it been so far in your role at Amazon Music in terms of expanding all that the platform has to offer? What challenges and successes have you faced?
I always cringe at the word challenges, because I think they're more or less about challenges than pushing yourself into a different thought process, right? If you grew up in the tag system like I did, then it was always very much art as a sport, right? So how can I relate to an artist who has to deal with criticism, has to deal with his own personal agendas, his own personal life? How can I build trust with this artist? So the trust factor kind of brings me to the Amazon discussion because, being a technology company, the principle is to make sure that we make sure that the consumer is happy.
So the consumer is the person listening to the music, but also the consumer, as I think we extend that definition to the artists and the people we work with, to have a symbiotic relationship of how data and music can come together for the greater good of how we expand music for people. So the benefit of being on this side is, while I'm always an “artist first” and I have been, it's great for me to know what products are being made to make that experience that much better. And that's not something I'd really thought about until I got here, right? You see it as, “Oh, it's just flow.” But then you realize it's so much more than streaming.
How you share music or how you use music, what technology is, is built so that you can have that maximum experience, and even think about what it really means to collect music and create a playlist. I didn't think about these kinds of conversations inside a tech company. You just think these things exist. And because it's there, when you recognize what it takes to get these things off the ground, there's respect for the kind of behind-the-scenes collaboration that makes your musical experience seamless.
So that leads me to this next question in terms of your path and being a black woman who has carved such a bright path in the industry. For those coming up, what is the most important thing for you to share with those who ask about going their own way?
It's funny because I was just talking to one of my mentors and she was talking about how she loves sports and how she doesn't know how to play sports. I said what I've learned over time is the importance of pivoting and how many times I've pivoted, but at the same time, within those pivots, how I'm still true to what I love at my core. Basically, I love music. And what you recognize in loving music is that music spans different places.
That's how my career developed, because I recognize where music can take me. It wasn't just within the walls of a concert, it was now within the walls of an arena, it was Fashion Week, front row. Taking the likes of JoJo and Lindsay Lohan to fashion week when the city was at its peak and living in New York, you recognize different ways of using it to transport you to different spaces.
And so, once you realize that your core passion can also widen those doors, and you don't see it as a linear situation, then the pivot becomes more exciting. It doesn't get any easier. But it becomes exciting in the sense of, “Oh, I can get this thing that I love, I can open different doors.” I can understand the music from the perspective of the seat and see what it's like to play a song on TV.
Because now I understand how music works in cinema. I understand that music works with intelligence. “Oh, I can play this artist's song in the stadium, like Lil Nas X, and see how people react. And watch this song become an opportunity for Texas Tech before they get ready to play the game because it gets them going. I can see who edited music for fashion shows when I was in New York. So it still comes from the music. But music has opened doors for me to go into all these different spaces because I recognize that music is universal for a reason.
It's Black Music Month and I couldn't end this interview without asking you about your favorite artists we should be checking out if we aren't already – like what would be on your curated playlist?
It's such a unique thing because I think about it – like, I love Andra Day because I think she has a richness. I worked with Amy Winehouse and I think the ability to combine jazz and R&B and all those conversations is great. But I also love Tommy Richmond's new song “Million Dollar Baby” because I love what the HBCUs and the Divine Nine step teams have done with that song and how you can take a song and make it move and also make a self-esteem booster At the same time. So there are different artists that I believe in for different reasons, different moods that I really like. I have to think about it.
I think people don't know this artist called Q live on Columbia Records who is R&B. I think Durant [Bernarr], you may know him as a backup singer like me, but his voice is simply rich. It's absolutely amazing. I'm really proud of the R&B space, like Muni Long – even though the song went viral on TikTok, I love her ability to be bold and say what's on people's minds, so I think I'm excited with music right now, where I think a few years ago, I was frustrated because I think we're looking for our next superstars.
But, you know, I'm also an old school girl. I will never want to listen to Marvin Gaye and Prince. They inspire me all the time. These are staples in my playlist as well as Stevie Wonder. It's just a place to take me. I love Mariah Carey, you know, I'll never love her. So I think it's this constant lens of past, present and future, which I think is ironic because of our campaign called “Forever The Influence.” And if you think of people like Uncle Charlie [Wilson], which will appear on a Don Tolliver record, which I also love. So I think it's always going to be a mix of past, present and future, and I'm excited for the future, but these are the artists that have stuck with me.