Stephen Ezihe’s production captures the plight of black people, from college students to professionals, in the fight for equal employment and advancement.
The song was recorded by Thor Hagedorn and mixed and mastered by Jefferson Henrique Pereira de Arajo.
“Life is hard is a summation of the identity problem of a black lady reared in a white German household and the comprehension of her heritage,” the singer explained in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES about the song.
The singer-songwriter is one of Africa’s emerging stars, despite being born in Germany. She claimed that she had Ghanaian ancestry and had travelled back to the country to spread her musical talents.
Phylis, who had her birthplace in Bremen, Germany, was taken in by a foster German family when she was a year old. She had her first experience with music at age six and began formal vocal instruction at age seven.
Phylis, on the other hand, thinks her mother’s choral singing has been a part of her life since she was a baby.
The young musician is a prodigy in many musical genres, playing everything from drums and keyboards to xylophone and flute.
She also has degrees in music and media management as well as American law.
For this newspaper, Phylis opened up about her background, her songs, and her appeal to emerging genres of music.
The effort is rewarded when it is put forth.
Phylis, who suffered from mental illness as a teen, has said that the topics in her new music are meant to encourage introspection and perseverance.
A lot of the songs I’ve written so far centre around the theme of having to put in a lot of effort to achieve success.
She specifically used her first single, “Bye Bye,” to emphasize the topic of her songs.
To paraphrase the old adage, “Fake it till you make it,” my debut song is all about pretending to be the popular child in order to become one. The protagonist is a college senior who is studying hard and doing well in school in the hopes of improving her financial situation.
Phylis, who was also the only black student or student on her street for the majority of her life, reflected on the challenges she had faced as a result of having to fight prejudice.
It’s not easy to achieve success while pretending to be popular, because many individuals are closed-minded and judge others based on appearance alone.
She went on to say that this made it more challenging for individuals of colour to succeed in a predominantly white culture.
In her second single, she encourages listeners to keep going despite their circumstances.
Phylis, who has spent much of her life living and working outside of Nigeria, maintains that her music is universally appealing, despite her initial focus on the Nigerian market.
I believe that my music has the capacity to connect with listeners all across the world, not only in Ghana. She emphasized the importance of melodic and harmonic flow.
Although most of her songs are sung in English, she has shown that even as a youngster, she enjoyed listening to music sung in languages she did not understand.
The primary sections are written in English to maximize accessibility. Even as a young child, I could feel the groove and vibes of music even if I did not understand the words. “My music will have an emotional impact on the listeners even if they don’t comprehend every word.”
Inspirational Role
In response to the meteoric rise of Afrobeats, Phylis, a graduate of Media and music management, says the genre has had a major influence on her for the past nine years.
As she put it, “I went from being a hip-hop dancer to taking Afrobeats dance classes in 2015. When I was seven years old, I discovered a love for singing, and Afrobeats has since become a major impact on my musical direction. Because of my African heritage, writing songs about my upbringing in a foster home brings back a lot of happy memories.
To my knowledge, neither my music nor my messages have been influenced by anyone.
She said that she hopes to help others going through similar circumstances by singing about them when the time is right.
“I think there would also be chances to incorporate some of my experiences into my songs and encourage people not to feel alone not only in a hypothetical identity crisis but also in other parts of growing up in a foster family,” she said.
