Abiyah

Detail: Abiyah, like the art she espouses, is an anomaly. She is a white woman wrapped in African-inspired clothing and bold jewelry with towering, Erykah Badu-esque head wraps, spitting verses over rubbery bass lines and thumping keyboards. That's Abiyah. That's Floetry.

"It's just the term," she says of this hybrid of poetry set to music. "Storytelling and poetry to music has been going on for centuries. Since poetry is so hot right now, we have to unite under a common banner. We needed a term so we can say, 'This is the genre.' Basically, it's just fusing your poetry to music," she continues. "Floetry as a term was first used by Rha Goddess in 1997."

But don't be mistaken. Floetry as a concept, an art form and a means of expression is as new as Gil-Scott Heron, The Last Poets, The Watts Prophets or any tripped-out coffeehouse musings ranted over bongos in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as most poetic output up to and including Carl Hancock Rux, Saul Williams, jessica Care moore, Sarah Jones and IsWhat?!

And Abiyah's adding her two cents. Her own style is part hypnosis, part fire hose blast of sound. Her "Too Much Noise" is a radio-ready wall of noise that could easily be mistaken for a Missy Elliot joint, while "Free Wild Muse" has the dirty-little-secret feel of a Sarah Jones track.