Coming from a family of six brothers and three sisters, 26 year old Aliyah "TruTh" Thomas did not have a "boring" or "normal" childhood. Her parents immigrated to Canada from Trinidad, and converted to Islam in 1965. Her large family and Islamic upbringing have had alot of influence on her spokenword poetry . However, although raised in Islam, she still finds herself struggling with the "dunya" (worldy pleasures)...and it shows throughout her poetry. Pieces like "Don't Believe the Hype" clear up alot of misconceptions about Islam, while "Schizophrenic" shows a side of her you won't get the chance to meet...unless of course you get on her bad side. Writing since she was a child, and performing since June of 2004 - Aliyah tackles topics such as drug addiction, racism, political corruption, child soldiers, black pride, redemption, poverty, death, life and love. She's blessed mics in Montreal and Ottawa, will appear on the upcoming mixtape compilation, HOOD2VILLE (now released/see flyer on the left) and 514/411 Volume: 3...a dvd showcasing some of Montreal's up&coming talent. Aliyah is currently working on writing and recording for the first cd compilation of her own work entitled, " BulletProofSoul " - a name taken from a song by one of her favourite artists, Sade. She is a member of Parlay4Sho/OnDaGrind poetry collective - run by her older sister, Tymelust, and her partner, Luvlee. She also supports ZU - her older brother who writes/performs spokenword poetry as well, and Unknown Battallion - an up&coming independent record label run by her 2 younger brothers and their friend. Guess it runs in the family . An excerpt of her thoughts... "...tell me why is it that in 2006 the color of my skin still puts me in second, third, fourth, and fifth positions/ they took down The Black Panthers but KKK is still existing/ Islam is portrayed as a terrorist religion/ and native indians are still fighting for the lands of their ancestors/ I'm so disgusted that Lindsay Lohan get's more media coverage than civilians gettin they hands chopped off in Sudan!/ then we got orphaned children or children abducted from their homes/ pumped full of drugs then dropped off in war zones/ to become child soldiers by the age of 6 and 7?! murder mentality holders before they reach 11?!/ they've been robbed of their innocence weight of the world on their shoulders/ a perfect example of what Prodigy meant when he said as he gets older his warm heart turns colder/ only these children are still young/ instead of going to school they're being taught to launch grenades and load guns/ and we dare to complain about the life that we're living?! like we're the victims of a corrupt system?!"Available for Bookings: Send requests to blackqueen_53@hotmail.com.