episode 26: natavia crandall

July 6, 2020

When most people meet me, I usually tell them that I am from the Bronx, but I am originally from Brooklyn. My family and I moved to the Bronx when I was seven years old, so I guess you can say that I am Brooklyn made and Bronx raised. There are two things that I will always defend and that is my family and my love for New York City because they introduced me to good music. Music has always been an integral part of my life. You can name any song and my brain will automatically associate a memory with it. In fact, many of my fondest memories are linked to a song.

I grew up listening to every genre of music from the Bachata that my Dominican next door neighbors played, to Soca that I heard at family social gatherings, to Afro Beats that I was introduced to by my Nigerian friends in college, to EDM that I danced to at college frat parties. However, my earliest memory of music started with Michael Jackson. In fact, my first CD was Michael Jackson’s 1982 “Thriller” album. I loved (and still do love) Michael Jackson. There is an old family video in my house that my mom recorded during my younger sister’s birthday when I was five years old. There is a segment of the video where I am annoying my mom to play Michael Jackson. My mom finally turns on the radio and “Billie Jean” starts blaring out of the speakers and I immediately start dancing and imitating Michael Jackson’s dance moves. I think that was the moment when my mom realized that I had some rhythm and put me in ballet and tap dancing.

Both my parents grew up in Brooklyn and they were teenagers in the 90s during the Hip Hop/Rap era. I remember summer car rides with my dad cruising through the streets of Flatbush, Brooklyn blasting artists like the Notorious BIG, Nas, and LL Cool J. I used to dread waking up on Sunday mornings to the sound of my mom attempting to sing along to R&B artists like Brandy, TLC, and Boyz II Men. Sundays were clean up days in my household and that meant listening to 90s and early 2000s R&B hits all day while I did my chores. As a child, I did not appreciate those songs, but now that I am an adult, I have an appreciation and those same songs have somehow snuck into my Spotify playlists.

I did enjoy the moments that I had with my parents while listening to their favorite songs. It was during my mom’s nostalgic moment to the song “Warm It Up, Kane” by Big Daddy Kane that she told me the story of how she and my dad met. Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” is the reason why my sister and I took up disc jockeying and would “battle” each other on the turn tables in the house. My parents introduced me to Hip Hop and it is through Hip Hop that I learned about the history of that era. Most people have a negative stereotype of Hip Hop as violent and belligerent. However, if you listen to the message within Hip Hop music, it speaks about racial oppression, systemic racism and socio-economic inequality. It is a form of art that was used by marginalized Blacks to vocalize their experiences. These people took their oppression and created music that also lead to the development of fashion, a new language called “slang”, graffiti art, dance and a new way of thinking.

My paternal grandparents introduced me to Motown music and artists like the Supremes, the Temptations, and Marvin Gaye. My grandmother would tell my younger sister and me stories about the disco era, and my grandfather always brags about how big his afro was back when he had hair. My paternal grandfather is from North Carolina and he grew up during the Jim Crow era in the South. My grandfather went to an all-black school and remembers “colored only” and “whites only” signs in public facilities. I learned about racism and the Civil Rights Movement from my grandparents and how difficult things were for them back then. Despite the oppression that they faced, they also taught me about the progress that Blacks made during that time and they always ended our history talks with James Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud”.

My paternal grandfather introduced me to jazz and Myles Davis and Louis Armstrong. There was a time when I was obsessed with jazz that I did my fifth-grade history project on the Harlem Renaissance just so I could learn more about its origin and the history behind it. I spent weeks researching and learning about the Cotton Club in Harlem and its symbolism of hope and prosperity to the African American community during the 1920s. My great grandmother loved the Blues and Gospel. It was through my great-grandmother that I discovered artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Mahalia Jackson. Gospel and the Blues helped many oppressed African Americans soothe their souls by looking for their “slice of the American pie” in the sky instead on Earth.

My maternal grandparents are from Haiti and they immigrated to the United States in pursuit of better opportunity. My maternal grandparents faced many adversities migrating to a new country and assimilating to a new culture. Despite having to adapt to their new surroundings, my maternal grandparents made sure to instill the Haitian culture into my mother and her siblings. Kompa is a Haitian genre of music that is a creole blend of African and Caribbean jazz music. Kompa glorifies the Haitian people’s freedom from the oppressive French regime during the Haitian Revolution in 1789. Listening to Kompa as a child is how I picked up on some Haitian creole phrases and learned about the cultural dance. It was my maternal grandmother who taught me about the Haitian Revolution and Haiti’s rich history as being the first Black republic.

Music is a universal language that all people can relate to and recognize. It amazes me how music can bring people together. I met my best friend, who is German, at summer camp. We became friends because we both loved Chris Brown. Although we don’t get to see each other as often because of the long distance, we facetime each other all the time and can spend hours talking about music. I believe that music is a culture and I have been able to use music as a way to learn more about different cultures. I also use music as a way to connect with people from different walks of life. I had my first piano lesson when I was nine years old and I continued to play piano until my freshman year of college. At the time, I did not appreciate spending many hours locked away in my room practicing pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederic Chopin. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I appreciated my exposure to classical music. Music has provided me with many opportunities. I landed my dream internship in college because of music. I spent most of my interview for that internship discussing classical music and piano with the interviewer. We were able to connect through our experiences as pianist.

After graduating from medical school, I hope to work with underserved, minority populations. I believe that music is medicine, and I hope to use music and my experiences to help bridge the gap between minority populations and healthcare. There is a quote by Dr. Debasish Mridha, an American physician, philosopher and author, that states “music can heal the wounds which medicine cannot touch”. I believe that there is a connection between the mind, body, and soul, and music is the one thing that has the ability to influence them all.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify? 
Jay Park, Ella Mai, Pop Smoke, Machel Montano, and Maroon 5

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
I would like the ability to pause time. Sometimes I will be studying, and I feel tired, but I do not have enough time to nap. I wish I could pause time, take the nap, and then start time again to finish studying.

Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
Shout out to the amazing students who I worked with making the Class of 2023 parody video

If someone wants to talk to you, they should lead with:
The places they would like to/ or are planning on traveling to. We may have similar places in common and can travel together.