During the annual Black Lives Matter Week assembly at Garfield High School on February 14, students witnessed eight-year-old Zaina Brooks, better known as Zaina the Phenom, performing her songs Children Are the Future, DO IT BIG (yea yea yea), Watch Your Mouth, and more. Her performance left Garfield students stunned with inspiration.
Brooks’s career started when she was four years old. Her dad, Lewis Brooks-who is also Brooks’s manager and agent- inspired her to start making music and has a key role in the production. When creating tracks, the process goes like this: her dad helps write the lyrics to her songs while Funk Daddy, a local DJ and producer, makes the beats. “I recite [the lyrics] in the microphone at the studio, and then we ask our camera guy, ‘Can you record the video, do all the details?’” recites Brooks. A couple days later, they release the recording to the internet for everyone to be able to watch and listen to. “I love to record it, it’s my favorite part.” Brooks said when asked what she likes about producing music.
Beyond music, she attends private school in Burien, Washington. When asked upon her peers’ reactions to Brooks being a musician, she replied, “They say, ‘You’re famous, you’re a rapper! Oh my gosh, I love your music!’… They’re shocked that I’m a rapper.” Outside of elementary and music, she is part of the Auburn Dance Academy and is pursuing an acting career. This summer, she will be in a comedy show, THE ROGERS, playing the character, Tiffany. “This means a lot to me; this is my first time being a real actress on TV,” she exclaimed. THE ROGERS will be streaming on Netflix and Tubi when released. In addition, Brooks’s book called Zaina the Mermaid is being published this coming August.
Brooks expressed how she is comfortable on stage but “any time I am a little bit nervous, I go like [proceeds to take a deep breath], and I just shake it off. Then… I go on stage and I do my thing.” For anyone interested in starting a profession with music, Brooks’s advice is to “just go for it, just do it! Okay come on, let’s do the show!”
Photo by Lewis Brooks
