Housed on an island in the middle of the ocean, separated from the rest of the mainland after the Great Tokyo Earthquake, is Japan’s only privately owned prison. It operates as a theme park run by the inmates, who participate in deadly games for the entertainment of the guests.

This is Deadman Wonderland — the anime universe TiaCorine would choose to live in if she had her pick.

Why?

She loves the suspense and the outfits.

That’s not to say Deadman Wonderland is her favorite, though. That would be Japanese manga Inuyasha. Hunter x Hunter is a close second. Attack on Titan at number three. Or maybe Sailor Moon.

Anime has long been a key source of inspiration for the 32-year-old self-described “anime trap” musician, born and raised (and still living) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to a Native American mother of the Shoshone Tribe and a Japanese-African American father. It was Pokémon that was a young Tia’s “first love,” seeing herself in Mew, whom she has a tattoo of on her neck. The shy Mew’s evolution into the powerful, unafraid Mewtwo empowered Tia as a child.

“I’m my own character,” says Tia, who, to this day, consumes anime almost daily. Before anything, it’s a source of comfort. Aligning with a lot of the values and enamored by the action, dialogue, and intellectual themes of the genre, Tia looks to anime as a key point of creative influence. She dons a custom Kirby chain so often it’s become her signature piece.

“I use anime a lot for my hair,” she adds. “I’ll see a hairstyle I like and I’ll pause it, take the picture, and immediately send it to the team like ‘Can we do this?’”

It’s clear she takes a very active role in all of her “highly intentional” artistic choices, committing to curating a cohesive vision each time she creates. Her favorite look lately was a Dorohedoro-inspired makeup look featuring red plus signs over her eyes.

Tia’s metamorphosis is ongoing, her character changing by the day. Today, she’s a giddy, green-haired goddess. A truly transformative warrior who is unafraid to say no to things that feel inauthentic, people who don’t see the vision, and could surely hold her own in Deadman Wonderland. She brings a contagious, charismatic energy to the Hypebeast studio that fills the room almost instantly; electric, but not overwhelming. Just like today’s hair color of choice — a key point of discussion on early creative calls.

It’s her carefully curated looks that inform the personality of every track. “A lot of these characters I embody in my songs just stem from how I’m dressed,” she says, pointing to the Kenny Beats-produced “Ironic” as a perfect example. “I was feeling myself and dressed stupid fly that day,” even choosing to emulate her outfit on the track’s cover art, she remembers. “When I’m dressed a certain way, I fully embody it. That’s why I call them ‘characters,’ because I can fully get into [the fantasy].”

The ad-libs on “Ironic” are another display of Tia’s adoration of anime and her masterful ability to mesh her passion for the animation art into her artistic persona in a way that feels far from forced. The rapper leans into what she calls a more “animated sound” in her added-on vocals, turning up the echo and revving up the reverb. Her first single of the year, “ATE,” which ushered in this current sonic and visual era, leans into Tia’s sensual side — a part of her persona she’s long kept to herself.

But she feels particularly empowered by her new era of music. “All of these years I’ve been going through different things, jumping through different hoops, changing teams,” she laughs, “but all of those things built me into who I am today. I can say no and not feel bad about it.” Through trials, tribulations, and “lots of trauma,” Tia has built a trust in herself stronger than any other transactional bonds. She’ll pass on anything that feels too transactional. “I just follow my gut. It might not go the way I wanted it to, but I’m still gonna get to where I want to go. I believe in myself.” Let’s not forget, Mew is psychic.

Protected by this powerful, playful aura and a hard outer shell, Tia is soft around the edges, a mother before any other persona. Her daughter is now nine years old, and the two do everything together — picnics, reading, and Fortnite included. Having cut all of her own hair off when she was in middle school, Tia encourages her daughter to have fun with her hair and outfits, using her crown and her clothing as canvases for creative expression. Many of the tracks on Tia’s upcoming project are dedicated to her daughter.

“A lot of this album is about her. As a colored woman in this industry, I want to make sure I’m inspiring her and giving her that positive motivation,” she says of her primary lyrical inspiration as of late. “I say things not only for her but for the little girls in the world. I make sure to talk about standing up for yourself and sticking up to the men in this industry.”

I ask Tia how she’s able to maintain this confidence in the face of rejection, and she softens up again. “You really just gotta cry about it, man,” she chuckles. “You just have to feel those emotions as they come in and then let them go. A lot of people think, ‘This is business, so you can’t get mad.’ Yes, the fuck I can. I’m a human being. I have feelings, and I’m going to acknowledge them.”

She also believes firmly in the power of laughing — the reason she’s immune to growing jaded. “Life is funny. You’ve gotta laugh at this shit or it will drag you down and kill you. No one knows what they’re doing. You have to make jokes.” Spending time with her daughter also ensures her youthful energy stays piqued.

While she’s more sure of herself and her sound than ever before, she’s still human, getting in her own way often. A gift from longtime collaborator Kenny Beats serves as a constant reminder to get out of her head every time she makes coffee: a mug that says “Don’t Overthink Shit,” reminiscent of the neon sign that hangs in his infamous “The Cave” studio. Tia first tapped in with Beats via Instagram when he DMed her a few years back and asked her to make music. The rapper happened to be in LA that week and pulled up to the producer’s house, and the two hit it off immediately, connecting over a shared sense of dark humor and the ability to shoot it straight with one another.

“He pushes me to be really good. A lot of times, I’ll record something, and he’ll be like, ‘No, do it again,’” Tia says of the heavily collaborative relationship. “Every time we get together, we make something totally different.”

The same can be said for Tia’s diverse discography; every time she comes back, she’s stepping with a different foot forward. Her rapping career officially kicked off with her first on-streaming single “Cabbage” with OG Spliff at the end of 2017. Sharpening her sound with a few more singles and features, she then dropped off her first project, the eight-track EP 34Corine in September of 2022.

The fully solo release then gave way to 2021’s The Saga of 34Corine and eventually her debut studio album, I Can’t Wait, in September of 2022. In 2024, Tia dropped off her Almost There EP and most notably hopped on Denzel Curry’s “HOT ONE” with A$AP Ferg.

She calls her imminent long-form studio endeavor “a more polished version” of her past projects, “a more final form of all the stuff that I’ve been doing.”

Constantly in evolution, Tia attributes her ability to morph musically to her mixed cultural heritage. “I never really fit in anywhere, and I still feel like that with music,” she says, used to being the black sheep. Growing up, she quickly got used to feeling out of place, finding herself contorting to fit in a certain box before eventually embracing finding the magic in her malleability. “I don’t fit in anywhere, but I fit in everywhere.”

It’s taken a while to arrive at this mentality, though, and it has been far from an easy path, rather one ridden with loss, both personal and professional.

The biggest lesson she’s learned through it all?

“Fire people.”

That doesn’t mean solely professionally, though she has partaken in her fair share of that. “That means friendships. That means relationships. That means business. It means letting people go and saying, ‘No, that’s enough. I’m not about that.’”

Today, she makes sure to always keep the most important things closest to her — literally. Her secret weapon, the key to her Deadman Wonderland survival, just might be a black leather bag equipped with clear pocketing around the exterior.

Each pocket of the bag contains a different sentimental memento, including a mini figurine of herself from the “Freaky T” visual and a photo of her and her daughter. Aptly donning a pair of Timberland Wheats, Tia looks over the New York City skyline, bag in hand, wind flowing through her lime green hair.

Whatever city, state, world, or universe she’s in, it’s her oyster.