Photo courtesy of AmiaBaxVizzuals
Alexis Allon is an emcee, singer, dancer, model, and actress. Traces of her various abilities are embedded in her music. Allon’s music fluently fuses Hip-Hop, Soul, Dance, R&B, Neo-Soul, and Pop. In late 2025 her versatility was exhibited on her sixth solo release titled “Golden Sphinx.”
Golden Sphinx is a 13-track album produced, mixed, and mastered entirely by djkage. The release features appearances by Guilty Simpson, Ellie Sandiego, Dopehead, and Phat Kat.
The Real Hip-Hop talked to Alexis Allon about the meaning behind the title of her album, Golden Sphinx, working with other artists in Detroit, and her upcoming album, Collabs in 7.
TRHH: Why’d you call the album Golden Sphinx?
Alexis Allon: I called the album Golden Sphinx because my daughter who passed in 2022, her name was Ahraelia, but her nickname was Golden Girl, and my son’s nickname is Sphinx. I wanted to dedicate this album to them. My son is going to be two July 1st. He’s like my rainbow baby, so this album was an inspiration just to keep going and pull from those things that give you joy, and those things that give you life. You create life and you create things. Golden Sphinx means “power protection.”
It just means so much to me and I felt like it just all came together. I have a deep respect and love for the ancient artifacts, and Egyptian culture, and where we come from, so I used all of that as inspiration and that’s how I came up with Golden Sphinx as the album. The name, and inspiration, and the whole theme goes with different affirmations and just things to inspire others to believe in themselves and believe in a higher power to get them through anything that they have a challenge with.
TRHH: If you don’t mind me asking, what happened with your daughter?
Alexis Allon: Well, she was a premature baby. My water broke very early, like at I think 16 weeks or something like that. I was hospitalized for a while and I ended up having to have an emergency C-section. She only lived for like seven days when they took her. I was transferred from multiple hospitals — it was a big thing. I did get to spend seven days with her and that’s my angel, so she’s making waves out here. But it definitely was a tragic loss. But God blessed me again, so I have my son and he’s so intelligent. I took him to the studio when I went back in and he was bobbing to the beats and I picked those beats that he was bobbing to and that’s what came about on Golden Sphinx. Every beat on the album was a beat he took interest to in the studio.
TRHH: Throughout Golden Sphinx there is a theme of standing tall and persevering. You mentioned your daughter; what was it that made you persevere? How were you able to?
Alexis Allon: Well, I would say that through prayer and just having moments to myself to find myself again, because when you go through a loss like that you feel like giving up. I’ve always been a driven individual but that did heavily affect me. So, I just got closer to God and just tried to remember the reasons why I create. We’re all blessed to be here and my words can help someone else who’s been through the same situations as I’ve been. I know so many people who have been through the same situations that I have. So, just connecting further with myself, and giving people another side of me, and giving them a closer look at me.
TRHH: Your music blends a lot of different styles; how would you classify the Alexis Allon sound?
Alexis Allon: It’s whatever Alexis Allon feels. I’m inspired by so many different things. I don’t put myself in a box. I can create all types of music. I can write poetry, I also am a professional dancer, so I choreograph and I have degrees in dance and I have a nice resume in dance as well, and it’s still ongoing. I’m inspired by so many different things, so it’s just like whatever I feel at the moment. Whatever the music gives me. Sometimes it’s the music, sometimes I’ll come up with some ideas, but it’s just whatever it speaks to me, that’s what I communicate.
TRHH: One of my favorite songs on the album is “Approaching.” You have a lot of melodic stuff but you got grimy on this one. Why was it important for you to include hardcore joints?
Alexis Allon: Because that’s another side of me. I’m from Highland Park in Detroit, MI – we’re right here. Everything ain’t sweet wherever you are. You see those different things, you experience different things. It’s a different side of me, but sometimes you need to go there. I don’t have to go there, but it’s just like a feeling like I said. When I heard that beat it just spoke to that side of me and I was like, “Yeah, OK! I hear this, and then I heard this. I hear DopeHead from the Bruiser Brigade.” That’s Danny Brown’s legendary crew over there. It was an honor for him to do the song with me.
We’ve been talking for a couple years that we would collaborate, so I thought that this would be the perfect song. When I hear a song, if I want to collab with somebody I’ll hear the artist. I’ll hear their tone, I can foresee the video, I’m seeing everything when I’m listening to it like, “OK, yeah.” Then I’ll just hit them up, dial their number or whatever, or I’ll even reach out to them through social media like, “Hey, what’s up? Let’s do it, it’s time.” I really love my fellow Detroit artists and other artists from other states, even from New York.
Like people that I used to do jam sessions with, because I lived in New York for ten years doing professional dance, and also doing music and things out there. I met a lot of cool people and we were creating like daily. I would go to Brooklyn for a jam session with some artists, or I’ll go to Manhattan to club somewhere there, and my friends playing over there and I’ll hop on the mic. It was just that type of vibe after I just left a five-hour dance rehearsal and maybe taught some dance classes earlier in the day.
It was like that seven days a week and then touring on the weekends. That was another side of my life, so there’s different sides of me. I’ve had some major modeling things happen for me. Different little things are the different pieces of me. I’m just inspired by creating art in different ways, whether it be a new visual, or whether it be some choreography on some people, or whether it be me designing a look or creating some jewelry, I do that. Or styling, or modeling, or whatever — I do it all. I just want to create until I can’t anymore [laughs].
TRHH: You mentioned Detroit and the album features Detroit legends like Phat Kat and Guilty Simpson; how has the rich Detroit music scene shaped you as an artist?
Alexis Allon: Yeah, that’s family. Oh my God, the Detroit music scene is so legendary. We can go back to Motown days — Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, all of the greats. And then we have George Clinton, Electrifying Mojo, J Dilla. We have all of these wonderful people that come from Detroit. This is a legacy thing, so just to be able to create with individuals who were able to be close to these people, and create with them, and just build, it’s an honor for them to even create with me and feel a mutual respect. I love them, they’re family. Phat Kat, Dilla, Ma Dukes — I never met Dilla before, but his mom, I love her. She’s supportive.
Guilty Simpson is touring overseas right now. I think last time I checked he was in Lisbon. He’s on tour with Apollo Brown, so that’s family. Phat Kat was just touring and I hit him up. If I hear him on a beat I hit him up like, “Hey, I know you’re busy, can you know send me a couple bars and let me see if you can get on this?” And he’s like, “Oh, yeah. That’s easy. Real quick.” It’s a family thing, so I appreciate them for that. I like creating with other artists. I’m not a person that just wants to keep it all to myself. If I hear this person on it or if I feel like somebody’s dope from my city I’ll hit them up quick like, “We should work.” And that’s just how we get it done. We all win together. That’s the great thing about my city.
TRHH: You’ve been releasing music for ten years now. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the music business?
Alexis Allon: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to keep creating, and also make sure that you handle your business, and make sure that you surround yourself with the right individuals and create the right circle for yourself. Because it definitely can’t affect you. That’s the one thing that I would say. Just keep your head on a swivel and make sure you got the right mind, a sound mind, and make sure you are your own individual and you are yourself and not influenced by others.
If you have a vision go for that vision and don’t let anyone taint that. That’s the glory of my career is I’ve been able to spearhead what I want to do when I want to do it. I’m thankful to God and appreciative for that and to be able to do that. But it’s a doozy when creating and doing this music thing, it’s a doozy. You experience a lot of things that you may have never experienced before, and people are not as real as they proclaim to be.
You deal with different things — people trying to play you and all type of stuff, but you have to be head strong, you have to be strong in your beliefs, and make sure you handle your business. So, I just try to handle my business [laughs]. Always. I don’t have negative reviews with the business side of things and with professionalism and all of that. I make sure I get the job done. I just love doing it. I love creating, and I love working with different people, traveling, and doing shows, meeting new people, I love it all.
It’s a joy for me. It’s like therapy to be able to create and put these things out into the world, and for people to like it. I’m creating it for myself because I love to create, so for people to like it, and for people to know your songs, and share your things, and watch your videos and say, “I told someone about you,” or for people to walk in and be like, “I saw your album somewhere! I saw it in this record store,” that’s the point! Yes! “Did you get it?” Go get the album from the record store [laughs]. I love it.
TRHH: Who is the album Golden Sphinx album made for?
Alexis Allon: OK, so the Golden Sphinx album is made for anyone. It’s like a breath of fresh air. It’ll take you through all of the emotions, you feel me? You can go from a dancing mood, you can go to a serious mood, you can go to a reflective mood, you can just vibe out. It gives you all of those different emotions on the album and that’s like a side of everyone. Everyone has those different sides, it’s just different levels to those sides of people, right? We’re all here together and we all feel. That’s just what it’s about. It’s for everybody that feels. Hopefully you feel something from Golden Sphinx because I did in creating it.
TRHH: Tell me about the new album.
Alexis Allon: So, I’m dropping a new project in the end of May/beginning of June. It’s called “Collabs in 7.” It’s me collabing with different Detroit artists. I’m going to have Ant Live on there, I’m going to have Goldie Fox on there, I’m going to have Ellie Sandiego on there, Konflict from the Almighty Dreadnaught, Sarah Lee of Hip Hop is on there, Black Lion Society is on there, so every song has different artists on there. It might be two different artists on there, it might just be me and another artist on there. One of the singles is already released and it’s called “Do You Know?” and it’s featuring Mena Mahone and she’s from the Bully Boys clique out here in Detroit, MI. It’s been doing numbers actually, so I can’t wait for the album to come out, because she’s on another song on the album, too.
So, I’m just like creating beautiful things and I’m so inspired by it. Everybody is down like, Let’s go! Let’s get in the studio!” I’m excited for everybody to hear this new project because you think Golden Sphinx is good, and it’s great, but this project is going to be dope, too. I’m just gonna keep creating as long as God allows me to, ‘cause that’s what it’s here for. I don’t want to let it go to waste, right? Why do that? Why do that? Everybody needs the vibes, because it’s so much going on in the world we need some vibes. We need some good stuff out here.
Purchase: Alexis Allon – Golden Sphinx