Features

Your music style has a lot of reggae and dancehall influences, which might be a bit different to a lot of Australian hip-hop. Do you find that Australian audiences are embracing your sound? 

So far, so good! There have been a few people who don’t quite know how to take it. Then there’s the odd, “She’s Aussie, why can’t she spit it in an Aussie style”. But I’m also mixed race, and a lot of Australians are mixed from way back, anyway. But people do seem to dig the sound of the music, especially in live shows. There’s this hype, and different vibe to dance to. Overall I think people are becoming more familiar with it and liking it.

You were one of the very few females on the bill who performed recently at the Obese Block Party. What’s it like to be a lady in the very male-dominated world of Australian hip-hop?

It’s really good, because you stand out – that’s for sure! You get a lot of opportunities to prove yourself in a really confident way. There are the stereotypes that come with being a girl, but if you’re good people think, “Oh, there’s a chick who’s really doin’ it”. When I stood out there on the stage, I felt like I was representing for the ladies. I like to prove myself and make it good. If you’re confident with what you do, people take notice.

Do you use the fact that you’re a female to give you that extra push?

Definitely. I think that is what has pushed me so far.

You have Ghanaian heritage, what styles of music were you exposed to growing up?  

I was born and pretty much raised in Australia. I have been back to Ghana though. Overall, reggae has been a huge part of my life. My dad was a reggae musician for a long time and my mum was his manager. Then there’s the hip-hop that I really got into when I was 12 or 13, through the 90s. Then I started getting into drum and bass. So, there have been many different styles. But reggae has been the base of it all.

Tracks off the LP have been featured on mainstream radio stations such as Triple J - which can be difficult for Australian musicians. Do you think the Australian hip-hop scene is moving away from the Ocker style of the last few years?

I don’t think the scene is necessarily moving away from it, as much as embracing new, more worldly, sounds. So that it’s not so strictly one thing or the other. A lot of Australian hip-hop still has the Ocker accent in there, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of that (laughs). These days, maybe it’s not so strictly about it, and ready to embrace the other sounds. Like getting Damajah in with the Thundamentals. People are getting used to it.

How is the music you make with Chasm, who is a beat-maker, different from the music you’ve made in the past with Natty Sistren and Mista Savona?

With Natty Sistren, I was just doing MC stuff and she was DJing. We made a mixtape, but there was never the intention to go for the album style. It was more about the live performance. Mista Savona was a big band, which was also geared towards live performance. I did do a few tracks with him [on the LP], but not as much as working on a whole album, like with Chasm.

We didn’t focus so much on the reggae music. I just said to Chasm, ‘give me the beats, and whatever I’m feeling on that beat, whether it’s hip-hop, reggae, soul, let’s see what we can put together.’ And out of that came Move. So there are definitely differences.

What was the process of putting together Move? How long ago did you get started on it?

This album happened so quickly! The beginning of the year, Chasm asked me if I wanted to get on this album. He had one last album signed to Obese Records, and he asked me if I wanted to jump on as the feature vocalist. I said yes, and told him to send me through some beats. That was around February, or so. From February until June, he’d send me beats and I’d write to them. At the end of June we got into the studio and recorded it all. And it was ready to come out by October.

Your LP is released through Obese Records’ new arm, Plethora Records. How does Plethora differ from Obese?

My take on it would be that Obese Records is established in that Aussie hip-hop sound and Plethora is more about inviting different sounds into this new label. That’s why I think Plethora works a bit better for us. It gives us room to be ourselves, rather than this completely different sound within an established record company.

Your first single off the album is, Where Did We Go Wrong? Tell us a bit about this track and why you chose it to be the first single.

This track is about my man - and things are going good (laughs). We all go through periods, in long-term relationships, when there’s a communication breakdown. So, I thought I’d write a song about it. When we put it to Chasm’s beat, it just took on this whole new feel. Obese really liked it and wanted it for the first single. It’s one of the tracks that I can really listen to over and over again anyway. So, if I don’t get sick of it, and I’ve written it recorded it and practiced it, then I figured that the rest of Australia would like it too - hopefully. 

The new album with Chasm titled, Move, is out now through Obese Records and their new label Plethora, for more on Vida and Chasm also check out myspace.com/chasmvidasunshyne

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