In
the past few years, singer/rapper Tkay Maidza has risen out of the
underground to emerge as one of Australia’s most electrifying artists.
With her rapid-fire flow, frenetic beats, and fiercely inventive lyrics,
the Zimbabwe-born 20-year-old is now set to shake up audiences
worldwide with her unstoppably magnetic debut album TKAY.
The follow-up to Switch Tape—an EP praised by Spin as a “bumper-car ride through hip-hop, pop and dance” and “one of the most freewheeling and exciting debuts of the year”—TKAY bursts
with the same unbridled energy that’s powered Maidza’s showstopping
performances at major festivals like Splendour in the Grass, Pukkelpop,
and Way Out West. Thrillingly infectious, that undeniable vitality also
recently prompted Killer Mike to crown her Australia’s “biggest rising
star” while marveling that Maidza “can dance her ass off—and she's
actually saying stuff when she raps!”
Maidza brings that dance-ready yet reflective dynamic to each track on TKAY,
an album that endlessly warps genres and shows her intense affinity for
UK garage, grime, throwback hip-hop, and trap. Joining forces with
producers like Salva (Young Thug, A$AP Ferg) and Dre Skull (Major Lazer,
Snoop Dogg), Maidza continually pushes to the edge of chaos but keeps
grounded in her pop-perfect melodies and masterfully heavy grooves. And
in her lyrics, Maidza strikes a rare balance of boldness and
vulnerability that gives TKAY a potent emotional charge.
“The
idea behind the album is that it’s like a soundtrack to a high school
girl’s life,” explains Maidza, who jumped two years at school and
graduated when she was only 16. “It’s about feeling lost but then
finding your way out. There are moments of confidence and moments of
feeling lonely, but at the same time knowing that you don’t need anyone
or anything to be strong.”
Proving her command and complexity as a vocalist and lyricist, TKAY channels
a sense of defiance that transcends both age and time. On lead single
“Carry On,” for instance, Maidza fires off on the haters and lets loose a
whiplash delivery that deftly sets the stage for a head-turning guest
verse from Killer Mike. TKAY maintains that untouchable swagger
for tracks like the hypnotically urgent “Tennies” and gloriously
stomping “Supasonic,” while songs like “Simulation” find Maidza infusing
melody-driven dance-pop with a sweetly tender soulfulness. And on
“Drumsticks No Guns,” she lays down a straight-from-the-heart rallying cry that’s equal parts playful and powerful.
Even
in the sing-song melancholy of “Afterglow” and dreamy reverie of “House
of Cards,” Maidza shows a brashness of spirit that’s got much to do
with the sharpness of her songcraft. “Usually when I’m writing, it’s me
analyzing things like losing friends and growing up and all the bad
things that can happen if you trust the wrong person,” she says. “But
then I translate all that in a sarcastic way, so it ends up coming off
as a really happy song.”
With its ever-shifting kaleidoscope of jagged beats and spacey synth, hooky melodies and furious rhythms, TKAY reveals
a depth of musicality that Maidza’s cultivated since she was a kid. Now
based in Adelaide, Maidza was born into a family of miners and moved
from Zimbabwe to Perth at the age of five. “My dad’s always been in
bands—mostly African folk music, or traditional Zimbabwean music—and my
family would always go watch him play,” says Maidza, whose early
memories also include riding around with Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below on
full blast in her parents’ car. Though she mainly works electronically,
her first experiences in music involved her dad teaching her to play
guitar, in addition to some childhood training in piano.
At
15 she started experimenting with creating music on her own, with the
help of her family’s recording gear. “I was mostly playing around with
existing songs,” notes Maidza, whose first completed effort was a
reworked version of Kanye West’s “Power.” By age 17 she’d teamed up with
local producer Badcop for a pair of tracks: “Handle My Ego” and
“Brontosaurus,” both of which quickly made their way into rotation on
national Australian radio station Triple J. Next came 2014’s Switch Tape
EP, which announced Maidza as an artist of dizzying originality and
showcased her supreme vocal skills. In a review of featured track
“Switch Lanes,” Pitchfork highlighted her “slick, party-ready rapping”
just before predicting that “she’s got a glowing future.” “That’s the
first song I wrote where everything was exactly what I wanted it to be,”
says Maidza of “Switch Lanes,” whose beautifully goofy animated video
has her riding a dolphin and falling through space amid dancing pizza
slices. “I love how it’s cute but the lyrics are kind of mean, really
honest and straightforward.”
Nominated
for Best International Act at the 2016 BET Awards, Maidza recently lent
her vocals to Martin Solveig’s chart-climbing mid-2016 single “Do It
Right.” With her past live experience including support slots with
Charli XCX, Mark Ronson, and Years & Years, she’s also just torn
through a string of summer dates that have brought her blissed-out live
show to bigger and bigger crowds. “The whole vibe is to throw a party
onstage,” says Maidza of her live performance. “I always want it to feel
like a bunch of friends hanging out rather than people coming to watch
me. It’s so cool to see people getting really involved, everyone brought
together by the music.”
That deep desire for unity also closely shaped the making of Tkay,
according to Maidza. “I love creating something that’s like a timestamp
of however I was feeling at the particular moment of writing a song,”
she says. “And then I get to share it, and people can relate to that
feeling, and it makes them feel less alone. That’s my favorite thing
about making music—that it’s not about the artist, it’s about everyone.”
Album available here: www.tkaymaidza.lnk.to/tkay