'Iggy Azalea Has Opened Up A Path To America'

The ascent of Adelaide’s Tkay Maidza has been spectacular even in the digital age. It was only 12 months ago when the self-proclaimed “brat rapper” dropped her stompin’ neo-paleo dance break-out, Brontosaurus. This year she’s performed at Splendour In The Grass and Listen Out and hit New York’s CMJ Music Marathon. Recently Maidza unleashed an EP, Switch Tape, home to the tropical garage Switch Lanes. Over summer she’ll bring her zany rap-rave to Falls and Southbound. Come 2015, Maidza should blow up globally.

We first spot the diminutive Maidza, who turns 19 on 17 December, en route to her cover shoot [for The Music]. Wearing all black, she’s wandering alone along a quiet inner-suburban Melbourne street, dragging a suitcase bigger than her. Even the precocious Maidza is astounded at how much she’s achieved in a year. “I think signing to Dew Process was like, ‘Oh, cool, I’m actually on a label and people are excited about the whole project’ – that was the first fun thing that we did. Then our second fun thing was Splendour, which was straight after. It was just like, ‘This is amazing’. The turn-out was really cool, ‘cause we played really early – we were pretty much first on, on the first day – and it was a packed tent.” Maidza felt so nervous at Splendour that she was in tears, but the audience’s response proved validating and she enjoyed the remainder of the fest – and her inaugural ‘glamping’ experience. “We were in a Winnebago kinda thing; it was good. I slept on a bed the whole weekend. Everyone else had to sleep outside. My DJ [Elk] slept in a tent, poor dear [laughs].”

The rapper talks fast. She frequently uses the words “cool”, “fun” and “weird”, which, in many respects, sum up her vibe. Maidza is smart. She was studying architecture at the University of South Australia prior to committing to music full-time. Born in Zimbabwe, at five years old Maidza migrated to Australia with her family. They were initially based in Western Australia. Under President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe has suffered appalling human rights abuses, and epic economic woes, but the Maidzas weren’t necessarily political refugees. Maidza’s father, a miner, “came here for work, a new environment; [it was] just to move for the sake of moving.” In Zimbabwe, he moonlighted as a muso – and it’s still “a hobby”. “He’s always been in bands and he used to tour with his friends when I was really young. He did it on weekends and we’d go to his shows.” Out here, Dad accumulated impressive studio gear. “I just used it whenever I could,” Maidza says cheekily.

"Everyone always listens to Drake. You can’t even hate him."

Maidza listened to pop before gravitating to hip hop. The high schooler uploaded her own covers – or remixes – of songs by the likes of Nicki Minaj to YouTube, “just for fun”. However, it was another femcee who inspired her to take rhyming seriously. “A school teacher showed me Azealia Banks. He’s like, ‘I’m not saying you should swear, but this is cool’. I’m like, ‘Okay, sick’.” Maidza soon delved into underground hip hop. “I was like: there’s actually more to what you have to listen to when it’s on the radio all the time.” She participated in Adelaide’s Northern Sound System artist development program and, through that, hooked up with BadCop. The local producer switched Maidza onto electronic music, remixing an old track of hers into the “dubstep” banger Handle My Ego. Maidza issued BadCop’s playful Brontosaurus via the Dew Process-affiliated Create/Control. Today the post-MIA single is Maidza’s signature – on Facebook she cites her “interests” as “Dinosaurs & Raving”. “It was weird when we wrote it. I was like, ‘Okay, we have a song called Brontosaurus – this is kinda weird’. Then I was like, they’re actually cute.”

Last summer Maidza joined the Nina Las Vegas Presents tour – and she now refers to the host of triple j’s Mix Up Exclusives as her “big sister”. Both the tastemaker DJ and Maidza’s manager encouraged her to pursue ‘electronic’ collabs. She’s since featured on countless tracks – among them Imprint from OWSLA’s MUST DIE!. Maidza has cut records, too, with the Diplo-endorsed Melbourne duo Swick & Lewis CanCut – the equatorial techno Wishes surfaced on a Secret Songs SoundCloud compilation curated by Canadian hipster DJ/producer Ryan Hemsworth. “I met Swick & Lewis on SoundCloud,” Maidza reveals. “They just found me. They’re like, ‘Hey, let’s do some songs’. I was like, ‘Wow, this is so cool’. They make cool stuff, and it’s fun. You can tell that they’re just doing whatever they want. It’s constant experimenting with them.” And Maidza has started singing, as heard on Switch Lanes – which the Gold Coast’s Paces helmed. “Writing melodies can be easier than writing raps, ‘cause obviously writing raps involves more writing – it’s four times the amount of words. So, yeah, sometimes I like singing just because I’m lazy sometimes.” Nevertheless, she’s primarily an MC. In fact, Maidza has tagged her style “bratty rap”, jokily realising that she was “always complaining about something” in her songs.

Maidza, who’s “constantly writing”, assembled her debut EP, Switch Tape, in tandem with a collab-heavy mixtape. She reached out to friends – including Adelaide’s rising house DJ Motez – for the mixtape’s “conjoining tracks”. Maidza was also determined to put her own spin on SBTRKT’s “beautiful” Everybody Knows after an A&R sent it to her. She selected her “strongest” and “favourite” numbers for the actual EP: Switch Lanes, the Rye Rye-ish U-Huh with Elk, and grime-trap Finish Them – the last prestigiously produced by Night Slugs’ Bok Bok (Maidza coveted the Londoner’s work with US illwave singer Kelela). “The EP was just polished songs where I’d spent a lot of time [on them] – I was like, this is exactly what I wanna make.” Mind, on Switch Lanes, Maidza indicates that she’s beginning to outgrow the “bratty rap” descriptor. “Lately I’ve been getting onto my more emotional side and trying to smooth things out and whatever.” She’s already plotting an album. “I’m just experimenting with new sounds. I’m trying, like, kind of Broods, kinda Lorde-y stuff. I want a couple of songs like that, which I think will be cool, and then a lot of random Tkay ‘brat rap’ stuff as well. So it’s exciting. I’m still trying to figure out what it’s gonna be. I’m reinventing myself right now – trying to find new stuff to do.” Currently Maidza is vibing to R&B starlet Tinashe, who, she was thrilled to discover, is half-Zimbabwean. Plus she digs AlunaGeorge and A$AP Ferg. “Who else? Drake. Always Drake! Everyone always listens to Drake. You can’t even hate him. He’s amazing.”

Maidza is loyal to Adelaide. She would contemplate relocating – but not to, say, Melbourne. “If I moved, I would like to move overseas – I’d love to stay in London or Spain or NY… If it’s in Australia, I don’t really see the point in moving, ‘cause I can just stay with my parents!” Indeed, Maidza is generating buzz abroad. She attributes this in part to Iggy Azalea – of whom, incidentally, she’s a fan. “I feel like Iggy’s similar to me,” she says, citing her background in EDM (and trap). “I think Iggy’s great!” While hip hop heads endlessly critique Iggy’s authenticity, her chart success has introduced the idea of Australian hip hop, and Australian femcees, to international bloggers and the industry. “She has helped a lot,” Maidza insists. “[Her breakthrough] definitely opened up a path for people to blow up in America – [and for] Australians to be noticed.”