The worst factor you may ever name HAWA is boring. The 22-year-old rapper lately launched her debut LP, HADJA BANGOURA, and it is the end result of a sound she has labored arduous to domesticate and make distinctive. The shortest observe, “7 Lethal Sins: Lust,” is a dreamy 21-second association that leans on her love of vocal stacking, whereas the longest, “Commerce,” is the one track to cohere to the three-minute rule — a track size dictum that HAWA brazenly finds boring and value rejecting. The 11-track LP options extra mature variations of sonic components HAWA has been experimenting with since she began making music: hypnotic entice snares, sing-rap delivered with laid-back braggadocio and tales of romantic dalliances with ladies who’ve damaged or stirred her coronary heart, along with newer orchestral prospers.
Learn extra: See Rosalía take over New York’s Radio Metropolis Music Corridor on her Motomami world tour
Becoming, as HAWA started her profession by becoming a member of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as a preteen and turning into its youngest-ever composer. Transferring on from that classical background has allowed her to mature into the artist she needs to be: one who can merge musical influences like Aaliyah and Missy Elliott with the melodies she grew up listening to as a baby in Guinea, West Africa, who places a premium on brevity, and has discovered bottle chaos into sonic lushness.
You began off as a composer with the New York Philharmonic. How did you transition or get into songwriting?
I have been into songwriting my entire life. As soon as I hit 15, 16, I knew that composing in a classical sense wasn’t what I wished to do my entire life and that I wished to really sing and tour and be a professionally recorded artist, as a result of that is all I grew up seeing. After I left composing, I took day off to search out my very own sound, and I used to be simply making my very own music for slightly bit, after which at 17 I bought signed.
Are you a melody-first particular person or lyrics?
Melody first. Melody, for my part, is crucial facet as a result of music is a type of communication. There’s instances the place I sing in English and even in my very own language — I am from Guinea, West Africa, and I am from a Susu tribe and I communicate Susu — and folks do not perceive what I am saying, however they perceive the melody and the concord. That is actually what catches a listener’s ear. That is why you’ll be able to talk round the entire world, and that is why it doesn’t matter what style or what nation the music is from, it is melody and concord that basically catches individuals’s consideration.
HADJA BANGOURA is named after your great-grandmother. How did she and your time in Conakry encourage it?
My great-grandmother was a giant facet of my life rising up in Africa, and I assumed I ought to dedicate this to her as a result of she died once I turned 21, so she by no means truly bought to see the girl that I turned out to be, and he or she by no means actually bought to take heed to my music. It was solely proper that I dedicate this, the primary massive step in my profession, to her.
You have been born in Berlin, however you grew up in Conakry. What sort of sounds did you hear there that impressed you? There are loads of totally different influences in your music.
Coupé-décalé is a style in African music that was beginning to get in style once I was rising up, and my uncle — he is a giant musician in Africa and in France — was a kind of individuals that basically put in it into my nation, so I used to be very impressed by that entire coupé-décalé motion. The premise of it is vitally easy. It is a 4 by 4, however the best way that they use melodies could be very addictive. Coupé-décalé is a French phrase as a result of in West Africa, there’s loads of French and British influences as a result of these are former colonies for them. It’s a type of home music blended with slightly little bit of pop after which slightly little bit of African rock. It is our model of hip-hop and R&B. Now, coupé-décalé has reworked into Afrobeats. A variety of the construction of African music that we hear now’s the construction of coupé-décalé. Sorry — I’m a historical past nerd and a music nerd. It was certainly one of my favourite genres rising up, and I derive loads of my beat patterns from coupé-décalé.
One other one could be very outdated African music, just like the music your grandparents can be listening to. I take heed to loads of very old-school African music the place they’re talking the language and it’s extremely conventional, so that basically impressed me as a result of the melody and the harmonies that they use in outdated African music is gorgeous. It’s extremely candy harmonies, they usually use loads of string devices. Studying about African music, you discover out totally different devices that you just by no means knew existed. Being a musician, you suppose you already know all of it with regards to the instrument facet, particularly since I used to compose for the Philharmonic, however with regards to the historical past of African music, it is like I discover new devices day by day.
[Photo by Guarionex Rodriguez Jr.]
Older African music like that can also be extra minimalist, however I really feel like your sound is extra layered and perhaps slightly maximalist. Would you agree with that?
Oh yeah. I really feel like the rationale for that’s as a result of I wish to have enjoyable with the entire dramatic facet of the music, the motion of sound, so it may sound slightly bit climactic in a way. I do not know if that is the fitting phrase for it, however I positively see what you are saying, and I am very pleased you mentioned that as a result of that’s the purpose.
There’s a theme to this undertaking — infidelity. What made you wish to discover that subject?
As a result of that is a really massive a part of my life. I really feel like that is a giant a part of everyone’s life, and I imagine if I will do artwork, if it will be one thing significant, I’d as effectively put my very own coronary heart and my entire persona into it. It’s actually me reflecting on myself and all of the poisonous traits I might need and issues I must develop. The ache that I really feel and I could not discover methods to specific, I made a decision to place it within the album.
Your songs are all on the shorter facet. Is there a purpose for you not liking the normal three-minute size?
I discovered it fucking boring. The normal three minute is annoying. It is mindless. As an artist, I am not a robotic. I am a human being, so I wish to make music the place I do all you have to fulfill, however make you continue to wish to come again. I’d, usually talking, by no means sit down and take heed to a 23-track album of three-minute-long songs. I really feel like these days, we’re all bored of that. We wish individuals to get straight to the fucking level. If I will make artwork, I am clearly going to make it the best way I’d wish to take heed to it, not the best way I believe others are going to take heed to it. I would like individuals to sit down down and hear and really get pleasure from it. I imply I’ll make a three-minute, four-minute observe if it is going effectively and if it really works, however I am not going to power it on the finish of the day. I favor the quick stuff.
How has your sound advanced from while you have been a teen rapper to now? Are there belongings you really feel extra snug or inquisitive about experimenting with at 22?
I hear again, and, I do not know, it sounded so uninteresting in a way. I’ve advanced my sound sonically. I perceive construction music in a method the place it is like, “That is absolutely how I would like it to sound.” If any person requested me to copy it, I can guarantee myself that they would not be capable to do it, which is one thing that I resonate with as a result of I would like my sound to actually simply be me.
I actually perceive the manufacturing facet of music-making now. The primary time that you just come into the studio, you are simply coming as a singer-songwriter, however I am a really hands-on artist, and as I’ve had the time to be within the studio, I’ve discovered the strategies to make issues sound the best way I must, or I’ve discovered make one particular part of a observe stand out whereas being chaotic as fuck.
I really feel like I’ve advanced as a result of I will make structured chaos, and that is one thing that I have been making an attempt to do my entire life. I like chaotic music as a result of I just like the sound that strikes me. I do not wish to take heed to music and really feel like, “Oh, my fucking God, when is that this shit going to really transfer?” I’ve discovered make life and add life to my songs, and that is one thing I am very pleased with myself for.
There aren’t many out queer rappers, in order that’s a novel house to occupy regardless that, traditionally, queerness and rap have all the time been linked. However what do you make of “queer rap” as a label?
I don’t take care of it as a result of, to be fairly sincere, it does not make any distinction. If you concentrate on it, all which means is that I am a rapper who likes to fuck different ladies. Going to a straight rapper and being like, “You’re a straight artist” does not say a lot about their music or themselves as a creator. All it tells you is who they wish to fuck or who they’d wish to marry. So, I do not actually take care of the label. It does not profit me. I discover that that label truly separates individuals and makes genres, and I do not like genres. I don’t know what style I match into as a result of I make loads of totally different music. For those who go take heed to all the pieces that I’ve made, you possibly can’t kind me into one particular style. So, with regards to these labels, I thoughts my very own enterprise and simply make my music. So long as individuals just like the music and it makes them pleased, that is all I care about.
There’s just one characteristic on this LP, Eartheater. How did you join together with her, and are there different artists you wish to collaborate with?
With Eartheater, we’ve recognized one another for a minute. She listened to my EP, and he or she ended up actually liking it, after which I listened to her music and have become a fan of hers. Then I discovered that she had a classical background, in order that made me simply routinely into it. I like individuals who perceive their sound. I like individuals who perceive work within the studio as a result of once I’m within the studio, I do not wish to mess around. I wish to get my work accomplished. And I like people who find themselves very easy-going, and Eartheater is so easy-going, and her voice is so lovely.
In relation to different artists that I’d wish to work with sooner or later, I’d work with anyone so long as the music that we make sounds good. I was that kind of one who did not wish to collab, however after I began doing slightly bit final 12 months, I am very into it now. I wish to make newer sounds, and with a purpose to evolve as an artist, you want to have the ability to work with different individuals’s sound.
