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Upfront: Nadia Rose

A burning desire for world domination

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Nadia Rose cannot be boxed. For starters, she rocks a typically “cute” pigtail bun hairstyle, yet comes out with the hardest bars in the UK scene. She’s quick-witted in her lyricism, and her flow takes you on a journey at varying speeds. She’s not joking when she talks about world domination and throughout our conversation it became clear that it’s totally within her grasp. She attributes her confidence to her family and friends, which we know, boasts the likes of cousin, Stormzy. The attitude that she raps with comes through as strength when she speaks, and a woman in charge is the impression she left after our phone call. She spoke of having a likeness to fire, and with a recent sign to Sony, a MOBO for best video, and having just released her latest EP, Highly Flammable, fire emojis feel right.

I saw a snippet of an interview that really stayed with me. The question asked was “In 25 years from now, what do you want to be remembered for?” and you said “Why would I be forgotten?” I love your confidence, that’s something I really take from your music. Where do you think you get that from?

A lot of my confidence comes from all the people around me that have always believed in me. They’re just always reminding me that I’m different and I’m capable. It’s having my family and friends around me that’s made all the difference; I’ve really come out my shell.

Highly Flammable is sick! What was your creative process like for making this EP?

It kind of all stemmed from my Grandma’s passing. I got this fire in my belly – everyone would always describe me as fire, and I thought, you know what, I’m going to play on that. So yeah, I just made some really fire riddims, and called it Highly Flammable.

You’ve come from quite a musical family; your Dad was a DJ, and of course, Stormzy is your cousin. What’s it like at Christmas time in your household? And what’s your wider family’s reaction to you and Stormzy’s success?

In my house there’s always music; that’s been something that’s just been there from the jump. I guess everyone in my family is really proud, the two of us have always been really into this, but yeah, for things to be actually panning out now—especially for the family having seen us through all of our stages before any of this—there’s definitely a lot of pride.

What was it like to win a MOBO for best video?

I’m still ecstatic about that. I remember when I first met with my creative director, Reece Proctor – as much as I love making music, I want to be really big on my visuals as well. I want to put as much into my visuals as I do into the actual music behind it, because I think it’s important, and he got that straight away, and from then, it’s just been magic. So yeah, getting that MOBO was nice – that all of the talks that we’d had, and what we’d created was recognised.

What does winning a MOBO mean to you? Does it make you go harder?

I want to go for two this year, maybe even three. It’s just given me the drive to keep going and I can’t slow down. I don’t want there to be a year where I haven’t been awarded for something great. It’s getting the ball rolling.


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You’ve signed to Sony, and I know a lot of independent artists are quite vocal about staying independent. What was the leap like for you? To go from being on your own to then signing?

Like everything, it has to feel right, and at the time it felt right. We’d done a lot by ourselves – we just wanted to see where we could take it, where the next step was. We’re just building the machinery behind the movement. The plan has always been world domination, so involving Sony in that made sense.

I like that you touch on the “Girls gotta stick together” mentality as being quite separatist, and instead we should stand as individuals. In your lyrics, you seem to embrace and play with female sexuality, like in ‘Tight Up’ by talking about the short skirts, and ‘DFWT’ is quite cheeky. What is being a woman to you? And how does it play a role in you as a hip-hop artist?

I feel like in anything there’s this stigma around women being less capable or not as good as the guys. I think my whole thing is I just want to change that stigma; obviously something I know I can’t do by myself. It’s something that we as women do need to come together, and push, but we don’t need to lose our individuality in doing that. I found that being in music there’s a lot of things that are more accepted when the guys do it versus when the girls do. I’m never disheartened by those things, they just make me go stronger, and I want everyone else to have the same mentality because that’s the only way we’re going to break the stigma.

2016 was a big year for the UK in terms of music. Why do you think the world is suddenly paying a lot attention to the UK?

I guess everyone just got really fed up of not being heard. There’s always been great talent from the UK; it just wasn’t ever taken seriously, so I feel like there’s this kind of attitude that everyone has just pushed into their material and how they present themselves online. There’s been loads of different things that I’ve noticed that the  UK artists have done that have make them stand out from what is going on, because it is different from trap and hip-hop  it’s different. The right people are hearing it and taking to it. It’s like with anything new – it’s going to be new to the outsiders but to us, it’s just what we’ve been around. It’s the UK sound.

What’s next for Nadia Rose?

Next for Nadia Rose… well, obviously Highly Flammable is out – I took a lot of time before I dropped that so I just wanna drop the next project, I don’t want to wait as long. And like I said, it’s world domination. A lot more music, a lot more visuals, a lot more awards.

 

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Yemisul is a contributor for Acclaim. She’s a Louis Theroux wannabe with an unquenchable thirst for reality TV – @yemisul

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