Azisa

28. September 2020

Nelleke Schmidt

Autorin

Azisa realized at an early age how much the rap scene is actually dominated by men.Unsettled by the few female fans at concerts and female MCs in her youth, it was not easy for her to go public with her own music. Today, the 29-year-old rapper is happy to see a development in the scene and to be part of this change herself.

Azisa was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and discovered her love for the hip-hop-scene as a child. Although she did not yet understand the language of the rap-lyrics at that time, she was fascinated by the comedy “Sister Act 2“ and the US-American singer and rapper Lauryn Hill. She also remembers her enthusiasm for Queen Latifah to this date. She was also influenced by her brother, who already listened to Wu-Tang, Bones Thugs and Eminem at primary school age. At the age of 14, she found her own taste in music based on tapes by Azad and Jonesmann. Parallel to these discoveries, she started to learn more about different types of hip-hop as well as to write her own texts and to participate in freestyle battles.

After she got the chance to record a tape in a studio at the age of 20, she started an education and took a break from rapping. Today, she works as a social worker in youth work, but her break could not stop her from loving music. In collaboration with Figub Brazlevic and Wilczynski, she released various videos at 16-Bars, which were able to attract attention again. The final product of this collaboration is audibly influenced by the artists of her childhood and youth: a mixture of old school hip-hop, soul and some West Coast G-funk characterize her style. Depending on her current mood, her style varies between different subgenres, because rapping is a hobby she wants to enjoy to the fullest. For her, rap is something that should always be fun and should be personally enriching. But she also likes to use music to reflect society and make political statements. “Ich weiß genau wer ich bin, Frau, heller Kopf, braune Haut, Haare kraus / bedeutet mehr Arbeit, das nehm‘ ich gern‘ in Kauf“ (“I know exactly who I am, woman, light head, brown skin, curly hair / means more work, I’m willing to accept that”) she says. As a female POC, she had to deal with different kinds of sexism and racism in her life. With her music, she wants to fight against these things.

After Azisa released her single „Kannst du mich fühlen“ in May, there will be various features in the following month and she hopes for more. In the future she would like to found a cypher together with other female rappers to represent the female underground. Azisa has a lot of plans, not only for her tape, which will be released next year. Whatever she will do, we can expect a lot of variety and feelings in everything she does.