“I’m the youngest of my family, I’m from Alabama, my parents are immigrants.
For artists like Chika, long-term greatness is a surer bet than becoming an overnight success.
She simply makes sincere, earnest music about her life and the world around her.
Credit: Leeor Wild
Not bad for someone who just started rapping a few years ago.
As she says on “Songs About You,” “my come up was picture perfect.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: A lot of people first found out about you through social media.
You were using Instagram and Twitter to kill other people’s beats.
I had just left school.
I had a video go viral that ended up springboarding me into having thousands of followers overnight.
I just started posting covers.
I was very, very new to rap at that time.
A lot of people think I’ve been doing it my whole life, but absolutely not.
I was too shy and covert with it.
It was really hard to keep up with anyone local.
Yes, of course you got Rich Boy and you got Doe B, who sadly passed.
We knew there was talent there, but there was absolutely no way to connect with one another.
There really wasn’t [a scene].
There were no open mics.
It was not like Atlanta.
So we tried to create that space.
You went to L.A. in January 2019, and got signed to a label that summer.
I’d moved to New York for a summer and came home.
So just hit me up.”
He booked my flight and a place to stay.
After two weeks, I wasn’t ready to go home.
All that stuff was happening by month two.
I should stay here."
I came out here for quote-unquote two weeks, and I never went back.
On the intro toIndustry Games, you said, “I hope this music makes you think.”
It’s the worst.
I don’t have the luxury of being able to do that, even if I wanted to.
I wear my heart on my sleeve.
Art is consumed for a reason.
It’s supposed to heal.I’m not out here trying to make a number one hit.
If we get one, thank God.
But I have always been a communicator, and I think my music has been the vehicle for that.
it’s possible for you to hear that on your album, how secure your sense of self is.
I’m the youngest of my family, I’m from Alabama, my parents are immigrants.
If you don’t say it with your chest, nobody is going to take you seriously.
So, I was born into a dynamic where it was either sink or swim.
Often, people ask me how to get there.
I don’t know, but I will say that I describe life as a book.
Everyone is the author of their own book.
Last month, you made a point on Twitter to not drag down other women for rapping about sex.
Drag them because I’m better."
It’s dismissive of the work you do, and that doesn’t just go for me.
I’m not out here trying to beat the girls.
I make music, and I’ve been making music before I was a rapper.
It’s a competitive sport, I get it.
So, me being very confidentially myself ruffles feathers for a lot of other people.
you’re free to ask all of my partners.
I’m not competing with the girls only.
I’m competing with everybody who touches a mic.
We have such a huge look and platform to do so much dope stuff.
I’m just like, “Why are we talking about gender?”
How did you feel about the Grammys before your nomination?
Now let’s begin."
That’s not how it works.
With that being so subjective because it’s art, they’re always going to miss somebody.
It’s the nature of awards.
I’m not going home sad though, because I already won.
That’s the way I want people to look at things.
The 63rd Grammy Awards will air Jan 31, 2021 on CBS
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