Clash has partnered with WaterAid to launch a new hybrid event, hosting a range of performances across the evening to mark International Women's Day and raise money to help improve girls' education around the world through access to clean water, decent toilers and good hygiene.
Amongst the forward-thinking line-up, is one of the most distinguishable voices to emerge from UK Rap, one that is playful and exerts her charismatic confidence upon every rhyme and flow.
Six years ago, ‘Station’ came into formation and cast all eyes on the young wordsmith, fusing the influences of grime, drill and hip-hop into her own sound. Leaning towards the unforgiving freestyle form allowed Rose to sharpen her lyrics and delivery, presenting itself as raw and uncompromising. Today, she’s won a MOBO Award, she’s written for Rihanna’s upcoming ninth album (yes, it IS coming,) and now prepares for her own highly-anticipated project. Despite the hardships of poor management, Nadia Rose keeps her head held high, empowered by self-assurance and a core fan base that expands across the globe.
Clash sat down with the Croydon rapper to discuss her journey so far, reclaiming her creative autonomy and manifesting what lies in the year ahead.
– – –
– – –
How would you describe your journey so far from breakthrough freestyle ‘Station’ to touring across the world?
It’s definitely been something, more than I had anticipated, or could have ever imagined when I first picked up a pen to write my first lyric. I feel like my career has had peaks, troughs, ebb, flow. There's been moments of absolute hardship that I could not have imagined that, when you come into these things, you can be a bit naive. But I appreciate what I've learned along the way.
Definitely. How did you find your voice, learning the dynamics of your flows and wordplay?
I've just always had a thing for the phonetics and homonyms and synonyms. I had this obsession with the thesaurus at one point, because my teacher in year four taught me how to sing ‘row, row row your boat,’ but using different words, so it was ‘propel, propel propel your boat, gently down the water solution,’ which I was like, wait, it’s the same song, different words and I was just absolutely mind blown.
I read my dictionary every night. I guess I just built a wide vocabulary and from listening to some of my favourite artists like Eminem, who also has a pretty wide vocabulary and can twist words in the most incredible ways, same for Vybz Kartel.
In 2020, you started your own label, QWERKY Entertainment, how does it feel to reclaim your creative autonomy, particularly after your own experiences within the industry which you've been very vocal about?
Creating the label was liberating to be honest, going from one point feeling like I was trapped, maybe in a situation that just didn't feel right for me. Being able to just to have back my control, it was really good. I suppose because we had just entered the pandemic, I had the opportunity to actually focus on the admin parts of things and do some more learning rather than, if it was a normal year I would have been either touring or recording in the studio, appearances, which would have made it a bit more difficult for me to focus on that.
– – –
– – –
What made you realise that you needed to carve your own independent path?
I think for me, musically, I've always been about developing and growing within my sound. I feel like I took my time before sharing my sound with the world because I've been writing for near enough two decades now. And then it felt like I was put in a position where I was almost questioning my sound, which was just horrible because I feel like we need to have self belief.
When there's just constant doubt and there's loads of chefs in the kitchen, and there's a magnitude of opinions that have you questioning things, I feel like that just wasn't a healthy environment for me as a creative. The independent route allows me to have that freedom which I feel like every artist should have and that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be on a label, but they need to have that level of freedom still as well.
In terms of the music, your lyrics are very playful and self-affirming. Has this belief in yourself been second nature to Nadia Rose or something that you feel like you've had to build over your career?
I have always had this confidence thing, which I feel like when I was younger, I think maybe to some people maybe came across as slightly arrogant or overconfident. What I've learned is to be me, and all I can do is be confident in being me. I couldn't be confident in being somebody else. I’m naturally quite a witty person, I'm sarcastic as hell, I'm constantly making jokes. Just that in my nature, I suppose, kind of followed through into into my music and my creativity. It's just me, being me in my music, as I am as an individual away from it.
I guess as time has kind of gone on, I feel like I've had to try and find some sort of balance. Because my thing has never been to to be cocky or overly feel myself because I'm an individual just like the rest of us so I never want to lose touch with that.
And what was it like to work on Rihanna’s album, how did that come about?
Wow, the Rhi Rhi album. Rihanna had seen my video ‘Skwod,’ apparently that was like an anthem for her and her squad, which is crazy. It was super organic, she saw my stuff, she loved it and she thought I could make a contribution to her album which was amazing. The whole experience was something I'll never forget. It really helped me grow as an artist myself as well. Just the level of the way they worked, the production, being in those spaces I knew within myself, I've got to go absolutely hard. Sometimes I might go, that's a little filler bar I’ll get away with that. There was no chance for that, everything had to be 10/10. Moving on from that I've applied that to myself.
– – –
– – –
How does the experience for writing for other people differ from writing for your own material?
I love it. Before I really got into music I came from an acting background. Being able to portray someone else's story and vision is what we do when we're acting, so I guess when it comes to songwriting for other people, I like to research about them or listen to their other material and see, maybe there's a particular word that they enjoy using or there's a vernacular. I suppose I fuse how I would approach it and sprinkle bits of how I thought their vision would be.
A few months back you opted for a ‘no ouid’ lifestyle, what made you want to take this change?
There was a few reasons but mainly, I know that my voice is my instrument. I can play keyboard, I can do a few other bits but really my main instrument is my voice and I just felt like, if I'm smoking weed, it's almost as if I was a guitarist and I'm walking around, I’ve not got my case, dragging the guitar on the road and bashing it along railings. It just didn't make sense. Understanding that that's my thing, and I can't ruin it. I feel like I've inspired a tonne of people as well which has been great, people come to me for advice, they keep me updated on their progress, if they're having a rough day.
Tell us about the Nadia Rose app, what sparked that idea?
I've always wanted my own little hub because we've seen loads of these platforms, they’ll either crash, can't use them for how long or they leave us. Should anything happen, I wanted to know that I had a space for my people. I feel like with Instagram, there's so many accounts that you don’t even know if they're actually following you for you, I wanted to know who was really her for Nadia Rose. I feel like my app is a safe space, not only for myself, but for my community to be free and know that they're not going to be judged or scrutinised. We all have the same vision here and it's a safe space for us.
Just recently you dropped the dance video for ‘WOAH.’ What else does 2022 have in store for Nadia Rose? Any new music, visuals, can we be expecting a debut album…
I've got some serious stuff. What I've got coming will absolutely be worth the wait. When I first came up, my thing was, I'm not going to allow people to go four to six weeks without seeing something new from me. Whether it was a freestyle, a song, a radio appearance, whatever it was, that was the trajectory I was on. So going so long without that has been bamboozling for me as well. But greatness takes time and I feel like I am finally there. I'm about to share some, what I feel is incredible music, which I'm so proud of. It's an evolved, polished, grown Nadia Rose. So it’s what you already know, but you won’t expect it, almost.
Quick fire question: what is something on your playlist that Nadia Rose fans might not expect to be on your playlist?
I absolutely adore ABBA, yes, I am an ABBA fanatic. I love Portuguese music, I’ll be in Nandos and I’ll put my phone on auto Shazam. Here’s one, Alejandro De Pinedo.
– – –
– – –
Celina Sharma, Cat Burns, Foundation FM: Kennedy Taylor, Jaz Karis, Louisa, Mercedes Benson and Nadia Rose will play a special WaterAid x Clash party at Protein Studios, London on March 8th. Watch the Bathroom Sessions live from 20:00 GMT HERE.
Words: Ana Lamond
– – –
