Prod Rage spoke with Nehanda on Thursday having an in-depth conversation regarding the two singles spun on the show with many laughs, busking, BBC 1Xtra experience, exploring independency and much more.
Introduce yourself:
“My names Nehanda, I am a Birmingham artist, I mostly busk. Birmingham is my main spot, I am well known in Birmingham, and Walsall, although they have changed the laws now so I can’t busk in Walsall anymore.”
Speaking on ‘Live In The Lair’:
“As venues go and as events go, I love that event. The people that are there are laid back, its supported, its a nice night, a nice environment.”
Is there any events lined up?
“Everything’s just done, everything’s just dead as far as I know, the last gig I done was 15th March and I’ve only just started going out busking again.”
Have you been productive during the lockdown?
“Yes, I’ve started from scratch learning Ableton, tearing my hair out trying to mix and master, but I feel like I’ve got somewhere. I’ve released one on YouTube recently which I mixed and mastered myself and went out and recorded a video myself first so yeah things have been getting done during lockdown. It’s called ‘I Am Women’, it’s a nice kinda jazzy with a bit of a Hip-Hop feel to it.”
What inspires your music?
“Where it started, I was in a relationship with an emcee an things went horrifically wrong and honestly I just started writing to piss him off. Like my plan was ‘I’m gonna put a bra on and I’m gonna piss this guy off’ by getting my video out on Instagram. That was two years ago, I put this video on thinking people are gonna slaughter me, women spitting bars but yeah people instantly got in touch and where like ‘Yo can I get a feature?’ and I was like ‘Ah? You guys are taking me seriously?’. So yeah, that was two years ago and I realised I could write and from then it’s just been any beat, anything that comes my way I wanna touch, do something different. One day I’ll release an Opera song that’s what I say.” (That’s what inspired ‘33 Ways’)
Discussing ‘The Call’ briefly:
“I’d say that’s part two to ‘33 Ways’, I just picked up the phone and lost it.”
Tell us about your BBC 1Xtra collaboration:
“Lady Shocker who’s like clashing queen, I was in awe of Lady Shocker, messaged me on Twitter and asked if I wanted to jump on this, thirteen emcees on a track – lay eight bars. That was a ‘Female Allstars’ and it just blew, it got played on bare different stations and DJ Target asked us to come do a ‘Team Takeover’. It was amazing. Massive shout out to Shocker for getting us together to do that.”
Are there any artists that your working with at the moment or looking to work with?
“I just released a track with Hybrid Theory featuring duo producers from Birmingham, that track got signed to CruCast. I think we are looking at doing a good few more tracks because that big vibe in the studio we absolutely bounced off each other.”
Listen to the phone-in below to gain more understanding to her bubbly personality and the authenticity. It was brilliant to hear Nehanda’s insights and experiences. We hope that we will be able to team up at an event some point in the future.
Tracks ‘33 Ways To Assassinate Your Character’ and ‘The Call’ were played either side of the interview. Make sure to check those out in the links below, follow and support more of her music.
CUSH:UK 
Leave a comment