First Dips: Every Monday, we chat with peeps outside the Crew to find out what tickles their musical impulses and fancies. What was their first hip-hop or urban music love?
We continue with our current streak of chatting with female radio-hosts-and-musician this week. Reaching out across the border to Malaysia, we dropped Hunny Madu a few questions about her new mixtape Go Hard Or Gostan with fellow female rapper Kayda from FlowFam XXII.
Being a veteran in the entertainment industry, Hunny started off singing a lot of R’n’B during her school days and dabbled in hosting and acting. She was the pioneer host for Malaysia’s 8TV Nite Live and is now a regular fixture on TV9’s Nasi Lemak Kopi O and HipTV. She is also a radio veteran for the past 6 years.
In 2014, she returns with a stronger focus in music with a new release: the Go Hard Or Gostan mixtape on 20 April (good date). Sheshares with us her inspiration behind the recent project and what her favourite tunes are.
You and Kayda seem to be really in-tune with female empowerment. Hip-hop culture has historically been very misogynistic. How do you reconcile that as a female hip-hop artist?
Honestly, I grew up listening to a lot of Destiny’s Child, TLC and Missy Elliot. A lot of 90s female musicians talk about female empowerment which has obviously rubbed off onto our music. Trying to find a place in the male dominated Hip-Hop culture is a good challenge. So far, all of the men in Hip-Hop are very supportive, be it producers, DJs or artists. We work with men mostly anyway and FlowFam XXII are all from the opposite gender, except for us two!
As a female Hip-Hop artist, I just want people to see that our Hip-Hop comes from a positive empowering place. What we talk about in our music are life experiences, our struggles, our emotions, our journey to overcome these struggles and so on. It doesn’t stem from gangsterism, drugs or crime-related stories.
What we rap about is our story.
Could you describe the creative process which has gone down for this mixtape? It’s the chicken-or-egg question: “Did the beats come first or the lyrical rhymes?”
The beats definitely came first. Personally, the way I work on a song is by creating the flows first before the lyrics. The lyrics will usually form after I’ve created a basic flow.
(The) creative process came very easy as well as Kayda and I just worked on a bunch of songs together and recorded some solo ones at the same time. After 5 or 6 songs were recorded, we found our theme and the title for the mixtape.
What is the tune which inspired your work on the Go Hard Or Gostan mixtape?
Kayda suggested we should collaborate on one song sometime in 2013. So we recorded ‘Unit Trust’ and sent it out to radio stations which got some favourable response. We performed it together a few times. Our chemistry led us to make more songs. After our 3rd track, i decided we should do a whole mix tape together.
So basically, our song ‘Unit Trust’ made us wanna work on the Go Hard or Gostan mixtape.
You have a young daughter Eva. How has motherhood affected you as a performer and artist?
I feel more empowered now that I have a little girl. I love the way she looks at me. That look inspires me every day. She makes me feel like I could do it all and it’s indescribable.
We have read somewhere you are already planning a new single after the release of ‘Go Hard Or Gostan’ mixtape. Can you share with us what projects are in the pipeline?
Yeah, I will be working on the release of my new single. My lips are sealed at the moment but they include some exciting artists for the project. 🙂
Could you describe your first exposure to Hip-Hop? What made it so special for you?
My influence in R’n’B and Hip-Hop actually came from my elder brother who listened to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Boys 2 Men. I remember watching him try to decipher the lyrics (like literally pause the cassette line after line to write down the lyrics). We kept on singing the chorus to ‘Crossroads’.
I couldn’t understand what the rappers were talking about but i loved the melody and how it seemed so intelligent the way they were telling the story. I was only 11 when that song came out. From then, it was Hip-Hop all the way.
Which tunes still tickle your fancy after all these while?
I used to love rap that made me think hard, rappers like Immortal Technique, Pharaohe Monch and Mos Def but now, I’m more into rap that taps into the emotions.
I have all of Childish Gambino‘s albums. i still can’t get enough of ‘Shoulda Known’ from his mixtape Royalty.
Another classic for me is Nas’ ‘The World is Yours’…
“I’m up for dead presidents to represent me… Who’s world is this… The world is yours. It’s mine. it’s mine, it’s mine…”
Wow. Illmatic is an amazing classic album.