Namika is one of the most successful musicians in Germany. With the DW, the singer and rapper spoke about inequality, #MeToo and your experiences in the men’s music industry dominated.
Deutsche Welle: you are one of only three German rappers who have landed a number one Hit in the Charts – how did you manage in the male-dominated Hip-Hop?
Namika: I managed to find in Hip-Hop in my place, because I created my place. I went in a competition, but I just made my music. And I’m a part of this scene.
Their texts often circle around such concepts as “origin” or “identity”. What role do women play in them ?
I use in everyday topics, because for me that is the most Tangible and everything else, for me does not make sense. But I am also a woman and have women’s issues that concern me. With women’s issues, I mean sensitive things a man wouldn’t come. As a woman I can show more weakness, which is not popular with men, perhaps because it is quickly labelled as wine.
You are as a woman in advantage, because they are a lot more topics are open, or?
It is an absolute advantage, that I can laugh a woman (). I can do what I want, and the Studio is my Playground.
She grew up with her mother and her grandmother, both strong women. Did that affect your self-esteem?
So for me, it was as a child, only one goal-to realize my dream, and that was the music. I have worked hard. I think that for me, the social Background has helped, I still have fought harder, I still have more Gas because I’ve noticed that I have to prove myself twice. I had to be extremely hard to fight, in order to get where I am now.
With the Song “favorite person” started Namika
Are men paid in the music industry better?
So if the Gage is higher than in the case of a woman, then it has to do mostly only that it is a man or a woman. Maybe the artist is more famous than the artist, then it is justified. But the One-to-one example, in the office, it can justify none: That women still get less money for the same Job as a man, that is one thing that needs to be clarified by the government. You can’t expect that there is power in Hip-Hop, although it works in the Rest of Germany.
Only 29 percent of solo artists in the German Album-Charts are female – what’s going wrong?
Maybe the interests are different. We can’t assume that always only one of us and say, because we now want to take the sceptre in the Hand, have to do it all. And if you can swing a bit more, you would have the whole thing by the government from taxes. The need to ensure that all are at least a woman is that it is split 50 to 50. And then we get slowly in the direction of equality.
You have to play as a woman in the music business sexy, in order to have success?
I may be as I am. And even if I could not be who I am, I would just do it. What is “sexy”? For me, there is no clear Definition. There is a very nice international example. She is totally sexy, even though you are experiencing from the Style, with short hair rather unisex: it’s the Scottish soul singer Emelie Sandé. I love your music and celebrate you as an artist. You see, there is no right or wrong. Most importantly, authentic!
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Namika: in search of lightness
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Namika: in search of lightness
#MeToo is in the German music scene for a theme?
I have women in my circle who have had the experience that you have been harassed in the Studio, to disgusting sexual way, even though they are simply because of professional reasons, to record a Song. And the women from looking for a second Chance to try again somewhere else. That’s why I say: “dear women, you will not also producers, so that there was such a thing at some point.” I was lucky in that I was always independent. So I made my Beats always, in my room. I was sort of a little “Beat-Makerin” to Amateur Status, but I could kind of deal with the technology. And then I are God around thanks to a great family and friends around me. I would never go there in life, alone, to a producer I know.
How would you react when you see someone being harassed? Or you are no longer exposed to the because they have not reached a Status where it happens?
Also, I’m going to be sexually harassed, where I think to myself: “Ok, totally out of place, very unprofessional.” What’s left for me, I put a limit and say: “Till here and no further. We are musicians. I meet You eye-to-eye. What do You think?” Men may find women great. Of course. But it’s the respect, how is that addressed, what is being said. That’s below the belt line, what is said? If Yes, then it’s a lack of respect. This must not tolerate any woman.
Namika knows what she wants
Do you have any advice for young musicians?
I would advise young musicians, in any case, that army will be a One-man or One-woman-army, of course. Say: Be independent, learn an Instrument, are “Beat-Maker”, to try you. Songwriting, the traditional craft is learning how to write a Song, if you really interested with the music. And then you have everything and can do everything alone. And this is dangerous – in a good way.
The interview was conducted by Claudia Würzburg.
Namika was born in 1991 as Hanan Hamdi in Frankfurt am Main. In 2015, she introduced her debut album “Nador”; the first Single, “favorite man” has landed in the Charts and made them widely known. Their current Album “Que Walou” was released in June 2018.