Helen Herimbi
With a single hitting the sweet spot of radio charts, a new management deal and a string of freestyles coming up, Gigi LaMayne is striking while the iron is hot. Every Friday this Women’s Month, the rapper has been releasing freestyle videos under the moniker The Iron Lady. This might be the best way for those who aren’t yet familiar with a name that’s poised to become a household one quicker than you can say “Margaret Thatcher” to get to know her.
LaMayne’s last mixtape, Colour of Reign, which followed Circus Café, was released exactly a year ago. A lot has changed from when she was a Facebook phenom rocking ciphers to a multi-award winning artist who is signed to Khuli Chana’s imprint and managed by Dreamteam SA.
For starters, the rapper, who was born Genesis Gabriella Tina Manney, finally received the recognition she deserves after winning the Jack Daniel’s Music Scout 2014 competition in a clean sweep. She then released her first mainstream single called Ice Cream. The remix features her new label boss, Chana.
“Khuli insisted on being on the remix,” she confesses. “He liked where the original concept came from, not what everyone is getting from it.”
What she is referring to is the sexual innuendo dripping through Ice Cream. To the uninitiated, it might sound like she is asking men to give her something to lick.
“My producers (The Mix Masters from Zimbabwe) pointed out that all the people I’m referencing in the song are guys,” starts LaMayne, “but that’s because hip hop is dominated by males.”
She says the lyrics of Ice Cream, which were mostly freestyled in 45 minutes, are innocent.
“Everyone always raps about cheese (slang for money),” she explains, “so I thought, ‘what’s the luxury next to cheese in homes?’ In black houses, it’s ice cream in a tub. So metaphorically, I was saying I wanted that money, that hype, just put me on. Eighty percent of people are thinking I was talking about something else and I don’t want it to be that way so I felt had to redeem myself with my next single.”
Called Jungle Fever and also produced by The Mix Masters – as most of her work will be – LaMayne says: “It’s very African and up-tempo because I tried to rap over something that would still be entertaining. It’s about Africa reclaiming its sound!”
The four-time South African Hip Hop Award winner and anthropology and media studies student who has been on the Dean’s list at Wits University since her first year, is passionate about that African sound and hip hop infiltrating academia.
“For some reason, as my career shaped up, things went really well at school,” she grins. “From the perspective of being an academic, there’s no cultural material about hip hop so I want people to have access to finding out the story and about hip hop as a culture.”
But for now, more music and possibly a mixtape is her priority.
“I don’t feel like dropping an album and only 600 copies are sold,” she admits. “Not just girls, but guys need to say they’re going to buy the album because if you can’t move copies, you shouldn’t be dropping.”
l Check out Gigi LaMayne’s Iron Lady series every Friday this month on www.facebook.com/ QueenGigiLaMayne.