Rising Alabama rapper Chika’s major label debut, “Industry Games,” came out Friday -- and so did the NPR “Tiny Desk” session that’s been tantalizing fans.
The first fruit of the Montgomery native’s deal with Warner Records is a seven-track celebration of Jane Chika Oranika’s struggle to maintain her own voice despite the conformist tendencies of the music industry, and her triumph at achieving the kind of success she’d dreamed of.
As she sings in “Songs About You:” “Look, listen, I met Hove last week, that s--- was hella cool/ Diddy introduced me as best of the new school/ Not too shabby for an Alabama b----, for getting rich/ I got respect from heavy hitters and I did it without a disc.”
There’s more to Chika’s NPR spotlight than her “Tiny Desk” session: On Thursday she was featured in an “All Things Considered” interview with Audie Cornish that unearthed some surprising insights. For one thing, she said, she was more influenced by musicals than by rap, and hopes to write one someday.
She also gave the story behind the EP’s title track. The first time she went to Los Angeles, she told Cornish, she found the industry just wanted more of “the music that was selling at that point.” “It’s really -- it’s lazy, and it’s very just hook-dominant,” she said. “And it was just like, I don’t know, depressing.”
On the EP, “Industry Games” is a dark and jittery tune, one drenched in studio atmospherics that don’t seem like they would translate well to live performance. Chika’s approach to it on “Tiny Desk” crushes any such doubts. With three instrumentalists on guitar, bass and Peruvian cajon and four backup singers, the live version is warmer, but just as hard-hitting. There’s also an element of humor absent from the studio version, as Chika comes close to cracking up midway through over what she later describes as an inside joke between herself and her band.
The arrangement allowed Chika to do what she does best: Make an impression. “Showing her playful side, the 23-year old rapper, Chika came to the Tiny Desk chock-full of jokes and lots of flair, even bringing her sister in-tow to celebrate the occasion as a family affair,” wrote NPR’s Abby O’Neill. “Chika was also the first hip-hop act to anchor her set with just a Peruvian cajón instead of a full, hard-hitting kit. The surprisingly stripped-down performance allowed her lyrics, with all their nuance, to take center stage — and the result was remarkable. … Moving seamlessly between rap verse and melodic hooks, Chika showcased her unusual tonality, multi-cadence delivery and vocal range, with an effortless, double-time lyrical bounce.”
“These days, most hip-hop artists who come to the Tiny Desk try to one-up performances by their peers and think a blowout production is better,” wrote O’Neill, one of the session’s producers. “But Chika knew less was more. When your level of talent cuts through — and hits you directly in the gut as hers did — there’s no need or time for any industry games.”