Skip to main content

There’s Something About That Rapper Niska

Niska the Artist Niska Rapper Niska Garoute
Rapper Niska Garoute defies the stereotypical expectations that some may have for a rapper. The Haiti-based MC raps like an organic musical smoothie of Lauryn Hill, with a dash of Santigold for pea protein, and a bit of Ms. Dynamite as vanilla extract, and a slice of Jean Gray for apple slices. There’s a lot of attitude in her lyrics, and plenty of mouthy retorts. You don’t want to mess with Niska, okay? Not the rapper. Not the person. She puts you in check before you even approach her. Her crown is on her head, and you can’t snatch the tiara off of this Haitian queen.

On her latest track “Dan Bang”, there’s this social-consciousness that seeps through, and that’s not present on any other of her rap songs that I sampled. A sign of maturity and growth in the artist, no doubt. She’s growing up, and her awareness about the things beyond Niska’s personal space manifests plainly.

One needs only to scrutinize her stream of past work to come to this conclusion. “Dan Bang” refutes the concept and image that Niska presented of herself in previous songs like “I Love Myself”, and “Better Than I”. On those tracks, the rapper was preoccupied with love and relationships, dissing those who wronged her, and spitting out saucy backtalk. That Niska is pretty much alive, but she’s now directing her dissatisfaction and her displeasure not at people, but at a system, at an environment. Produced by as Pipo Beat, and featuring a rapper known as Dr. Highman, the song denounces corruption and upbraids those who are complacent. The video shows a curly-haired, torso-bearing Niska hobnobbing in the hood with the residents of Haiti’s slums. Her delivery is flawless, and her flow leaves nothing to musical chance.
Niska rapper Niska the artist

[Main photo credit: Steve Baboun]

This concludes this episode of STRAIGHT OUTTA HAITI! PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ PAST ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES BY YOUR FAVORITE CHICK KREYOLICIOUS!

Check out rapper Niska’s latest video below:

Music, Niska, Rapper
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Questions With Singer-Songwriter Mikaelle Cartright

Mikaelle Cartright has a voice that’s like tropical silk. The New York-born, singer-songwriter has a jazzy style that recalls the styles of singers like Anita Baker with a little hint of Shirley Bassey. How did she develop her jazzy style? What role do her parents play in her support system as a singer-songwriter? Read on to find out. Kreyolicious: Your name is Mikaelle, no doubt stemming from the name Michael, which means Who Can Be Like God ? What is the most extraordinary thing that’s happened to your life that has had you saying the same phrase? Mikaelle Cartright: Correct, my name means “Who is like God”. My existence causes me to ask that constantly. My birth was a miracle. My mother almost lost me. She was placed on bed rest somewhere around the fourth month. The muscles of her uterus were giving out and the doctor said I was going to just fall out. The medication, some hormone treatment, was barely available and when Baby Doc fell, it was chaos. My mother was, thank God, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Haiti’s First Lady of Rap, and Hip Hop Kreyol?

Eunide Edouarin—the Haiti-based rapper more popularly known as Princess Eud —doesn’t like to do interviews. “When I’m being interviewed,” the raptress contends, “I have so many things going on my head at the same time that I sometimes answer questions they never asked me, and I’m kinda shy.” Yet shyness is a quality that very few would identity with Edouarin. Take a performance for example in which the self-described homebody held her own alongside CaRiMi , one of the most popular Haitian pop bands on the market, during one of her first big performances in New York. Slithering sexily onstage, the singer-rapper rapped effortlessly on the band’s hit “Fanm Nan Move”, before dissolving into a verse of her own song “Hey” . It’s utter confidence and bravado that shines through; no signs of timidity. Edouarin is a self-proclaimed traditional girl, but her start in the Haitian rap music game was far from conventional. While hanging at a local radio station in Port-au-Prince, she was invite...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kreyolicious Interview: Mia Lopez, Publicist/Entrepreneur

Mia Lopez is the CEO and President of M.I.A. Media, Inc, a public relations firm based in Miami that caters to the Haitian entertainment industry. Lopez is a low-key person, but among her peers and industry insiders, her work doesn’t go unnoticed. Of her, Patrick Desvarieux, the founder of Kompa Magazine, said: “She is a natural. A people’s person. One of the best at what she does. A master of her craft.” Nick Jean of KalePwa.com calls her a pioneer. “She helped take the Haitian Community into modern times [in terms of her public relations work],” he contends. After being in the mainstream music industry, singer-songwriter Mickael Music wanted to enter the Haitian music market with her Bel Project, but wanted to go about it the right way. She recalls, “I asked around, ‘Who is the best PR marketing person in the Haitian music industry’? For the people that even knew what that meant all said, “Mia Lopez”, as if she [had] created the title in the Haitian music industry. When I say “ev...
Post a Comment
Read more