In the world of music, artists have their genre, and create various alter egos to sustain that image. You are either the role model, or the bad influence. Sit in the middle, and you end up unnoticed. Female Cameroon rapper Askia, has over the years proclaimed herself the baddest female rapper. She no doubt is a great rapper, with bold lyrics, sassy attitude and an unhinged personality... albeit subtle and somewhat "caged".
After grappling as an independent artist for some time, she made an eye raising move to Alpha Better Records to join Salatiel and Mr Leo, two prominent role models. The key word isn't the record label. It's "2 prominent role models".
Granted, variety is the spice of life, but the mismatched blend doesn't do her justice, hence she comes across as the 3rd wheel, trailing behind, waiting to be extricated once the cloud of confusion makes it unbearable for the role models to steer the ship at the music label.
Askia, notwithstanding her raw talents, is quickly losing the persona we fell in love with. That harsh, "dont-give-a-fuck" girl is quietly being transformed into a role model.
Her latest song, "Ma Valeur" tries to make her as nasty as possible, but the underlying tone is that of a desperate girl trying to prove her worth.
The question is - Can Alpha Better successfully rebrand Askia or is it something to even try?
Askia had already created a space for herself in the Hip Hop Scene and was one of the few hip hop artists with a good enough body of work for reference - appearing to be on her lane. The move to Alpha Better, a label that has no hip hop credits definitely meant letting go of her past to start afresh - it definitely makes no sense performing 'Welcome For Kwata'on the same stage as ‘Ma Valeur’ although in Cameroon we can’t be short of examples of shows where Bikutsi artists and hip hop artists are programmed back to back; a recipe for a poor show.
On looks only, Askia can be moved around genres easily but when she opens her mouth, the timbre of her voice is not one of a soul singer despite the fact that she is already being haunted by the pronounced rap persona she already created, the aggression in her voice cannot be suppressed enough to sooth the audience Mr Leo appeals to. The melange of rapping and singing in the two tracks we have heard her on since joining Alpha Better seems to be out of place. We are getting her weakest rap lines ever. Rap is about intricate wordplay which cannot play good on pop sounds - she is now rapping lines that need to be sung.
To make things a little more complicated, Salatiel is pulling her into singing in French whereas her command of the language appears to be more on the ‘I understand but can’t speak nor write end’ - which makes it more difficult for her to come up with songs. For her to do a song viable for release under Alpha Better’s brand, Salatiel, Mr. Leo and the other songwriters on the team need to be available which means she’ll spend more time waiting for ‘Mr Leo or Salatiel to come back.’ The opportunities for her to further her image beyond the music are also limited - the discord between listening to her music and talking to her in person is becoming more pronounced.
If Askia is to break out, she should let everything go. Act like the "Maheeda" or "Afro Candy" of Nigeria, or the "Remy Ma" of America (minus the outrageous police scandals). She should be uncaged, and rebranded into the real "bad bitch" she wants to be. Only then can she walk the path she once created.
Alternatively, she could be sucked into the role model mentality, change her name, outlook, lyrics and attitude.