Zimbabwe: Black Bird features in world mixtape
By Kenneth Matimaire – MUTARE – Female rapper Nonku “Black Bird” Vundla has made tremendous strides in the hip-hop industry as she became the country’s first musician to feature in a world mixtape, which was released in Detroit, USA last week.
Female rapper Nonku “Black Bird” Vundla
The groundbreaking mixtape titled “World Hip-Hop Women: From The Sound Up” is an all women composition compiled by Detroit based female disk jockey DJ La Jedi.
It was presented by the World Hip Hop Market and Nomadic Wax Records after a series of interviews with female emcees from America, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, and Zambia.
Black Bird is part of the project that seeks to expand dialogue about the role women are playing in the global hip-hop culture and their respective communities.
She was ecstatic about her involvement in the project with her single “H-Town Hustler” at number 14 of the 21 tracks on the mixtape.
“When ‘World Hip Hop Women’ was finally released on 21 January 2013, I was blown away! The quality of emcee-ship from the women in different parts of the world is amazing and I’m at a loss of words as to why these women aren’t given the kind of media hype that they deserve,” she said.
She was positive that the project is set to beef up her music image on the internal arena, having featured along-side prominent American female rapper Jean Grae of the “Kill Screen” fame.
The rapper-cum-radio personality said it is high time female rappers are treated with dignity in the male dominated industry.
“We have made history by being part of the world’s first hip-hop project that only has only sisters on it and I think it’s about time women started getting acknowledged for being more that sex symbols in the hip-hop industry.
“Women have a lot of stories to tell as the nurturers in society. We are the foundation of our communities and we need to be able to give a respectable representation of our gender while still being real hip-hop heads,” she said.
Black Bird has been riding on a crest of wave and likely to reach the pinnacle of her multi-dimensional career sooner than expected.
She became the first Zimbabwean female MC to release an album following the launch of her debut project, “The Rappetizer” in 2010after working for Channel O as the website editor the previous year.
The following year, Black Bird also became the first female rapper to perform at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) before embarking on a fundraising campaign for the hunger stricken Somalis in a tour dubbed “Hustle for 4the Horn.”
She is currently doubling as radio presenter at newly licensed Star FM’s popular Breakfast Club show.
