FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
Part Eighty-Four: Denise Chaila
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I have featured…
PHOTO CREDIT: Róisín Murphy O’Sullivan
the amazing Denise Chaila in my Spotlight feature. She is an artist who is breaking through and is definitely going to be an icon of the future. Someone who is guiding and inspiring other artists in her own right, Chaila started okaying the Limerick music scene in 2012. Her stunning debut E.P., Duel Citizenship, arrived in 2019. Chaila was one of the musical acts featured in the series of remote performances during the COVID-19 pandemic, Other Voices: Courage, in May 2020. Born at the Chikankata-Mazabuka District, Zambia, she moved to Ireland when she was three. Her GO Bravely album was released in 2020. It won Choice Music Prize’s Album of the Year Award that same year. Before coming to some interviews with Chaila, I wanted to mention her recent project, It’s a Mixtape. Released in November, it is another astonishing and mesmeric release from an artist with no real equals. She is a sensational talent! This is what NME had to say about It’s a Mixtape:
“Where are you from, originally?” Denise Chaila mockingly asked on her 2019 debut EP ‘Duel Citizenship’, mimicking the racist questions she’s received as an Irish-Zambian person. On that release’s title track, the Limerick-based rapper, singer and poet deftly blended both cultures and celebrated language as a gift for sharing stories (“I could translate all of my Lenje stories / So that we could sing them as Gaeilge”).
Chaila’s 2020 debut mixtape ‘Go Bravely’ then widened her scope further; her carefully-woven lyrics taking centre-stage atop modest jazz-tinged piano and guitar hooks. The release later won Chaila the RTÉ Choice Music Prize – the first time a mixtape has emerged victorious.
It’s a format that Chaila has returned to again with the simply-titled ‘It’s A Mixtape’. Expanding on her musical horizons, Chaila explores a more varied palette of thumping minimal bass-stabs, warm horn arrangements and haunting, medieval-sounding melodies through a synthesised, futuristic lens. While the production feels cranked-up and bolder, its centrepiece ‘I A M’ is still smouldering and meditative, featuring the voices of friends and family from Ireland and around the world. ‘Energy’, which features MuRli (a fellow founder of Chaila’s label and collective Narolane), is another softer stand-out, built around warm keys and jazz trumpets with a sprinkling of harp.
Chaila often draws on regal imagery and a wealth of mythology in her lyrics. On ‘Might Be’ she collides the Greek god of wine-making, Dionysus, with Queen Medb, a figure in Irish mythology who represents intoxication and mead-drinking. Opener ‘061’ (borrowing its title from Limerick’s area code) proudly declares “I am not a queen, I’m a Prince,” while on closer ‘Return of the King’ the rapper cleverly invokes the words of the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who once brandished a plucked chicken at Plato after he classified man as a featherless biped. “Or Artemis me, I’m only fowl when I’m floating,” Chaila puns, further referencing the Greek goddess of hunting and the Irish young-adult sci-fi series Artemis Fowl in a beat. “Freedom is potent, the future’s in focus.”
It all serves to prove Chaila’s dexterous lyricism, neatly linking threads between the present, ancient mythology and more recent historic events, such as Muhammad Ali’s 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ with George Foreman (“What they say to Ali?” she asks on ‘Might Be’, before quoting the crowd’s chants “Bomaye!”).
Even when it’s going full-throttle, ‘It’s A Mixtape’ has an inherent playfulness over the course of its five concise tracks. She might compare herself to Kanye on the closer, but by that point you’re already left with a keen sense of exactly who Denise Chaila is and what she stands for”.
In my previous feature, I sourced interviews from 2020. Now, I wanted to look at some press from last year. Having put out an L.P. in 2020 and her E.P. last year, I wonder what this year will bring in terms of new releases. With every fresh release, she uncovers more genius and gold. I am going to drop in a few interviews before finishing up with a recent review of It’s a Mixtape. Early last year, NME spoke with Denise Chaila and discussed her incredible mixtape/album, GO Bravely:
“2020 was a real break-through year – how are you feeling now after such a whirlwind journey?
“So many beautiful things happened for me in 2020, but receiving abuse online was extremely difficult and heart-breaking. If I were white, I could just be a musician and enjoy this experience without having to be serious very quickly and worry about my safety and that of my family. We have to address this head-on, and move into a culture of deep justice work that’s so much more than these people who want to harm me. It’s dependent though on the idea that racism isn’t a black person’s responsibility; we all have a responsibility to sit with each other and have frank conversations. It’s like breaking a bone again to set it properly so that it can finally heal – that’s what we have to do now to move forward.”
You’ve collaborated with a lot of other Irish MCs and co-founded your own record label, Narolane Records. How do you think the Irish hip-hop scene has informed your music?
“Historically, there’s been a lot of shame in Ireland for rapping in Irish accents about Irish things – irrespective of being black or white. So we’re bound by not subscribing to an inferiority complex and always support each other. Every time another Irish rapper does something great, it makes more room for me to grow and vice versa. We’re not looking for something bigger or a move outside of Ireland to legitimise ourselves. What’s special about the Irish hip-hop scene is that we own who we are.”
Your mixtape ‘Go Bravely’ explores the concept of belonging, and overcoming personal pain. Did you have a particular vision in mind before making the record?
“When I was making ‘Go Bravely’, I was really working on my personal confidence and I wanted to reject any self-flagellation in my music. Whenever you hear me being confident on record, that’s me manifesting something that doesn’t always exist. ‘Go Bravely’ was my affirmation: irrespective of your history or your trauma, or the fears you have about the future, or what sort of musician you think you should be, just be brave and meet the moment.”
In your song ‘Copper Bullets’, you tackle misogyny in hip hop – do you think that’s a topic that needs to be addressed more in rap music today?
“Definitely. Personally, I take issue with being called a ‘female MC’. I did not make sacrifices to become a rapper so that you can relegate me as a cute girl doing a cute thing. I’ve worked so hard and crafted my music – if you haven’t put in the 10,000 practice hours, you cannot dismiss me, because I’m a better MC than you. I’m a woman who raps – you don’t have to call yourself a “male rapper”. It’s an unconscious bias that really excludes people from fulfilling their destiny, purpose and having the impact that they should have”.
Last March, CLASH ran a fascinating interview with the Limerick-based artist. It came the day after her win at the RTE Choice Music Prize for GO Bravely. Even though Chaila has grown stronger and more revered as an artist, she was a hugely celebrated and respected artist early in 2021:
“Despite having released her debut single in 2019, with dual release of ‘Copper Bullet’ and ‘Dual Citizenship’, 2020 will forever be known as Denise Chaila’s year, in particular for her single ‘Chaila’. The track went on to become the soundtrack to a summer and catapulted Chaila into widespread national and international consciousness. “People sent me pictures and videos of their children responding to my music and that’s surreal because there’s a whole generation of children who are going to grow up hearing my music like how I grew up listening to Samantha Mumba,” she smiles, adding: “The idea that I could be someone that a child listens to the same way I listened to Britney [Spears] is amazing”.
What should have been a time of great joy, however, was tinged with pain as Chaila became the target of racial abuse online. This abuse escalated with the release of ‘Go, Bravely’. “There have been a lot of very critical decisions I’ve had to make in relation to my safety and trying to protect my family in the face of some very disappointing behaviour from some undesirable members of society has taken precedence over feeling ecstatic about my career,” Chaila recalls of the online threats to her well being brought about by the mixtapes success, which in turn lead her to ask RTÉ not to tag her in any posts on social media relating to the mixtape’s nomination for the choice prize, for fear of attracting vitriol.
Despite such difficulties, Chaila is quick to note how important people’s support for the project has been, saying that “it’s been a mark of the way people have received the music that despite the incredible flux of terrible things, I’ve still found incredible moments of joy where I realise that people are receiving the work as its intended to be”.
Before moving to Ireland at the age of three, Denise Chaila was raised in the Southern province of Zambia, a child of two medical professionals. “The people in the village around us spoke in a language that was neither my mother or my father’s mother tongue, and it separated me a lot from kids my age,” Chaila recalls of her early childhood. Due to her parent’s profession, she grew up surrounded by medics from across the world, including some from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and China, meaning she would spend most of her time with adults rather than children her own age, allowing her to gather a wider view of the world.
At the time, she was being home-schooled by her mother and her mother’s friend. One day, she was being taught the words to ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and misheard one of the lyrics as ‘like a demon in the sky’. Due to her traditional spiritual upbringing, the ideas of demons floating high above her in plain sight brought nightmares, and months of night terrors. “I couldn’t sleep for months,'' Chaila smiles, recalling the event.
In an effort to help her child sleep, Chaila’s mother began to flood the house with gospel music, and in particular the work of Belfast Christian songwriter Robin Mark. Denise was urged by her mother to sing Mark’s track ‘Jesus, All For Jesus’ whenever she was scared in the middle of the night, and taught her that this would keep her safe.
“For a really significant part of my childhood, a part of my self-soothing and my spiritual process was singing to myself to feel better,” Chaila explains, “I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would sing until I fell asleep again because I was scared. That slowly became my coping mechanism, so when things become really, really bad, I sing”.
Looking back, Chaila admits how important a moment that was in her relationship with music, and how in times of doubt she harkens back to it. “Wherever I’m going with my life, it starts with being a four-year-old girl who’s really scared who can only sing to her God to make things better” she adds, “Now I’m 27 and I’m still doing the same thing, except now I’m writing the music that I’m singing”.
Her awarding of the Choice Prize for ‘Go Bravely’, a mixtape that touches on subjects such as racism, self-doubt, mental health and the importance of diversity with the lyrical dexterity reminiscent of some of hip-hops eternal greats and Ireland’s illustrious bards, feels like a moment where Ireland simultaneously bowed to Chaila’s greatness and admitted that this was the least they could do.
As one commentator put it, the Choice prize needed Chaila more than Chaila needed it. Does she too see this win as the first step in a bigger plan or the accumulation of almost a decade of hard work?
“For me, Denise Chaila, my narrative spins far beyond what this moment is, but I want this moment to be special and part of making it special was making it healthy for me” she replies, diplomatically, “I honestly tried so hard not think about it until five minutes before they announced it, to keep it healthy for myself, to make this about my career and not make myself happy or sad for three weeks depending on the results”.
In March, there was an interview published that was so deep and readable. A beautiful feature from District Magazine in Ireland, it is something that everyone should read in full. One of my favourite parts of the interview is what Chaila says about success. Rather than fame or money, she is a definite role model:
“Denise Chaila is a musician on a dream trajectory. In the brief two years since the release of her debut EP Copper Bullet/Duel Citizenship, the Zambian-born, Limerick-based rapper has propelled herself out of the category of ‘One-To-Watch’ into becoming Ireland’s eminent breakout star. The past year has been a wild ride for Chaila with the release of her debut mixtape Go Bravely winning her fans across Ireland and further beyond. The most recent milestone in Chaila’s extraordinary journey is winning the Choice Music Prize’s much-coveted Album Of The Year Award.
Winning Album of the Year with a mixtape is certainly a flex but, for Chaila, glory largely lies in the impact her victory may have on the communities she’s a part of. “It means that I’m the first Black woman, Black femme, who won the award. Right? That’s a really big deal. It means there’s a really large Zambian community in Ireland, who felt very, very invested in the Choice this year because of me, in a way that they haven’t felt invested before, and had access to a conversation that they didn’t have a desire or permission to have access to prior to it” says Chaila. “That excites me, and, enthuses me that I was able to be instrumental in that journey. I think it means that what I’m doing musically, in terms of rap and hip-hop is being recognized and canonized in a way that I didn’t anticipate”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Shane Serrano and Jameson
Chaila’s victory feels like a symbol of change for the Irish music landscape. In the time since hip-hop’s first Choice Prize success through Rusangano Family’s Let The Dead Bury The Dead, Irish hip-hop has been shouldering the heavy label of a ‘rising scene’. Go Bravely’s rapturousreception has pushed Chaila, and the entire genre, into becoming a mainstream mainstay – this is no longer music on the outskirts, hip-hop is now becoming a dominant force. Chaila is tentative in her views on what the award means for the genre as a whole. “I think that it’s important to remember that things can have many meanings. It’s impossible to see where they will end up until we have the privilege of hindsight. I think for now, what it means is that we’re giving permission to ourselves to celebrate and acknowledge different kinds of people” considers Chaila. “The way we continue to do that, to me, is going to say whether or not we are moving away from a certain sound or whether we had a moment. I, for one, feel really, really safe in an Ireland that can celebrate me and Ailbhe Reddy and Pillow Queens and Fontaines DC at the same time”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Shane Serrano and Jameson
Rather than taking a break and letting success settle in, Chaila has gone straight back to writing. “I’m always writing. Actually, I haven’t stopped writing since I released Go Bravely. I think I’ve been in the studio since some point in mid-September last year and I haven’t really gotten out”. Unfazed by the pressure of writing a follow-up to her debut, Chaila’s confidence in her new work is infectious. “’I’m very lucky that I’m not concerned with the sophomore curse because actually the stuff that I was writing in December, bro, like I think I wrote my best song ever last month and I’m so excited because I’m getting better”.
Chaila draws upon the interconnected relationship between hip-hop and the literary voice as an inspiration to her new “more mature” sound. “Voice as a part of Black work is something that is really profound, it’s really profoundly sacred. Actually, if you listen to James Baldwin speak or Maya Angelou reading her own poetry, or Audrey Lorde reading her essays or Rakim spitting bars, or Erykah Badu, you start to realize that there’s something very important about the multiplicity in the way a voice can be used” Chaila says. “Hip hop as an art form was crafted so that people could have the freedom to use their voice liberally in ways that in their day-to-day life, they might not have been permitted to. Rap is poetry and the only reason why we don’t recognize it as a legitimate form of art is racism”.
Prior to a positive review for the brilliant It’s a Mixtape, PAM interviewed Chaila in November. Although, as a successful Black rapper in Limerick, she is in a minority, Chaila has a very healthy and interesting approach to the scene there. It is about working-class voices having their say and finding a platform:
“And how did your Zambian background inform your worldview?
The truth is, I don’t know. I’m still figuring that out actually.
Me and my sister, we used to say that when we’re in Ireland, we’re considered Zambian. In Zambia, we’re considered Irish. No one ever gave us the respect and the honor of saying that you’re just from where you are.
It feels sometimes like there’s a wall to climb where you have to almost apologize for foreignness and prove that you belong somewhere. I think if you put someone in that system long enough, they’ll start to ask themselves questions.
But there is no right thing. Nobody has the ability to let you know that, finally, you belong. You’re gonna meet someone who tries to exclude you. Someone else whose identity depends on you being other. And it’s really nice to know that you can be the person who grants that to yourself.
What can you tell us about the rap scene in Limerick and in Ireland?
For a very long time, Irishness was devoid of a black consciousness and devoid of black voices to advocate for their black consciousnesses, plural. I think what’s happening in Ireland in terms of hip hop, is that a lot of people have been finding their voices.
I noticed that a lot of the conversation is about class. It’s about working class people having their voices finally heard. It’s about landlords. It’s about economic abuse.
Then Limerick, I find that the nexus of this is really, really expressed because Limerick has been called the wastebasket of Ireland, it is a place that is diminished and denigrated a lot. it used to be called stab city as a way to deter people from going there because you know, this is gangland.
But the thing that is happening in Ireland in terms of rap, what is Irish rap? It is an opportunity. It is people giving themselves an opportunity to redefine Irishness for themselves, and to challenge systems of oppression.
So what’s happening is that we’re seeing an excess of change and we’re seeing people speaking truth to power. And I think that if you care about watching something emerge from its grassroots, you should look at Irish hip hop and you should study the people and you should come and hang out”.
Denise Chaila is going to be making music for decades more. She is a hugely inspiring artist who, as I mentioned, will be a future legend. It’s a Mixtape is another example of what a fabulous artist she is. Everything Is Noise wrote the following about one of last year’s strongest releases:
“It’s A Mixtape shows a different side to Chaila’s artistry, with subtle changes in style and feel to both Duel Citizenship and Go Bravely. Opener “061”, a reference to the area code of Limerick, where Chaila is based, seems like a perfect opener for a live set. High energy and littered with intricate wordplay, “061” highlights Chaila’s self-belief and confidence. The eerie synth perfectly complements the track, with things kept interesting musically with constantly changing beats and electronics. “Might Be” slows things down a little, with the gentle flow leaving much room for Chaila’s artistry. ‘Just ’cause I’m nice don’t mean that I’m not designed to rain hell on anything that comes for my people, my family, my dreams, my purpose, my history, my genome’ comes the lyric, summing up both the artist and the music succinctly.
Whilst the opening two tracks are peppered with phrases or lines that challenge the listener to step back and look at themselves, it is the powerful “I A M” that steals the show lyrically on It’s A Mixtape. Over ethereal backing, the message is clear – ‘All of my heart is worthy/Nobody else has the right to tell my story‘. The track with the least backing, for me, remains the most hard-hitting, even if the track that follows tries to steal its thunder. “Energy”, at first, feels like an instant crowd-pleaser. Big production, brass leading the way, and energetic delivery all point to the track being a radio-friendly single. That is, until the beat drops to almost nothing, allowing Chaila to deliver another passage of inspiration, citing influential writers, musicians, and politicians (yeah, there are a handful of good ones) amongst others. It is another moment, in the growing list of this particular artist, where the audience is forced to open their ears and take in a message.
It’s A Mixtape concludes with the wonderfully titled and assumedly Lord of the Rings-inspired “Return of the King” (coupled with an earlier reference to the Riders of Rohan). If you wanted a quick introduction to Denise Chaila, this would be as good a place as any to start. The beat here is wonderfully put together, driving the track when needed and knowing exactly where to drop out to give space. ‘Your transphobia is whack/Your homophobia is whack‘ Chaila rasps, a reminder, if it is needed, to call out bigotry anywhere it is seen. Despite comparing herself to Kanye West, it is clear that Chaila’s star continues to burn off its own energy.
Chaila is an artist who continues to grow with each release. There may be little references and nods to other artists throughout the work, but Denise Chaila is an artist intent on paving their own path, with their own tools. All releases thus far have been something more than music. Every bar, every sound, every word feels like it has been carefully planned and put there for a reason, either to deliver a message, or set up the delivery of a message. If you haven’t yet heard Denise Chaila, it’s time to set aside twenty minutes of your day to take in It’s A Mixtape”.
There is no telling just how far Chaila can go as an artist. She won a Music Moves Europe Award for Ireland earlier in the week! With such a strong voice, watching her music go around the world and seeing it move and educate people is genuinely thrilling. A mesmeric songwriter and performer, I am very keen to see her perform live (let’s hope this is possible soon). I feel Chaila is going to join the ranks of the greats in the years to come. The spellbinding and always-wonderful Denise Chaila is…
A voice of a generation.