Tkay Maidza finds herself in La La Land
The Adelaide rapper has relocated to Los Angeles ahead of the third volume of her Last Year Was Weird EP series to dream bigger, shake off genre labels and grow outside the confines of Australia.
9 February 2021
9 February 2021
Tkay Maidza is gazing into a screen, her stare piercing through the grain her webcam cloaks her respective Zoom tile in. She sits by a window with the Los Angeles afternoon sun beaming on her face, her skin glowing. Following an internet connection drop-out and an abrupt, accidental Zoom call disconnection, she s still on the couch ready to continue chatting, her focus palpable.
With a semester of online classes, many of us have lost the simple joy of strolling through campus with earbuds blaring, and full-blown concerts still feel like an unrealistic daydream.
Well I’d be loathe to call 2020 a great year, because it was genuinely horrible, but at least it was enlivened by some fantastic music. The tragedy is that, in a year that afforded artists the freedom to write and record at their leisure, the very industry upon which their art relies (concerts, tours, festivals and dance floors) ground to a halt. Legendary venues, bars and nightclubs have closed across the globe and a host of promising musicians, have had to return to their day jobs (presuming that they still exist).
So while it is worth celebrating the outpouring of creativity that the Covid-19 pandemic unleashed, the incredible cost in lives and mental well being should not be forgotten – and nor should the cost to the music industry at large. 2020 might end up being a great year for Spotify and Apple Music, but a terrible one for the flesh and blood musicians behind the algorithms.
2020 Top Ten List Spotlight: 90.TEEN DJ Sofiiak
Over the past weeks, we ve been spotlighting our
KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2020. Tune in on Friday, December 18th as KEXP counts down the Top 90.3 Albums of 2020, as voted on by our listeners! And check out more top albums from KEXP DJs here.
Sofiiak s 2020 Top Ten Albums
rank