Fifi (6)

The story of this young songbird begins in the jazzy township streets of South Africa’s New Orleans, Mamelodi, east of Pretoria. Fifi, as she is fondly known to her fans, was only fifteen when she started attending rap circles held at the Pretoria city centre on Friday afternoons. And so it was that before an audience of unforgiving critics performing a piece about Biko on September 12 at the turn of the century, a star was born.

From humble beginnings after being discovered and featured by Pretoria’s premier Hip Hop group, BA4ZA, Fifi went on to appear on the self titled sophomore of Tumi & The Volume in 2005. She performed at the annual Oppikoppi festival in the same year. But to say Fifi’s style is solely Hip Hop would be injustice to this versatile child of song. A fusion of spoken word guided by Hip Hop fundamentals wrapped in a hybrid of funked up soul and jazz beats would be a little more precise.