TITICA: Africa’s Tightest Female MC?

by AIGERIM SAPAROVA

TITICA RAPS TIGHT via DynamicAfrica

It was just another song that you heard playing at the club last night. Your head was bobbing, body swaying, and you craved her flow and that bass like no other – you wanted it to play again and again.

Maybe you didn’t know that the lightning quick fire of “Ablua” is by TITICA, a 25-year-old kuduro pop star from Luanda, Angola.

Titica is a transsexual. For some, this may be an insignificant detail but for others it’s quite a pill to swallow. She’s also no stranger to prejudice. Titica has been beaten and stoned before. But growing up in a majority-Catholic country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by hard labor has not diminished her sexual confidence and electric personality.  In fact, she has quickly amassed a dedicated fan base and become the new face of kuduro, Angola’s unique urban rap-techno fusion music style. With rhymes on end, Titica could definitely go toe to toe with Azealia Banks.

“Ablua” is the second single off her first album, Chão, released in December 2011. Unless your feet are glued to the floor you can’t help but tap them to the rhythm of this bombastic track. 1:52 onward is quite brilliant—the way she stomps the earth and how clouds of smoke and dust sweep up from her feet. Perhaps this reflects Titica’s shaking up ideas about African gender and sexuality.

Titica was first involved with kuduro as a backup dancer for popular acts such as Noite e Dia, Própria Lixa, and Puto Portugeus. Since the adoption of her new persona five years back, Titica has compiled an impressive record of musical feats in the local Angolan music scene as well as other Portuguese-speaking countries.

MOTIF LIGHT SHOW via DuttyArtz