INTERVIEW: Tkay Maidza on her new album 'Sweet Justice': "I'm entering a new chapter and I feel stronger than ever and more excited and sure of where I'm going."

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Dana Trippe

Zimbabwean-born, Australian-raised, Los Angeles-based rapper, singer and producer Tkay Maidza is one of the greatest and most multi-talented young artist in music today. Since first releasing music in 2013, she has authentically inhabited multiple genres, including synthpop, electronica, rap, hip-hop and R&B, steadily attracting more and more global attention with every release.

She has recently released her second album Sweet Justice and it is an album that demonstrates her absolutely mastery of her art. An R&B infused album in the main, it also covers rap, pop and hip-hop. Born from a period of personal darkness that ultimately led Maidza to an epiphany, it is in many ways a breakup record, but not necessarily the breakup of a romantic relationship. It breaking up with your past, reclaiming self and removing bad influences as Maidza lets go her self-doubt and warped sense of self, the idea that she should stick to any one lane and ejects the toxic figures that populated her life before. For Maidza, Sweet Justice is a rebirth album, harnessing the feminine power that was innate in her the whole time. 

Like everything Maidza does, the album is a melting pop of sounds, genres and vibes, perhaps perfectly illustrated by the first three tracks. The sweet, smooth R&B ‘Love and Other Drugs’ opens the album before moving into the hard, edgy rap and hip-hop of ‘WUACV’ which deals with the depth of anger Maidza feels towards people that manipulated her in the past: ‘I just woke up and chose violence’ is a repeated hook throughout the song. Third track ‘Out of Luck’, featuring Amber Mark and Lolo Zouaï, is a delicious pop number with a funky beat, infectious melodies and a soaring vocal from Maidza.

Latest single ‘Won One’ is a R&B track that is reminiscent of the late 1990s, early 2000s golden era of R&B, and was written in response to the misogyny Maidza has encountered in the music industry. “You remind me of a guy that I let go / You remind me of a friend that got too close / You remind me of a man that lied to hold me up,” she sings.

“‘Won One’ was therapeutic to write. I don’t feel bad about anything that I said,” Maidza says of the song. “It was almost like automatic writing – I didn’t overthink it, I didn’t edit any word that I put in."

‘Love Again’ is a gorgeous, dreamy yet melancholic pop-R&B track with faint undercurrents of Middle Eastern sounds. Lyrically Maidza questions love and her relationship: “Typical of me to think that you were changing for me / Typical of me to jump conclusions / Promise myself I could never love again / Should never love again / Would nеver love again”

On album highlight ‘Ghost!’ Maidza embraces synth-electro pop in a glorious dancefloor gem, with straightforward lyrics that belie the bright and breezy beats, as Maidza cuts off completely the toxic people from her life, in effect ghosting them. “Keep talking that shit to me / We can cut it off instantly / About time having that epiphany / That you never were meant for me”. ‘Ghost!’ merges seamlessly into second single ‘Ring-A-Ling’, two songs widely different sonically but tie together perfectly lyrically. While ‘Ghost!’ sees Maidza throwing people out of her life, ‘Ring-A-Ling’ showcases the positive changes that has brought, as Maidza takes control of her life and owns her talent, ambition and brilliance.

“I wanted to make an empowering song that tells others that my biggest focus are my goals,” she said on the song’s release.

‘Our Way’ is a slinky, sensuous pop-R&B track, which could be both a petition to a indecisive lover (‘Tired out with excuses / It ain't going down if you ain't all in’) or a manifestation of Maidza’s new found confidence. (‘You can't hope if you don't try…Take your time, get it right / New level need elevation / Outrun my own expectations’), while ‘Gone to the West’ with Duckwrth is a breezy, alt-pop track that blends rap, R&B, pop with a touch of hip-hop.

The album ends on ‘Walking On Air’, a beautiful bookend to Maidza’s personal struggles and journey that informed Sweet Justice. A pop song with a squelchy electronic beat, Maidza raps the verses and sings the choruses. Throughout the lyrics, Maidza finds a place of peace after the pain of the past few years: ‘True happiness is the test / I finally found I belong when I defeated my stress / A pocket filled with plenty dreams now stapled straight to my chest’. Maidza told Apple Music the song is about her blind optimism. “The concept was about almost wanting to be in this state of blissful ignorance and being okay with it,” she said. “Nothing really matters as long as I’m sitting in this ‘ignorance is bliss’ state of mind and just being okay with not knowing what’s going to happen.”

Sweet Justice is a highlight of Maidza’s career, in a career that in all honesty has been overflowing with highlights. Its soundscape switches quite dramatically between softer, euphoric pop, to gritty, harder hip hop but never in a way that is disorientating or alienating and the album remains a cohesive whole. The true variety in the sounds on Sweet Justice is a rarity in music, and is indicative of Maidza innate musical genius.

Maidza is a remarkable musician and Sweet Justice more than justifies why she is constantly being talked about as a future superstar. We recently caught up with her to chat all about the creation of the album.

Hi Tkay, I’m so glad we are chatting today.
Me too. Thanks for having me and for the constant support

We’re such fans of your musical genius and always have been. Sweet Justice is such a heavyweight album and, hand on my heart, I got teary multiple times in such a joyful way listening to this album. It is so rich.
Thank you. That means so much. It's definitely feels like I'm overcoming something. It came from me trying to be honest with myself and just accepting the moment for what it was. I’m really proud of it.

It's such an encompassing album and you are someone that just exists musically in a world where you give a massive middle finger to genres.
Yeah, I mean, that's how I consume music. I don't listen to one genre, I'm not looking for one mood. So I feel like that just translates into how I make music, because I'm never feeling the exact same every day. Even if I'm happy, there's so many different contexts to what that even means. It’s fun to have started my career in that way and continue, because I didn't think there's any other way I would do it.

Absolutely, and it's so beautiful to hear as well. It's such a wonderful part of music at this time as well, people like streaming has changed music and the way we get songs, but one of the most beautiful aspects of that is artists have so much more room to experiment.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people have freedom. When I first started, I felt like I was one of the very few who were almost in that chameleon-esque world, so it's nice that it's more culturally respected now and acceptable. Now I'm just like, cool, now I can do this at a high level, and not have people asking whether I can do it or not. It's possible.

When I heard this album, and then of course when I saw your recent amazing cover of ‘Kill Bill’ on Like A Version, it's not the same, but it's got that same feeling I had when I listened to SZA’s SOS, because of its eclectic nature. I want to talk to you about new single ‘Won One’ This is such a good track Can you talk to me a little bit about this one?
I made this song with Stint and and he co-produced it In that session, we started another song and it had a completely different vibe. I remember him playing just the chords of ‘Won One’ and immediately the chorus came straight to my head. I feel like that's what was on my mind, this idea of constantly running into red flags, and it reminding me of what I'd gone through that whole year. When you go through three year cycles, there's always a final beast and a year and a half ago I had a friend that I've known for ages and they basically became who they told me to run away from. So that was one of those moments where I was like, oh my god, I can see small aspects of so many people I've known and I can see the red flags easier now. It's about being able to identify that, and also it felt empowering to be able to speak from that point of view because it takes falling down and building yourself back up to even be able to speak about it.

Historically, women have been sold this notion that we need to, not just mother everyone, but we also need to fix the broken people.
Yeah, you have to fix them. One thing I've noticed is whenever I overcome those kinds of challenges, I feel like they think you're going to stay there forever, they want this unwavering loyalty. It’s kind of like ‘No matter what, we're going to get through this’. But you don't have to stick to anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, or that isn't working anymore. It's not your problem, we all have problems and you don't have to some things just add to your bandwidth of who you are and what you can do for someone else. You don't have to deal with it. You have your own life.

It's time to step away. The whole album, like I said, there's some really hard hitters, but at the same time, it's delivered with such joy. I want to talk to you about recent single ‘WUACV’. It’s dark electronic pop there, very reminiscent of early 2000s, but what is so beautiful is the way you deliver it, the power in it. It reminded me of Rico Nasty’s ‘Poppin’’. There's something so wonderful, and joyful, about hearing a woman’s rage and you deliver it amazingly.
It’s really important for me, I really love Rico Nasty and like you said, it's empowering, but it's almost hilarious that a girl can be that mad. We need that. And in that song, it was one of those days where I was like, let's just make something abrasive. It was almost too abrasive that I had to come back to a month later, I didn't know if it make sense at that moment. But when I was finishing the album, I had like this industrial rap side and then the singing side, so it's really important to still cover that base. I just found it really fun and really challenging as well, because I don't generally have a lot of space in my writing when I'm doing rap. So it was a cool challenge to do that push and pull with the track and have space. The breaks are kind funny because you're like, ‘she's waiting to unleash, but she kind of doesn’t’, but it still sounds really aggressive at the same time. So it was a really fun exercise.

It's so good and it's so nice to hear it delivered by female artists because you are singing about violence and rage and when it's delivered by men, it's a different kind of threat but with women there's something very liberating about it. It’s delivered with kindness and solidarity. It’s an actually a beautiful song.
I love that you say that, especially when you're talking about ‘Kill Bill’, because I feel like that song in the album is like the ultimate kill them with kindness, you know?

Exactly! You spoke just before about trying to find space and having to revisit a song and trying to find where your rap is. Are you forcing your way through, or do you just naturally gravitate towards various sounds? Do you ever feel overwhelmed?
Um yeah, kind of, but I just go based on instinct and intuition of what I remember. There's definitely some songs that I'm like, ‘Oh, this is sick!’ but if I don't remember it two months from now, then I just have to let it go. It's almost like promising a friend you're gonna hang out, and then after like three months of you going back and forth about it and it never happens it's just time just stop asking each other to do this and just let it happen naturally, I'll see you when I see you. Maybe I'll revisit the song in four years, or maybe I'll make 50 new songs that are a completely new me kind of thing. Generally I go based on how I feel, and if there's an immediate feeling, which is what I had for all the songs of the album. I was like, everyone has to hear every single song, this is a new version of me. I just go by that and anything else that is unnecessary I just let it be.

That’s so good. You've got, ‘Out of Luck’, and it's not just pop, it's funk-disco within a lust inspired night drive. There's so many avenues tothe album, but I feel like they just flow into each other so beautifully. Can I ask you, how did you go about bookending the album and creating the order? Was there a theme there?
There's definitely a theme of overcoming, and sometimes deep sadness. And then there is also just anger. I had this goal that I wanted to have four rap songs, four house songs, and then there was this funky pop that I really wanted to do. I made a lot of those, and then I picked the strongest ones. There were other songs that were really great, but they just didn't make sense with the tracklisting and the flow. We sat there and listened to the album front to back a few times, if something was too long, or it didn't make sense it didn’t make it this time. It was just, once again, intuition, and if it makes sense and if it felt true to me of the snapshot of where I was.

On that, tell me how Sweet Justice came about.
After [EP trilogy] Last Year Was Weird, it was really interesting, because I had the weirdest year,straight after I finished those EPS, which is kind of ironic. I spent most of that year writing a lot of songs that were really sad and I just didn't feel right about them because I don't necessarily like to write depressing music, it's just not who I am. So I took a break for six months, and I was getting tarot readings and every reading would generally end with the Justice card, I was told, karma will come back and if you're coming from a place of integrity, then you'll be fine. If you're being weird or sneaky, then karma’s gonna get you. It was funny, because during that process I had to let go friends and I felt bad because I was like, I really hope people see them for who they are because I'm not the bad person in this situation. I just focused on myself and I was like, the whole justice thing makes sense because I was thinking sweet revenge but I'm not seeking revenge. I'm just gonna let it be, so that's kind of how I came to Sweet Justice.

I love that, put the revenge in the universe's hands.
Yeah, that’s Justice basically, Let everyone else deal with it and I'm just gonna enjoy the ride and try and be healthy.

I love that so much. You spent a lot of your time growing up in Adelaide, and Australia in general is not a welcoming hub for Australian female artists, let alone when they're rapping or experimenting with electronica. How did you find your sound and stick to your guns in this place?
I am such an internet kid, so I feel in that situation where I felt like the outcast, I never felt like I was competing or looking at anyone local. You look at like FKA Twigs, Rihanna, Missy Elliott, that's what I was always trying to make, and that's what I was basing everything on. I feel like whenever I make music or do anything, I want to do it on a world stage. There's that sense of being aware that I'm not really being accepted, but it was interesting because the more I was becoming myself, it started gaining more attention and I was more accepted. Everyone's like, wait, she's cool, wait she's Australian? It was just this weird, double edged sword I've never really been accepted, even when I was a kid I was always the odd one out, so I've just learned to enjoy life in my own world. I feel like when you do that, people can sense your energy and they're drawn to it.

I think you've just pretty much told the story of every successful female artists in Australia with that line - ‘wait, she's cool.’ It’s always when they go abroad and they do other things, then Australia goes, oh, hang on, yeah, she's cool.
Yeah, and literally I get DMs from Australians that are like, ‘I didn't know you were Australian'!’ And I'm like, yeah, thanks. I've always been the same, but I'm glad you're catching up now. I guess.

Tkay at one point you were like almost a pro tennis player, and that's intense. How has that level of dedication shaped your persistence in your creative endeavours, if any?
Tennis is definitely one of those sports where, if you're not good enough, you have to put in the hours to become better. So it's that, and also, I played singles so it's you on the court, no one else can help you in the most important moments and I think I've just taken that on with my career. I definitely have moments where I'm like, oh, my God, I have to go and do this by myself. There's some songs that I really believe in, and maybe some people around me, in the past haven't and I just have to be like, I'm just gonna go into the pit by myself, it’s fine..I had to do that for ten years so there's a sense of bravery of you have to do what you haven't done before, and to see something you haven't seen or to enter a new chapter of your life. Those are the lessons I've really learned and it's so relevant with so many artists as well.

I love that. You just been like a warrior forever, on the court, in your music, it’s amazing.
Yeah, just me jumping off the cliff by myself every time! Also you have to mentally prepare yourself and I think a lot of successful artists, they have a plan and they've seen every avenue that it can go and know when to expect the worst, but know you're gonna be fine. I might have people with opposing opinions, but it's like, don't worry, I've analysed my counterparts who I'm “competing” with and I think this is good enough or better or it's at the same level, so I should be okay. That's usually how I analyse it.

Awesome. I love that, it reminds of the Terminator eye, you’ve got this eye and you can suss everything out. Yeah, you're seeing who's new, who's the best and you play a song next to other people's songs and you're like, ‘I think this is good enough’. So worst case scenario, it's not gonna be that bad you know?

I want to ask you a little about your visuals because you go all in. Your music is an all sensory experience. ‘Ring-A-Ling’, I lost my mind. ‘Shook’ I was all over the shop. You clearly love it, has music always been a visual thing for you as well?
Yeah, I'm a visual person, firstly, before I'm musical. I remember before I started writing music, I would listen to artists and be like ‘oh my god, I can imagine them running in the desert, and then they break out into the dance’. For me, if I'm writing something, and I can imagine a music video, it motivates me more to finish it. It also helps me understand where the song should go, how would this look visually, and then I try to match it up that way. So it's really important to me.

Gorgeous. You've got the Sweet Justice Tour coming Australia, which is exciting. Are we going to get some exciting visuals?
Yeah, I’m really excited. We've definitely upgraded the show. I have an LED screen now and I've had the visual artists that helped me do the album cover curate some visuals for specific songs, and it's cool because some of them go under water and it's really massive. I'm really excited.

Amazing. Obviously, we have Sweet Justice, that's amazing. You're continuously creating music by the sounds of it and visuals and touring. What else is coming up for you?
Just like more music. I'm entering a new chapter, it's been 10 years for me in music, so I feel stronger than ever and more excited and sure of where I'm going. It’s going to be the same thing, but stepping up.

Sweet Justice is out now via Dew Process and Universal Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Tkay Maidza, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.