The Hip Hop African

Nadia Nakai- More Drugs (feat. Tshego)

Hip Hop in Africa has mainly been dominated by male artists. However, in the last 10 years, women have been making a name for themselves in hip-hop. Artists like Nadia Nakai.  

Nadia Nakai is a South African rapper. She was born in South Africa  Her father is South African and her mother is Zimbabwean. made her first television appearance on the e.tv hip hop show Shiz Niz where she won the Mixtape 101 competition, making her the first female to win the competition. She started releasing music professionally in 2016 under her label, Universal Music.

In 2020, Nadia released her smash hit, “More Drugs” featuring South African artist, Tshego. The song is about the heartbreak that Nakai went through and how she overcame it. According to timeslive: “Nadia Nakai on how heartbreak helped her create her ‘masterpiece’ “ by Kyle Zeeman, it states that,”Rapper Nadia Nakai’s heartbreak after she and Major League DJ Bandile Mbere split helped fuel the emotions that power her debut album, Nadia Naked. 

When discussing the meaning behind the title and story of the song, Zeeman states that “Nadia speaks about love and missing someone, comparing it to an addict craving drugs”. Additionally, Zeeman states how it was a difficult time in Nadia’s life, which she wanted to put into her music. Nadia said, “Obviously I am not a drug addict but it’s going through heartache that makes you want to take something to numb the pain, because it is not subsiding or going away”. This is why Nadia Nakai features in the music video where she is dragging the dead body who is the person who broke her heart. The fact that she shows the length she went because of the pain she felt after the relationship and how love can/will make you do crazy things. 

Nadia Nakai is one of the few female rappers representing South Africa and still has made a huge impact with her music and how she has a unique flow and pen.