In a league of her own

A beat assassin would be one way to describe musician Lioness - she’s been creating and mastering a global sound since bursting onto the scene. With a new single out, tjil caught up with her to talk new music and more.

Lioness shared that she is doing great, adding that things are changing very fast, but she is happy that she is healthy and still able to do what she loves.

Even though she could not share much on the forthcoming ‘Dance and Dance’ EP, she was happy to let us in on the making of her latest single ‘Linyenga’ featuring Falz from Nigeria.

Digitally released on Wednesday, 2 March, Lioness made history by being the first ever Namibian artist to be featured as the cover of Apple Music Playlist.

“Working on this song was very different for me. I worked with Chris Wayne very closely. It was a lengthy process, but we were determined to amplify what was already there.

“We recorded it last year around July, thus it was a little bit of a hassle, but I believe good things come to those who wait and we waited for some time to get it ready,” she said.

Conquering fan bases

Namibia has a broad market with so many musical genres - from kwaito, shambo and Oviritje to Afropop, hip-hop and more. Asked how she plans to conquer any fan with these broad dynamics, Lioness said: “I do believe that I stick to what I know. I unfortunately cannot do all the genres, but I am able to bring myself as a brand into those different genres.

“The fact that I learnt to diversify myself as an artist from the beginning has helped me a lot. I dropped ‘Dreams’ which I consider shambo and followed it up with ‘Tala’, which is more of an Afropop song but I predominantly rap,” the musician said, adding that it is very exciting for her to be able to lean on these different types of genres, understand them and experiment because that is how she can conquer different fan bases.

“I have to be authentically myself. I can’t do kwaito, but I can rap on a kwaito song. I also know that it is impossible to keep all fans to yourself. I won’t capture kwaito fans of off one kwaito song, but hip-hop is always my love and I try to use her as best as I can.”

Pushing the envelope

Known to always push the envelope as far as music videos are concerned, Lioness promised that she has exciting visuals in the pipeline.

“You guys will be seeing a lot of me this year. A body of work is coming; I just unfortunately can’t share when and what it is about at this stage.”

tjil also engaged brand consultant Thomas Iitula, who is entrusted to manage Lioness’ music affairs. He mentioned that working with the rapper is different from his other clients.

“The music world is so different, it involves a lot of technical aspects, a lot of back and forth. The music production phase is so long and demands a lot of creativity. It is completely a different ball game for me,” he said.

As management, Iitula’s objectives with ‘Linyenga’ is to get it everywhere. “This is something different from Lioness; it’s a new sound that will introduce her to new markets,” he said.

Perfecting the craft

On his working relationship with recently-wed rapper, Iitula said Lioness is the type of person who knows what she wants.

He added that she can seem stubborn, but that’s because she is very consistent and a perfectionist when it comes to her craft.

“She taught me so much about the music business in a short period of time. We clash a lot, but at the end of the day, we all want her to win,” he said.

On what he hopes to teach her in return, the brand consultant mentioned patience and more about the branding side of things.