Tkay Maidza isn’t your everyday Aussie rapper. The 21-year-old’s ability to consistently make music that completely redefines what we’ve come to expect from our local hip-hop artists is endlessly impressive. “I always wanted to push boundaries and I don't really have a conventional way of doing anything,” Tkay says. “I'm always trying to do something that I feel like I haven't heard, or something that I would like to see be done, ”she adds. The swirling mixture of rap, dance and pop music that the Zimbabwe-born, Adelaide-based rapper has concocted with world-renowned producers like What So Not and Salva sounds like nothing we’ve heard in the Australian landscape before.
The fact that she’s so startlingly creative without even having to try that hard makes it all the more remarkable. “I don't intend to do it all the time, I think it's just me being bored or just wanting to challenge myself,” she says. For Tkay, music is just one outlet that happens to casually turn into banging hip-house jams that millions around the world want to stream. “I'm writing a song, because I want to write a song – and then people find use for them,“ she says.
That daring attitude–to simply make what she wants because she wants to–comes from her musical heroes, like M.I.A., Santigold and Azealia Banks. She loves people who are willing to be audacious, particularly in their art. “You can just tell that when they made it they weren't scared of anything,” she says. “When I would listen to their stuff a lot, I was like, they just sound so free and that's what I want to reflect.” Being comfortable saying just two words or two hundred on a track without ever second-guessing yourself is something she knew her heroes felt confident doing, and if you listen to Tkay’s music now, it’s clear she’s been able to incorporate that fearlessness in her own work too.
And that’s just what sets her apart as an artist. As a person, she’s never been used to being boxed in. “Some people like to fit into something, and for me, I don't really like fitting in,“ she says. Instead, Tkay is constantly trying to move forward: “I'm always trying to push for something new and I never really want to be comfortable,” she explains. She’s not afraid of telling people what she wants either. “I'm bold and blunt with everything,” she says. “It’s all or nothing; if it's going to be weird, it's going to be weird and I'll be fine with it.”
That all-or-nothing attitude entirely explains her work ethic too. Interestingly, the place it probably all started was on the tennis court. Before all the success in music, Tkay was a gifted teen athlete – there was all the possibility that could have been another viable career option for her. When she looks back on that time, her abilities on the court were comparable to her current attitude in the studio. “I hit harder than everyone else, and I was training more than everyone else was,” she says. While some people around her would only practise when they were supposed to, for Tkay, only putting in half was never an option.
Her parents even bought her a ball machine, and when most kids would be getting their sleep-in for the week, she’d be out on the court serving on a Saturday morning. “I think it's just in my blood; I've just been taught that I should always do more than I'm supposed to do,” she says. Her advice to those hustling the same way is simple: “If you want to be really good at something, you should spend more time than other people would.”
Regardless of how much she put into it, Tkay moved around a lot, and she found it difficult to figure out a comfortable playing style. “When you move to the city, you find people stronger than you and they have different ways of playing,” she says. Because of that, she had to switch up her own technique a lot, but that ended up as a gift rather than a curse: “Being able to adapt to different situations is probably one of my strengths,” she says.
Her work ethic, in combination with that adaptability has ensured her success in everything she’s put her mind to so far. Living in Western Australia for six years, then moving to country South Australia before eventually transferring to the city meant Tkay went to four different primary schools and three separate high schools. Constantly moving around, she was met with many challenges, especially from those that were less than accepting. “That taught me just to be really independent and focus on myself,” she says. And at the end of the day, it all led to her creating the art she does today: “That's what my music's about, finding yourself through being isolated.”
“I think it's just in my blood; I've just been taught that I should always do more than I'm supposed to do.”
Perhaps the ultimate step in standing out on her own was dropping her self-titled album TKAY in 2016. “I definitely think the album was really a leap out of my comfort zone,” she says. There was less commitment involved in creating her 2014 EP Switchtape; making the shift to album format was much more serious. Tkay had to go from simply responding to the situations that arose to actively setting targets and laying out what the album should be, and should do. “It was less reacting and actually just making a plan and working into it, so it's a lot scarier,” she says. “It was just a large body of work and a long time coming and a lot of people were waiting for it – so it was a leap of faith,” she said. Luckily for us, that leap was an agile pounce into the primetime, giving us a project that broke new ground and sounds like nothing else out there right now. Tkay is well aware of the reason why she needed to push herself to do it too: “That’s how you grow,” she says. “If you're comfortable, then you'll never learn anything – because you don't think that you should learn anything.”
As someone who thinks outside the box, continually challenges themselves to step out of their comfort zone, and is adaptable, daring and free, it makes a lot of sense that Tkay would rock Nike’s latest blend of tech and style in the VaporMax. She’s long been a fan of the quality that Air Max and Nike always bring to their kicks:“You can tell the difference between a shoe that feels like a brick and a shoe that feels like you're wearing nothing,” she says. She’s a frequent user of Nike’s running app as well, and has appreciated being able to develop her technique and ability thanks to the tech on her phone and on her feet: “It's just been really nice to grow along with my Nikes,” she says.
Tkay describes the VaporMax as the new innovative, futuristic edition of Nike Air. “It's cool, it looks really sleek,” she says. The white-on-white colourway appeals to her the most: “For me white shoes are really special; it’s something that you have in your house and look at it and don't wear”, she jokes. And despite how often she leaps out of her comfort zone, stepping out in something that feels as luxurious as it is visually striking is still important. For her, the VaporMax is the one: “It literally feels like you're not wearing anything; it's just like you're stepping on cushions,” she says. “It's comfort and style put together, and it's nice and shiny – it’s the future.”
Complex have partnered with Nike to introduce the Revolutionairs who are defying convention in their chosen field. Don’t miss your chance to get the Nike Air VaporMax the moment it drops.
