INTERVIEW | THATKID_AFRICANFANTA DISCUSSES NEW SINGLE ‘BEEN A MINUTE’

‘BEEN A MINUTE’ IS OUT NOW

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We had the pleas­ure of sit­ting down with ThatKid_AfricanFanta, the tal­en­ted artist behind the cap­tiv­at­ing song “Been A Minute.” In this insight­ful inter­view, ThatKid_AfricanFanta shares their inspir­a­tions, writ­ing pro­cess, and the unique sound of their music. She delves into the mes­sages con­veyed in her lyr­ics and the import­ance of giv­ing a voice to taboo sub­jects and sens­it­ive emo­tions. Draw­ing from her cul­tur­al back­ground and upbring­ing, ThatKid_AfricanFanta dis­cusses how her her­it­age influ­ences her artist­ic style. She also sheds light on the sig­ni­fic­ance of their name and the chal­lenges of express­ing her­self while nav­ig­at­ing dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al influ­ences. Join us as we explore the vibrant world of ThatKid_AfricanFanta and dis­cov­er the pas­sion and cre­ativ­ity behind her music.

What inspired you to cre­ate ‘Been A Minute’? How did you come up with the concept for the song?
Hon­estly I had no concept I just trus­ted my song­writ­ing skills to come up with some­thing to the beat. I closed my eyes, cleared my mind, and played the instru­ment­al.
The inspir­a­tion was that It was already sound­ing dif­fer­ent to the melod­ic type beats I grav­it­ate towards so that alone was a cre­at­ive chal­lenge and motiv­ated me to cre­ate some­thing dif­fer­ent.

Could you tell us more about the unique sound of ‘Been A Minute’ and how it dif­fers from your pre­vi­ous work?
In terms of word­play and struc­ture there’s not much dif­fer­ence I make ana­lo­gies and com­par­is­ons In almost every song I make.
The instru­ment­al is what set the tone and my lyr­ics make it sound light and catchy.

What was the writ­ing pro­cess like for ‘Been A Minute’? Did you face any chal­lenges or break­through moments dur­ing its cre­ation?
I like beats that I can just have a con­ver­sa­tion over and it flows nicely with my emo­tion on top of it and this beat did that, I was able to write to it in couple hours.

In ‘Been A Minute,’ you men­tion the line “if I was chas­ing I’d be fur­ther I would’ve done the most.” What does this line mean to you, and what mes­sage were you try­ing to con­vey through it?
This is funny because I know who I am. some­times when you work so hard you can get anxious and start to be in a state of want & it stresses you out. That line means that if I was des­per­ate and didn’t care about the qual­ity of my craft I could not be true to myself and gain attrac­tion based of the false per­sona I could put out there.

Your music often tackles taboo sub­jects and sens­it­ive emo­tions. How do you nav­ig­ate address­ing these themes, and why is it import­ant for you to give a voice to those who face sim­il­ar struggles?
I feel like every­one has some­thing they are good at and mine is express­ing myself through paper and pen.
Not many people can stand up for them­selves and not every­one knows how to, so if I’ve been giv­en that strength I should use it.

When I was young­er I didn’t have a voice I didn’t know how to artic­u­late myself. In my cul­ture things are swept under the rug a lot so I would just sit with my trauma and firm it but it was dam­aging my state of mind.
If I can stop someone from feel­ing alone on the inside through my music then imma do that.

Can you share how your cul­tur­al back­ground and upbring­ing have influ­enced your music and artist­ic style?
I’m half Con­golese and Half Kenyan and music is def­in­itely a big part of both of those cul­tures. Regard­less if it’s a week day or a week­end I’d hear music in my house­hold.
I def­in­itely dis­covered my love for music at a young age because of it being played at home.
I didn’t like loud music as a res­ult of it being blas­ted out loud dur­ing my favour­ite pro­grams but I did love music, see­ing music videos on MTV, 106 & park and oth­er sta­tions def­in­itely fuelled who I am today.

What does the name “ThatKid_AfricanFanta” rep­res­ent to you, and how does it reflect your diverse her­it­age and iden­tity?
My cul­tures are incor­por­ated in my name I am ThatKid_AfricanFanta. I could have been “Afric­an­Fanta” or simply “ThatKid”. I could’ve put a spot­light on one of my Cul­tures, how­ever I am all of them, I rep­res­ent mul­tiple places. I am a third cul­ture kid, and that comes with me wherever I go, that makes me, ThatKid_AfricanFanta.

As a first-gen­er­a­tion UK-born artist, what chal­lenges have you faced in express­ing your­self and bal­an­cing dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al influ­ences in your music?
It’s def­in­itely hard at times and some­times people don’t under­stand why I say what I say in the moment but soon after they get it.
With my Afric­an cul­ture to be heard I have to be more assert­ive and stand my ground but in Brit­ish cul­ture they would say I’m too for­ward and I can come across too dir­ect and impol­ite. Grow­ing up I’ve just under­stood that those that want to genu­inely know me as a per­son & under­stand me will stick around and do so, those with anoth­er motive will do the oppos­ite. Im learn­ing to be okay with that. I’m also aware that I can’t let people’s opin­ions become who I am because opin­ions will change.

What can we expect from you in the future? Are there any upcom­ing pro­jects or col­lab­or­a­tions that you’re excited about?
You can expect growth because I want to evolve I think stay­ing the same is bor­ing. I would like to try oth­er writ­ing styles, genres and do it well. I love drip & fash­ion as-well as music so I am def­in­itely explor­ing how I can fuse the two togeth­er.
It’s gonna be a vol­cano and you’ll def­in­itely be hear­ing my name again.
I have a song I’m cur­rently work­ing on it’s so beau­ti­ful and I wanna take my time with it because it’s got a lot of poten­tial and a deep mes­sage. I’d name drop the song title but I don’t want to stunt it’s cre­at­ive pro­cess.

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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