Tkay Maidza Gets Real On Identity & Self-Acceptance In The Aussie Music Biz

With an album and a bunch of solid features under her belt, Adelaide‘s Tkay Maidza is headed in a bit of a new direction with her newest EP, Last Year Was Weird vol. 1. Leaning away from the electronic dance music that we’ve come to know and love from her, Tkay’s shifting toward trap – something with a bit more ferocity, and something a bit more adult.

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It’s allowing her to explore herself and her identity as a woman of colour in Australia – where the discussion around people of colour is abysmal at best. Tkay’s at a point where she’s honed her craft and isn’t blindly creating music anymore, so now it’s time to unashamedly be herself in her music.

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Growing up in Australia in a predominantly white community had its positives and negatives for Tkay, and growing up specifically in Kalgoorlie and Whyalla, Tkay found that she was the only girl of African heritage in her class, in her school, and one of three families in Kalgoorlie. It meant that her family were the only people of colour that the entire Whyalla community knew until the mining boom brought more African families into the Western Australian township.

I mean yeah, because I lived in Kalgoorlie, it’s in the country and I was the only African girl in my school and it was like, I don’t know, 600 kids or whatever and then the whole city, only knew three other African families. Kalgoorlie is 600 kilometres away from Perth, and then I lived in Whyalla as well, and I played tennis. I was the only African girl that was in the newspapers and the only African girl that was in my primary school and in my high school.

Being a part of a minority within a wider community meant that Tkay was close with other African families in Whyalla, and found that moving to Adelaide and being exposed to more people like her created an immediate sense of comfort, something familiar.

In Adelaide or when you see someone that’s of your skin colour, you say hello because there’s not many of you, so it’s nice to sort of just be polite and be like, “What’s up,” even if you don’t know them.

Working in the music industry in Australia as a woman of colour has its set of unique challenges. Tkay says that a lot of the struggle is having others fail to believe that the work she produces is her own, but once she overcomes that obstacle, she’s found that people tend to appreciate and recognise the hard work she puts into her music.

I feel like, there’s always that whole stigma of people thinking that you don’t write your own songs and that you aren’t that involved in your own project. So, I guess people might not treat you as seriously as you would like them to sometimes, but after you break the barrier and you prove yourself, they’re like, “Oh, you’re actually better than I thought,” and you’re like, “Okay, thanks. Cool, all right.”

She also knows that in order for her to be happy with her successes, she needs to make sure she keeps working the way that she wants to, rather than trying to appease the demands of others.

I feel like when you see similar people to you succeeding, you wonder why is it working for them and some things aren’t working for you. You always want to improve. I guess you’re like, “maybe I should do this. Maybe I should wear less clothes. Maybe I should do this and blah, blah, blah.”

So there can be pressures, but I feel like you’re always… yeah, I always think of it. Then I’ll be like, when it’s time I’ll probably find my own way of doing that. But =I never really give into it, because it’s not a thing. It’s just time.

Tkay recognises that she’s in a very lucky and unique position with her team, who encourage her to explore her identity through her creative expressions and passions – both music and fashion.

I strongly believe in just doing what you think is super right and not doing it for other people. I’m really lucky because my team, they’re just like, “Do whatever makes you happy,”

Even if it’s so ugly, they’ll be like, “Yeah, as long as it makes you happy, just do it. Have fun.” I’ll be like, “Sure, okay.”

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For Tkay, the biggest thing she’s learned after being in the music game since she was a teenager is to just keep going, no matter how heavy the imposter syndrome gets.

I feel like the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to always keep moving, but always … just be confident in yourself. There’s a whole lot of things, but just to be confident in yourself and know that there’s a reason why everything’s happening, so you shouldn’t question it.

Tkay Maidza’s latest EP Last Year Was Weird: Vol 1 allows us to join her on a journey of self-discovery and identity exploration and holds an overarching theme of self-acceptance and unapologetic existence. Tkay’s here to take up space as a young, defiant woman of colour, so make some fuckin’ room.

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