I love it when I get the opportunity to learn about upcoming artists x get engrossed in their art. Simply put I am huge fan of the come up kids. One of these kids is Simmy Simmy Nya who hails from Cape Town. I saw his name randomly online after a homie of mine put me on his tape TRAPNYA. Shouts to Mzo for the put on. Anyway after listening to homies tape I got fascinated about this cats story. He's got the sound x he's got the look. So after all these things I hit up the cat to find out more about him x where he plans to take his Nya sound.
Peep the interview after the jump.
Simmysimmynya is a Pietermaritzburg artist based in cape town. I'm the 2nd of 4 children and 1 of 3 brothers. My introduction into hip hop started at a young age when I would listen to cd's my older brother would leave in my mother's whip. As early as grade 4 I was bumping Eminem's encore and could recite every word. Other early influences included kanye west's catalogue (I still know jesus walks off by heart), john legends get lifted album which I still know all the words to and basically everything my older brother had on his computer or lying around in the whip. From then onwards I entered my primary school talent show which was prompted by our music class. I got heavy into hip hop music around grade 9, I started writing poetry after my first relationship ended and recorded my first song in grade 10 after I heard a homie from primary school was doing it and I figured "I can do that". In high school I was part of a rock band called offshore and we got the opportunity to open up for the likes off Prime Circle and Khaya Mthethwa. I was always a shy dude so for me the music was like a portal into the rest of me. Like any rapper I started out wanting to drop the most thought provoking bars and how good I was came down to how many crazy punchlines I could drop. I was always fond of story telling because I found it crazy that I could listen to a dude's music who is a million miles away and I could some how relate and feel their emotion. That kinda led to me forming the kinda rapper I am, a storyteller. This is evident in the artists I listened to back then, from Wale, whose song Diary used to make me feel some typa way, to J. Cole, who is definitely top 3 influencers in the way I wrote music and through him I found Kendrick Lamar. I swear no one wanted Cole and K Dot to blow up more than my friend and I back in high school. I've been through so many phases from the Lil Wayne's to the Drake's (another influence back in the day), the Odd Future's, TDE etc and now I'm heavy into the future's, lil uzi vert's and most significantly young thug.
I came on scholarship to university of cape town to study accounting and that's where my life truly began. I used to join cyphers on upper campus in front of the arts building every Wednesday at 1pm back when they were popping, even at the expense of lectures. I liked the attention I got and the crowds reactions to the bars. I had my first performance in cape town in 2014 at waiting room alongside H3nry and it was mad successful. We used to spend hours together making music cos he lived a floor below me in the same res. He actually mastered the TRAPNYA tape I released last year. From then on I went on to perform on the same stage as almost every major artist in SA, from AKA, Riky Ricky, Cassper, Khuli Chana, Reason, Black Motion etc. My biggest gratitude goes out to Kgabo (GROOVE AFRIKA) who, after seeing me at cypher on campus (that cassper was at around the launch of his first album) took me under his wing and mentored me and after seeing me make my own waves in Cape Town decided to ride with me. In a nutshell the music thing was always fun and games to me till I realised the reception from everyone wasn't.
My name doesn't mean anything per say. It's an evolution of a lot of nicknames I got over the years stemming from my ID book name Simphiwe. It was like simms, simmy, then that asap rocky bar "ooh baby like it raw with the shimmy shimmy nya" dropped on fucking problems and I had a stage name. The whole 'don't forget the nya' thing stemmed from being called simmysimmy instead of the full thing and I felt like simmysimmy didn't real have a ring to it. The nya represents the catchall variable, the fact that my music is all encompassing and cannot be boxed in. It's the same way lil wayne is weezy f baby and the f stands for a million things. So does the nya.
so don't forget it.
I agree to an extent. Most of the music I have released has a heavy trap influence. But if you look through my soundcloud page you'll find songs like "mystical being" which leans more towards pop and "did you die" which has a more soulful feel. I'm about exploring as many sounds as I can because why not.
I feel like Cape Town is really accepting of my music because the sound here is very experimental. I'm originally from KZN, and for me thats home so I follow that scene as much as I can. Whenever I go back home during holidays, I listen to the stuff there and a lot of guys are really pushing the culture of new wave music which pushes me to make my own. There's a lot of talent that side, which kind of shows in the commercial hip hop scene in our country right now. For example nasty is from KZN, Riky has KZN roots, and Emcee is from Matatiele (which is almost in KZN). Here in Cape Town, the scene is more integrated with alternative sounds given how wavy Cape Town is. So generally you'll find that the hip hop scene here isn't anything like the scene in the rest of the country. the producers this side are really good at fusing hip hop with unconventional/wavy sounds. there's room for a future wave.
Tapnya basically depicts a persona I donned. It started with me experimenting with the trap sound and finding one of my "recording voices" which is the high pitched shandis. I then made Medicine which was basically me trying out trap and its success made me drop the tape. The whole thing was an experiment with 1 or 2 throw away verses from high school. The best song to listen to to understand the message I was sending out with trapnya is the last one "Don't Get It Twisted". In the hook I say "don't get it twisted/ I can spit it like I'm kendrick/ I'm just stuck inside the trap cos like a rat thats where the cheese at/ I got a couple conscious raps imma keep that/ cos the trap make her ass give me feedback". The verses also push the message of, yes I'm doing trap but thats not all I can do, I'm just having fun with it right now and I know its what the people wanted.
I don't know I've never given any thought to it. I think a Nasty collabo would be cool.
Don't forget the nya
