Young Zim rapper Tkay Maidza on finding success in Australia

She is one of the biggest names on the Australian rap scene, but Tkay Maidza said people are still surprised by her talent.

The 20-year-old from Adelaide told Daily Mail Australia female rappers were often judged based on their gender.

‘They just don’t even want to give it a chance because they’re like oh, it’s a girl, it’s never going to be great,’ she said.

‘You show people songs and they’re like okay I didn’t expect it to be that good.’

She said expectations could either be low or ‘super high’ and even if the work is good, people found it hard to accept.

Despite the critics Tkay, whose real name is Takudzwa, has established a firm following since her debut on the music scene more than 12 months ago.

Tkay, who moved from Zimbabwe to Australia with her family when she was five years old, said she first realised girls could rap when Nicki Minaj released her hit song Super Bass.

‘I realised like wow, girls can do this and it actually worked,’ she said.

Tkay, who previously studied architecture after graduating from school two years early at just 16, put her studies aside to focus on her music.

When asked what it was like to look back at the past 12 months, she said she did not realise the enormity of what she had achieved until now.

‘It’s like wow, that was a really big moment, it’s been unreal,’ she said.

She said her plans for 2016 included writing an album and continuing to play at shows and festivals.

Despite her success, being a female rapper does present its challenges.

‘Girls have a higher pitched voice, so it’s easier to be irritating,’ she said.

‘When I write songs sometimes I think this could be really cool but it would be better if I had a deeper voice.’

She also said there was pressure to ‘look good all the time’, but said you can choose to not focus on appearances and just concentrate on your music.

Tkay said there was only so far you could go on the Australian hip hop scene.

‘If you want to be the best hip hop artist ever then you have to go overseas because that’s where it’s from, it’s from America,’ she said.

She said her music was based on ‘a little girl in high school’.

‘That’s the way I write my songs, so it’s meant to sound like a 2000s teen movie, that’s my vibe,’ she said. Daily Mail (Australia)