Nappy Nina

Brooklyn-based rapper Nappy Nina has carved out a distinctive niche within contemporary hip hop. Her storytelling skills and conversational, but precise flow have seen the MC collaborate widely over the course of a young career, with figures ranging from hip hop veterans such as Quelle Chris and Stas Thee Boss, to DIY and avant garde musicians such as Moor Mother.

Growing up in Oakland, she soaked up the confident sounds of the thriving West Coast hip hop scene of the 1990s and made associations with writers and poets in the Bay Area and in the slam poetry community. After moving to New York in 2012, she quickly made a host of connections with the hip hop scene in Brooklyn, including a close relationship with Nelson Mandela, who she met on the street. She released debut EP, Naptime in 2015 and extended her family’s jazz lineage (broadcaster father-in-law, musician grandfather) when she toured with Oakland trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire in 2019, a year that also saw the release of her debut album, The Tree Act. In the years that followed, she has released music with producers JWords (Double Down) and Bandela (Really Good), among others.

Her talent for observational detail and evoking inner states with her wordplay have seen her address issues including family relationships, mental health and the Black queer expérience in her music. Her new album Mourning Due addresses the experience of grief, and is released by the Lucid Haus label, of which she is co-founder.

Supporting Nappy Nina will be Bee Asha.

Bee Asha’s work is a cathartic outlet that she uses to express her personal experiences. Between Rap and Poetry she explores her lived experiences of sexuality, trauma and loss and love.

She is one third of the saucy hip hop trio, The Honey Farm and the co-founder of the award winning charity, The Spit it Out Project. Asha has been dubbed by BBC introducing ‘A Creative Powerhouse’, awarded the Highly commended in arts and culture at the British Sikh Awards and listed in the List hot 100 2 years running.