American rapper Chika on changing the world with her words: “We need to rewrite all that we’ve been taught.”

Jane Chika Oranika, 23, is a once-in-a-generation artist. Articulate, talented, smart, thoughtful, political, candid and her own type of unique, Chika is a rare find, and it’s testament to her talent that she includes Cardi B, Missy Elliott, Diddy and Jay-Z as fans. The fashion world loves her, too; in May 2019, she featured in a #MyCalvins campaign for Calvin Klein while in September, Business of Fashion made Chika a cover star.

After being offered a place at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she was unable to attend due to tuition costs, Chika built up a huge Instagram following thanks to some extraordinary song covers. These include a Pride-themed version of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You in 2017 and a scathing rendition of Kanye West’s Jesus Walks in 2018, in which she challenges West’s support of Trump. But it’s her own music that is the most interesting; her recent EP, Industry Games, is just seven tracks and 20 minutes long and yet it still manages to convey joy, anguish, love, doubt, protest and self-meditation. It’s a record that you’ll be playing for years to come.

The following interview took place the week of George Floyd’s murder and three days before Chika joined a peaceful protest in Los Angeles demanding the arrest of the officers involved. She was cuffed and detained for several hours and issued a citation upon release. Chika’s protest history stretches back to 2014 when she plastered #BlackLivesMatter posters around her school (she was suspended for a day). She continues to use her platform to discuss the important nuances of race, class, sexuality, identity and mental health. Chika is the voice of a generation.

How and where in the world are you?

“I’m good. I’m in north Hollywood. I couldn’t sleep last night so I’ve been up cleaning the house.”

How was releasing Industry Games during lockdown?

“It’s both bitter and sweet. It’s great because there are more eyes on it; then on the other side, it’s sad when you’ve worked on something for over a year but you can’t see the impact of what you’re doing. You have to take the good with the bad. No one wanted a pandemic. No one that’s died is going to say, ‘Damn, sorry your project didn’t come out how you wanted it.’ It has taught me to slow down and be grateful for the time I do have, regardless of how I use it. I had to take a moment to do a lot of spiritual housecleaning, if you will; revisiting a lot of things I didn’t have time to look at because I was constantly on the go. And I’ve been grateful to stay healthy.”

The EP’s opening line is, ‘Call it intuition but I’m about to change the world, it’s been my only mission’…

“I fully am, I fully believe it. It’s been my goal since I began and I shall not stop until I am forced to.”

Have you thought about how you might manifest that change?

“Perspective is such a huge tool in changing perception. When you change perception, you change reality. I’m someone who’s willing to dive into some of the dirtiest places and the weirdest conversations that no one else wants to have. One of my passions is conversation, it’s words, it’s having debates. Someone of my age, who is fresh on the scene—I’m not going to get tired anytime soon. I have a lot of shit to do and say. Ultimately I’m just getting started, and I’m a bullet that hasn’t stopped momentum yet. I’m going to keep piercing through all these old-ass rhetorics that we need to unwrite. We need to rewrite all that we’ve been taught.”

What are the top-three old-ass rhetorics you’d like to unwrite?

“I’d like to unwrite that idea that we can’t make change when it comes to the structure of our government. We absolutely can. All this shit is manmade. It’s dumb and we don’t have to stand by. Second, when it comes to sexuality and gender expression and what it means to be a woman—or a man—there’s infinite things we can change with how we look at gender. To expect something from someone because of the genitalia they have is stupid. It’s so dumb. I hate it.

“Lastly, we need to get out of the mindset that destruction is destructive. Destruction can be constructive if we use it the right way. You have to destroy in order to rebuild, and that goes into every facet of life, including the government, including how we accept our laws and our justice system, including how we treat each other. As we evolve as people, we need to rewrite the ideas that we’ve become accustomed to. Those are the things I’m trying to tackle in my young years. I won’t get tired. I don’t get tired.”

In 2019, you featured in Calvin Klein’s #MyCalvins campaign. Do you think your inclusion in that campaign speaks to some positive change within fashion?

“Yes, and I think there’s a lot [more] to be done in terms of inclusion in fashion. The fashion world is trying so hard—and I’ll tip my hat to that, it’s dope—but we have to get away from making [plus-size campaigns, for instance] tokens and a selling point. I love Calvin Klein, but I was the only plus-size person in that campaign. I would love to see other types of bodies in there and not just someone who’s generically big.

“I don’t want my body to be a statement. When I accepted the job, it wasn’t a statement, it was more, ‘Thanks for considering me, I’ll do it.’ But I don’t want to feel like a token. Fashion is moving more towards where it should be and it’s really exciting but until we start having tough conversations that may sound accusatory, we’re not going to get there. But we’re on the path.”

You’ve spoken a lot about protecting your mental wellbeing. Is that a growing concern as you become more successful?

“There is reason to worry. But I’ve also had to handle my ‘stardom’ via social media where I’ve been on the frontlines of defending myself. I fought so hard to be here that the things that might change me for the worse, I don’t accept and I don’t want to ever normalise. Also, when I feel like it’s becoming too much for me, I verbalise that. So I don’t worry about it nearly as much as I might have to if I wasn’t so on top of it already.”

What have you overcome to get to where you are now?

“This is going to sound like first-world problems but I had to overcome the basic image of being an influencer versus someone who’s been trying to be a musician since I was two. People would try and dismiss that, especially when I would do covers all the time. I had someone write, ‘Yo, shut your fat ass up’ and it had hundreds of thousands of retweets because people were tired of seeing my face. It’s a blow to your self-esteem, but you have to keep going even though you feel like people hate you.

“Also, having to be vocal and defend myself on any social topic I’ve ever spoken about. Defending my existence when the Calvin Klein campaign dropped and people were debating if I’m going to die next week or if I should be in this campaign because I’m glorifying having a certain body type —these are things I had to handle at 21, 22. And I had to take all that on the chin and handle that by myself. I fought to be here, I’m here, let’s keep going. I look back on the past couple of years and I pat myself on the back because holy shit was it hard, and it still is sometimes.”

Do you consider the queer glass ceiling?

“The ceiling for sure exists, but the way I’ve handled a lot of my ascension into this shit is that I ignore it. There’s so much I want to accomplish, and because of me being queer and being plus size and being a black woman who’s vocal about a lot of politics, I feel like there are certain things that might not be for me yet. But the more I don’t look at those things, the more I ascend and keep on going. So in terms of having a queer Beyoncé? Y’all got her. She’s here! As far as I’m concerned, I have arrived. I’m really not paying attention to what the status quo might say about where I may end up and instead, I’m doing what I feel is necessary, and that’s a great place to be.”

Industry Games is out now

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