People don’t tend to look much beyond the boroughs of New York, Detroit’s 8 Mile, Los Angeles’ Compton, or the dirty south of Atlanta when pegging the hotspots for rising hip-hop artists. And while those have clearly been the launching grounds for many a notable performer, rising artist Blaq Carrie is intent upon adding her hometown of Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, to that list as she takes the world by storm with her signature brand of hip-hop flows.
Born and raised in Harare, the artist fell in love with hip hop culture at a young age and began writing and rapping at the age of fifteen, drawing inspiration from influences like Aaliyah, Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, and, of course, hip hop statesman Jay-Z. While continuing to pursue her passion, seeking to both pursue funding for her recording and production as well as improve her musical abilities along the way, Carrie then headed for Brisbane, Australia, to study at James Cook University.
Upon landing in Australia, Blaq Carrie set about making her mark in a big way, being nominated in 2012 and 2013 to participate in the 100 Song Project, an independent music research project. It was also in 2013 that the artist experienced something of a breakout year, winning the triple j Unearthed Spring Hip Hop Festival competition and seeing her single, “Let There Be Hope, feat. Adam George,” win the Queensland Music Award for Best Urban Song and the Australian Independent Award for the same.
That single also garnered the artist a number of great reviews from the folks at triple j, with Hau Latukefu commenting, “Really digging the passion in the lyrics and the delivery. Something that can’t be taught, it’s something that you live and live through. "Strong.” Keeping in the same vein of thought, Zan Rowe and Richard Kingsmill both gave the track a 4/5 rating with Rowe succinctly offering, “Great flow, hook-filled chorus, strong song. Nice one.”
Accolades like that are the kinds that BC is set upon building her career upon as she currently seeks to connect and capture people’s hearts. And, ever the dreamer, the artist longs to one day win a GRAMMY award for “Best New Artist.”
“There has never been a Zimbabwean artist who has reached that level,” she offers. “So it would truly be an honor to take it back to my country and show some of the elders that the Arts are a respectable profession and that parents shouldn’t be scared to invest in their children’s pursuit of them.”
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