Whether you know Nonku Phiri because of her gorgeous voice, her sense of style (see her ‘Today I’m wearing…’ diary here) or another of her varied talents, hers is a name worth remembering. Her most recent endeavour – a feature on PHFat’s newest track – has taken SA airwaves by storm, so we caught up with Nonku and her alter ego to talk singing, rapping, an album release and local talent.
GLAMOUR
: “Lights Out” set the internet ablaze last month. Featured on the song is your alter ego JungFreud – how did she come about?
Nonku: To make a long story short: Smooth Mike taught me how to rap and I taught him how to sing. Aside from needing a different name, JungFreud officially became a thing when it became apparent that I wasn’t too shabby as a rapper. As soon as we started recording and playing around with Narch’s sketches I would take on a different persona. I guess the whole process of recording the song and discovering JungFreud was fairly organic, since the boys and I had spent quite a lot of time hanging out, discussing psychology, advertising and all sorts of other random things. While prepping for the Daisies show, Smooth Mike and I kept discussing Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung in between sessions and I guess a lot of what we had spoken about worked its way into what you now know as “JungFreud”.
GLAMOUR:
How do you juggle your “day job” with being a singer-songwriter?
Nonku: I must confess that the juggling act has become a whole lot easier now that I’ve finally completed my studies and decided to take the whole music thing more seriously. Nowadays a lot of time is spent illustrating, gigging and working with with other amazing artists.
GLAMOUR: What can we expect from your upcoming album?
Nonku : I know that people are used to listening to me sing with Crazy White Boy and end up assuming that I’m a house vocalist, but I’m currently going through an experimental phase so I’m pretty sure that the material I’ve been working on will come as a pleasant surprise. All I can honestly say that you can expect the album to be an eclectic mix of tear jerking, bassface Goosebump inducing tunes. You never know…JungFreud might have a project on the way too.
GLAMOUR: Who do you think are the best female rappers out there at the moment?
Nonku:
Locally, Miss Nthabi, Devour Ke Lenyora , Push Push (also known as Nicci St Bruce) and the Exorsistahs. Internationally, Azealia Banks definitely rocks my boat. SiYA is amazing and I really dig the new Angel Haze project.
