Yiigaa, The Vintage Loving Singer From South London

Photo Courtesy Of Yiigaa

Yiigaa was born in south London. She lives in south, and is south London until she dies. This is said in jest, of course, but she loves the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth. The best thing about her hometown are the mix of ethnicities, backgrounds and religions, “It’s such a good place to grow up as you have so many influences around you,” she says. Growing up, Yiigaa’s aspirations was the rockstar image. She wanted to be in a band, used to wear all black, and loads of eyeliner and black lipstick until she was around seven or eight. A recent show she did reaffirmed her childhood ambition and made her realize that music is really what she wants to be doing. She couldn’t stop making music even if she tried. Instead, she works harder at it.

Classifying her sound is something Yiigaa finds hard to do, “I’d say hip hop, jazz inspired beats with hifi influences, mixed with folk/R&B lyrics. I honestly don’t know,” she explains. However, if there’s a song or musical passage that never fails to move the south London based singer emotionally, it’s the second verse of “Warm Water”, and “Haze”.

When it comes to Yiigaa’s own lyrics, she wants to relate to nature, to people and take them to a different place. She writes everywhere and is constantly trying to be creative, “I can’t stop,” she says and cites her parents, Rihanna, Katus Young and Amy Winehouse as her biggest influences.

As far as as her to personal style goes, the Brit chanteuse takes a great interest and pleasure in vintage garments, old school American sportswear and bohemian clothes from abroad. It makes one wonder how this singer with the eclectic taste gets stage ready and if there are any beauty rituals she swears by, “Oh God, I get so nervous. Lip gloss never fails!” she ousts.

In her leisure time Yiigaa loves travelling and is obsessed with sunsets and water, and nature - so she hangs out a lot in the park. More concretely, a day off is spent watching documentaries, drinking smoothies and eating pineapple upside down cake from Refill in Brixton. And to return to center, she goes away from London, gets some breathing space and lets the mist in her head clear.