Chika Chika

Since originating in the 70s, rap music has accomplished its own form of manifest destiny — expanding from the projects of Bronx, New York to the suburban homes of Thousand Oaks, California. The mainstream success has been a double-edged sword: the reign of socially-conscious verses from rappers like Grandmaster Flash and Tupac have slowly devolved into mumble rap about strip clubs and Rolex watches from, well, we won't name names. However, one up-and-coming rapper isn't scared to call out these "turn up" artists. Enter: Chika Oranika.

Chika has a way of harnessing the soft, poetic vibes of 90s rappers like Q-Tip and Ice Cube to address the persistent problems afflicting contemporary hip hop. "Niggas only wanna make some heat to get clout/rhyme a couple words and hella girls will give mouth," she raps on top the beat of J.Cole's moody "1985." Chika is perfectly positioned to provide these kinds of scathing, but well-meaning critiques. Who better to call out the toxic black masculinity overflowing in hip hop than a black women hoping to break through the misogyny?

Earlier this month, Chika eloquently employed her spoken word-leaning approach to call out Kanye for his controversial statements about slavery being a "choice" and his support for Donald Trump. "When your check clears don't forget that your children is still black/ and your music has been wack and your views are moving back," the 21-year-old spits, her unrelenting cadence steadily moving in tandem with the military beat of "Jesus Walks." Chika's powerful callout has racked up almost 300,000 views on Instagram and earned her follows from Naomi Campbell, Troye Sivan, and Leslie Jones.

Don't get it twisted: Chika (whose birth name is Jane) isn't content with viral social media fame. "People are going to love you for a minute and then it's back to square one of figuring things out for yourself," she tells me over the phone. She wants to "change the world" with her lyricism. Chika is so intent on making rap a little bit less male-dominated, in fact, she turned down an acceptance to the prestigious Berkeley School of Music, dropped out of college ("My parents are African, so you know they did not like that") and moved from her home state of Alabama to Brooklyn to pursue her rap dreams. When we speak, Chika is in the process of recording her first EP and gearing up to drop her first official single. "I'm gonna be here for a long time," Chika says, insistent on not being another flash-in-the-pan social media star. "I'm gonna make sure the stories that need to be told, get told."