Ladi6 has tagged an old friend on her latest single Ikarus.
The inspiration behind the song is Christchurch-based graf artist Ikarus, whom she has known for nearly 15 years.
“Ikarus started writing graffiti, or actually, mainly tagging around a similar time period that I started to get into hiphop,” Ladi6 says.
“I don’t know how I first met him. I think we went to score a five dollar joint together around the corner from my house one time and that was the first conversation we had that I can remember.
“He destroyed every phone book in every house we ever went too, by tagging every page.
“He’s one of my closest mates. I’ve bought his art, I support his work, I love art and the guy”
When Ikarus heard the song Ladi6 had written and named after him he was inspired to create a new piece of art..
”That pretty much sums up how I feel about Ladi’s song Ikarus perfectly, except I don’t cry cos I’m too 90’s for that shit,” he says on his Facebook page.
”Nonetheless it’s the coolest thing ever so I had to rock a piece for her in the weekend.”
New Zealand’s first lady of hip hop has recently returned home after recording her as yet untitled album in Detroit, the home of Motown, with producer Wajeed aka Jeedo.
“We hit up Jeedo via his email, and basically just asked him if we could work together,” Ladi6 says. “He did some research on who we were, had a look at some of our music, then we Skyped.
“Our first Skype was a very intimidating thing but it didn’t take long for us to get past the bullshit and realise that we were on the same brain wave.
“He is an amazing man to work alongside. He has a very private side to him, it seems obvious to me that he has worked on most of his music solo for a long time but he is also hilarious, generous with his time, wise with his words and kind.
“When I started to get sick and Parks [Brent Park] had the flu he was so sweet! He went to the market and bought loads of fresh fruit and vege and bought his juicer over and made us some fresh juice. He also made us eat a raw clove of garlic each.
