FEATURE: Spotlight: Ivorian Doll — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Ivorian Doll

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IN this new Spotlight feature….

I want to spend some time getting to know Ivorian Doll. In terms of the names that we need to look out for this year, she is very much near the top! Rather than me explaining why, I want to bring in some interviews that let us into the world of this exceptional artist. I will source from The Guardian later, but there is a nice introductory section that sets us up:

“Born Vanessa Mahi in Germany to parents hailing from Ivory Coast and moving to east London aged three, she originally found fame as a popular YouTube personality known for playful “storytimes”: audacious tales of cheating boyfriends, sugar daddies and scandalous behaviour. She reckons she has long been musically inclined, but just hadn’t realised. “I was always performing, and we’d make up dance routines,” she says of her teenage years, detailing the verses she and friends created to offend rival boys. “We made up this fake gang called CGG’s – we even had our own theme song and diss track”.

Ivorian Doll will release her much-anticipated debut E.P., Renaissance, this month. It is a release that is going to announce one of the finest names in U.K. Drill – the undeniable and undisputed Queen of Drill. I will drop a couple of songs in this feature just to give you an idea of what she is about and why her fanbase continues to swell. I am a recently new convert, but I am making up for lost time and accessing as much music and information as I can.

I want to bring in my first interview. Ivorian Doll spoke with DJ Booth back in September. Not only do we get a glimpse into her rise and one of her best-known songs; she also discusses an aspect of her songwriting that, maybe, is a slight weakness:

“Born Vanessa Mahi, Ivorian Doll is the self-proclaimed “Queen of Drill.” Commanding an army of fans appropriately called the Dollz—which has been steadily increasing in numbers since 2017—her potent and gritty offering on drill music has garnered attention from peers such as Tinie Tempah, Mr Eazi, and Iggy Azalea across social media. She’s also received looks from defining British media platforms, including GRM Daily and BBC.

Despite Ivorian Doll’s outsized personality, solo success has been a more recent reality. The German-born and London-raised rapper began her music career as part of a duo with Abigail Asante. Under the moniker Abigail x Ivorian Doll, the pair ventured into the then-simmering UK offshoot of drill on a whim. Their debut song, “The Situation,” was spontaneous, according to 22-year-old Mahi, and, to this day, misunderstood.

“Hooks, for me, I struggle with,” Ivorian Doll admits. “One of my friends came in and helped me with that. Before, I’d write whole songs, forcing a hook, and the song wouldn’t go anywhere. Now the songs sound better.” The team-first approach has helped Ivorian Doll progress in flow, articulation, and writing. She agrees without hesitation, saying, “I remember I mostly did the ‘Rumours’ hook, but ‘Body Bag’ is when I noticed the change with having the team. You work together, and it makes things sound better.”

Ivorian Doll’s collaborative spirit extends past her team toward the other women responsible for rap’s female renaissance. That includes other “Dolls.” (Ivorian’s stage name arrived at age eight and predated any industry trend: “ I was looking for a Facebook name. My friend said to me, ‘Why don’t you call yourself Ivorian Doll? You look like a doll and you’re from Ivory Coast.’) She regularly interacts with Asian Doll, who shouted her out on Twitter earlier this year, and has an upcoming collaboration with New York’s DreamDoll. Further afield, the artist looks to follow in the footsteps of Saweetie and become a multi-dimensional brand.

“For me, I want to be a mogul and a businesswoman,” Ivorian Doll says. “I’m thinking of global-scale projects: clothing lines, books, hair companies. Ivorian Doll is the umbrella with so many things underneath that. I’m in this for the long run.”

Ivorian Doll’s persistence has seen her score lucrative placements across the year. She’s confirmed as an act for 2021’s Rolling Loud in Portugal, and was part of one of the first virtual-only festivals in the UK this year when the annual Wireless Festival shifted its agenda due to COVID-19. Ivorian’s VR set was positively electric”.

Apologies for quoting quite large chunks of that interview but, as I shall do for the remainder of this feature, I think doing so provides us with a lot of useful information and insight into Ivorian Doll. She is someone who is poised to dominate in 2021.

Drill is one of those scenes that, from the outside, appears to be male-dominated. I think Drill, Hip-Hop, Grime and Rap have always been imbalanced but, whilst there is improvement in some area, Drill seems to be more male-heavy than most genres. Ivorian Doll talked about gender in Drill when she spoke with COMPLEX - we also get to know what drives her as an artist and how her writing usually happens:

“You dubbed yourself the “Queen of Drill” on a track you released in 2019. Do you think the drill scene needs a queen?

It doesn’t need a queen, necessarily. I say it all the time: I do it to try and be better than the boys! I don’t even focus on the girls because I feel like boys tend to get away with so much in drill, saying things about women, plus it wasn’t the norm to see a girl making drill. So when I say ‘Queen of Drill’, it’s more me saying I’m better than the boys in drill. I just feel like I’m trying to compete with the boys.

What pushes you to make music today?

What pushes me is the benefits, and the fact that I actually enjoy it. Like, I’ve realised that everything else I was doing, I didn’t enjoy as much as I did with this. Music isn’t something you can just be one foot in, one foot out—you have to be all in because it’s time, it’s money, it’s studio, it’s stress. Like, I get actual migraines. It’s a non-stop dedication thing. It’s not something you do half-heartedly, so I think what pushes me is just the fact that I can help my family now—in ways that I never did before—I live in a better place, just things like that.

What’s an Ivorian Doll writing session like?

So, with me, something will happen to me, or maybe I’ll see something online—like what someone said—and then I’ll be like, “Okay, cool. So these people are hating on me? Let me make a song about haters.” I always reflect on what I’m going through in a particular moment. With “Rumours”, that was obviously rumours about me so I just thought I’d write about it and address the elephant in the room. I also like to write about things I want in the future—I speak about it as if it’s already happened! For example, “Oh, I’m in a big car!” That hasn’t happened yet but I speak like it has, do you know what I mean? And because I like music, I know what people want to hear. Nicki [Minaj] is a big influence, too. I listen to her a lot and I always ask myself why I love her so much [laughs], but I just do. I’m really inspired by her music and her journey”.

There are a couple more interviews I am keen to focus on because Ivorian Doll is such a fascinating artist who, I feel, is primed to shake up and change Drill; inspire other women coming through and really stake her claim!

I want to go back to the subject of gender/women in Drill as this was covered in an interview from The Line of Best Fit. I think that Ivorian Doll’s talent and strength demonstrates that she is as strong as any of her male counterparts. There is still a question as to whether the doors are truly open for women – or whether it is an area of music that has a problem with parity and understanding. I want to highlight a segment where we learn more about attitudes towards Ivorian Doll in the earliest days and how she has boosted her profile and confidence – and why future success and increased visibility is very much on her mind:

“ID has always managed to be ambitious and in control, with her 2019 solo “Lightwork Freestyle” a testament to her power as an emcee. The video, garnering over 200,000 views, includes a large number of comments praising the freestyle as stronger than most of her male counterparts.

“When I first started, that was one thing that upset me. ‘Oh, you’re a girl, go back to the kitchen. Oh, you’re a girl, you shouldn’t be speaking like this.’ In a lot of drill songs out here, the way boys say things about girls — it’s so rude. I want women to be on the same page. That’s what kind of motivated me… I feel it’s very intimidating for a strong woman to come into a dominant field and do well”.

“YouTube helped me to be able to express myself because I was a personality talking about boys and cheating and giving advice,” she explains, noting that long-term followers are pretty used to her outspoken nature. “Some of the things I say in my music, it’s not a shock to them. My fans are like, ‘She constantly says things like that anyway.’”

ID still has hopes for long-term success, despite the current whirlwind of our times. She mentions she’s using this period to practice more on both her stamina and delivery for live performances. Yet, ID’s biggest goal is to expand past the boundaries of her genre, drill, and break its limitations — in a similar way to Pop Smoke. She also wants to be a role model to young girls who look up to her as a creative inspiration.

“I just want to be a global artist, really. I want to be that artist that came out of the UK and built that female bridge to the US. I want to be that artist where people say, ‘Because of her, we’ve been more interested in UK artists and the UK scene. Is there more of her?’ That’s the type of artist I want to be,” she says. “I want to be the artist that brings everyone together. And I feel like it’s working smoothly”.

I shall wrap up in a second but, with so much exactment and buzz surrounding her, Ivorian Doll is going to have a huge year! Despite her popularity now, it hasn’t always been smooth. As we learn in a recent interview from The Guardian, there have been barriers:

“Her rise, though, has allegedly been hampered by a management deal she entered into with Oliver Ashley, son of Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley, who has recently applied for trademarks for the name Ivorian Doll. On Twitter, she accused him of unfair financial terms and controlling which label she was allowed to sign to; she begged to be let go from the contract. Ashley has not responded and could not be reached for comment, and Mahi, who made the allegations after we spoke, would not comment further.

The situation badly needs resolving, as there has been space in drill for a woman like her for some time. The style is known for bleak themes and stories of real-world violence, and suffers from a reputation as a boys’ club. But Ivorian’s ability to play with a mix of styles has granted her respect from her male peers, and refreshed the genre as a whole. “I’m not so ‘boyish’ about it,” she says of her artistry. “I’m not wearing the tracksuits; I’m very sexy with it. I feel like that’s what’s making me stand out because I’m making it different.”

I love what Ivorian Doll is doing and, looking ahead to the release of her E.P., I think we will see something quite playful and fun. Many associate Drill with being quite aggressive, which can mean it is lacking in accessibility at times. Returning to the interview with The Guardian, and it is heartening to know that Ivorian Doll is a role model and inspiration, one hopes, for other women entering Drill (and she is making it more humane and diverse):

Her new EP is evidence of the sounds she’s willing to toy with, like smoother, mellower rhythms similar to afro-swing, and bouncier, chart-friendly rap. The release after that may include more women, as fellow artists such as Shaybo, Br3yna and Teezandos make their own mark, mirroring the golden era for female rappers in the US. “When I first started, the sexism was just ridiculous. It’s even made me more of a feminist,” she says. “I think it would be good to see other girls make drill a bit more sexy, more fun! It doesn’t need to be dark or violent. Drill is a beat, it’s not what you talk about. So I’d love more girls involved, because that’s what makes the genre bigger”.

I will end now but, as this year promises to be more positive than the last, I am looking around at the artists who could define 2021 and make a big noise. Ivorian Doll is already creating tremors and standing out from the crowd but, as soon as she can get back on tour, I feel she will add so many more fans to her ever-increasing army. These may be her early days but, before long, Ivorian Doll is going to be a worldwide phenomenon! It is very easy to realise why this exciting young talent is…