Lil Red is a contradiction in terms. She's a 21-year-old Sandton girl who matriculated at the prestigious Crawford College.
You'd expect her to harbour wishes of being a corporate climber with a Wits or UCT degree, but not Lil Red.
She wants to be the poster face of gqom. Yes, the music genre that gave us Babes Wodumo as its queen.
Lil Red has the moves, she's sassy and streetwise. She might be a Sandtoner, but she walks the streets of Alex and KwaMashu. She's not under any illusion of being black or understanding everything, instead willing to learn.
"Music has no boundaries, it's for everyone. I don't want to be boxed into a genre. I don't see colour at all in music or relationships. It doesn't matter where you come from.
Babes melts hearts with dance movesBabes Wodumo swirls across the packed patio like a whirlwind.
"I'm 21, [and] in gqom. I'm from Sandton and I don't pretend to be from ekasi. But I have worked with Soweto's finest to help me with choreography," she says.
Coming from the discipline of Latin American dance, she's gone as far as competing in the world championships in France, and is using her skills wisely to entertain her ever-growing number of fans.
She has worked with the finest in dance music, such as DJ Tira and Naakmusiq.
"I spent a lot of time in Durban. Tira took me along to performances and exposed me to a big section of the market," she says.
But her break in the industry came when she danced for rapper Da L.E.S.
She's now ready to stake her claim in gqom with You Lie, her hot new single that has hit radio stations.
She describes the sound of You Lie as a fusion of R&B and house set to a gqom beat. It is produced by Prince Bulo from Afrotainment.
Lil Red says she has been going into townships promoting her single which is available as a free download, also making stops at Gauteng townships motivating the youth to follow their dreams.
When she first played in the studio, gqom was the last thing on her mind. She had set her eyes on rap.
It was when one of Da L.E.S's producers asked her to sing and she did some rhymes.
They ended up recording two songs and Lil Red never looked back.
She has completed an artist development programme to equip her for the challenges of the music industry.
Through contacts that she made as an intern at a concert-promoting company, she went to Los Angeles in the US where she recorded an album with Devine Evans but it was never released.
Her story as a female songwriter has been included in Evans's book Diary of a Songwriter.
Lil Red is an unusual package for gqom
Lil Red is a contradiction in terms. She's a 21-year-old Sandton girl who matriculated at the prestigious Crawford College.
You'd expect her to harbour wishes of being a corporate climber with a Wits or UCT degree, but not Lil Red.
She wants to be the poster face of gqom. Yes, the music genre that gave us Babes Wodumo as its queen.
Lil Red has the moves, she's sassy and streetwise. She might be a Sandtoner, but she walks the streets of Alex and KwaMashu. She's not under any illusion of being black or understanding everything, instead willing to learn.
"Music has no boundaries, it's for everyone. I don't want to be boxed into a genre. I don't see colour at all in music or relationships. It doesn't matter where you come from.
"I'm 21, [and] in gqom. I'm from Sandton and I don't pretend to be from ekasi. But I have worked with Soweto's finest to help me with choreography," she says.
Coming from the discipline of Latin American dance, she's gone as far as competing in the world championships in France, and is using her skills wisely to entertain her ever-growing number of fans.
She has worked with the finest in dance music, such as DJ Tira and Naakmusiq.
"I spent a lot of time in Durban. Tira took me along to performances and exposed me to a big section of the market," she says.
But her break in the industry came when she danced for rapper Da L.E.S.
She's now ready to stake her claim in gqom with You Lie, her hot new single that has hit radio stations.
She describes the sound of You Lie as a fusion of R&B and house set to a gqom beat. It is produced by Prince Bulo from Afrotainment.
Lil Red says she has been going into townships promoting her single which is available as a free download, also making stops at Gauteng townships motivating the youth to follow their dreams.
When she first played in the studio, gqom was the last thing on her mind. She had set her eyes on rap.
It was when one of Da L.E.S's producers asked her to sing and she did some rhymes.
They ended up recording two songs and Lil Red never looked back.
She has completed an artist development programme to equip her for the challenges of the music industry.
Through contacts that she made as an intern at a concert-promoting company, she went to Los Angeles in the US where she recorded an album with Devine Evans but it was never released.
Her story as a female songwriter has been included in Evans's book Diary of a Songwriter.
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