Hip-Hop Artist Chika Wrote a Viral Letter to Kanye West and Now Has a Growing Music Career

During the month of June, Teen Vogue is celebrating rising music stars who transcend genres. Through in-depth profiles, we're highlighting artists who make songs our readers should know and will love.

Name: Chika

Age: 22

Hometown: Montgomery, AL

You’d be hard pressed to find someone by now who hasn’t viewed Chika’s intense video “A Letter To Kanye Omari West,” which not only went viral in 2018 but propelled the singer-slash-rapper to fame. The concept arrived when Chika was sitting at a table with her two roommates, outraged over Kanye’s public endorsement of Donald Trump’s policies.

“I wrote it from the perspective of what everyone was thinking in that moment,” she tells Teen Vogue, “and I just remember writing it and getting chills.”

She dropped her debut single “No Squares” in the spring, bringing her to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! stage, among other places. Starting out singing when she was just a toddler and writing poetry and rhymes once she hit her preteens, Chika’s skills are tightly woven into the fabric of her being. Her success is now well-documented, but it’s more inspiration over eyes for her.

“Just based on the emotional response my listeners give me and the way they reach out and tell me what I’m doing is appreciated, it’s hard to not know there’s an impact there,” she says, “and that what I’m doing matters to someone.”

There’s more to come in that vein from Chika, as she plans her next rollout of music with a message, which she affectionately refers to as melodic hip-hop. “Expect more shaking the table,” she adds. “At this point, I want to be a voice for my generation and put more of me out there.”

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue