My Review of NAKAMURA
Ever since I first listened to “Djadja” in 2019, I’ve been a huge fan of Aya Nakamura. She combines many of my favorite genres—French rap, R&B, Afrobeats—and has a beautiful voice so she easily climbed to the top of my list of favorite artists. Unsurprisingly, the 25 year old musician was named the most streamed French female artist in the world in 2018. Not only do I love her music, but I also love her spirit and what she stands for. Nakamura is a breath of fresh air in the male-dominated French rap scene and she unapologetically takes up the space she deserves. In an interview with the New York Times, Nakamura describes this perfectly when she says “women in the French music industry are compelled to make no waves. I show off.” Her songs deal with a range of issues anyone can relate to, from friendships to calling out boyfriends for bummy behavior, and have been hailed as anthems of women empowerment.
In 2018, the artist released her eponymous album “NAKAMURA” and it instantly began receiving praise and accolades, including the European Music Moves Talent award for Best Urban Album and a nomination for Best International Act at the BET Awards, both in 2019. I love this album, of course, so for my first blog post I wanted to share my favorite tracks avec vous.
First, “Copines” which means “girlfriends.” In this song, Nakamura calls out a guy for checking out her girlfriends in front of her and thinking he can get away with it. The dreamy vocals and strong, reggaeton beat almost make you forget that she’s laying this guy out rather than confessing her love to him.
Next is the fifth track on the album and my personal favorite. “Pookie,” meaning “snitch,” is another strong dance song. The strong backbeat and catchy refrain were stuck in my head all day after listening to the song for the first time and I still love it to this day. I’m not sure what the lyrics mean and there was much debate about the meaning in the comments section of the music video on YouTube. Nakamura sings in a very specific Parisian dialect in the song, making it hard for even native French speakers to understand the true meaning of her words. Nevertheless, “Pookie” is an amazing song!
My three final favorite songs from NAKAMURA are the last three tracks on the album: “Gang (feat. Davido),” “Dans ma bulle,” and “Oula.” “Gang” features three languages (Yoruba, French, and English) and has a stronger Afrobeats presence than other songs on the album. The track talks of a modern romance with mentions of Gucci and Louis Vouitton. “Dans ma bulle” is Nakamura’s hype song. She describes herself as being “in her bubble”—focused and unbothered to what’s going on outside of her career—and boasts her independence, which is definitely something to be applauded. Last but not least, “Oula” has a very different sound than the rest of the album. This song, which tells the story of a conflictual and turbulent romance with a paranoid lover, has an acoustic vibe and features Nakamura’s raw and soulful voice paired with a keyboard. Her emotional refrain of “oula?” which means “where are you?” conveys the pain she feels and displays a more fragile side of the artist.