‘Wake Up’HAWA has never wanted to be restricted.
Brought up in Berlin to West African parents, she relocated to New York as a child, where she became a prodigy in the classical world.
Becoming one of the youngest-ever composers for the New York Philharmonic, she’s graduated to become a 21 year old polymath with the world at her feet.
Last year’s EP ‘The One’ caused ripples of hype on its release, ushered into the world via tastemaker imprint b4.
Now signed to 4AD Records, her debut single for the label ‘Wake Up’ is an appropriate introduction.
Packing a huge amount of ideas into a succinct, tightly-restrained space – the rhythmic fluctuations, the melodic dips and curves, and that stellar vocal – it blurs the lines between soulful R&B songwriting and choppy rap lines.
A song that seems to push back against the weight of expectation, ‘Wake Up’ is an urge towards possibility, an attempt to grapple with the new.
Tune in now.
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