It was a sunny Thursday afternoon at Coffee With a Beat, a local cafe in the heart of Oakland where Makodef interviewed Keldamuzik, a female hip hop artist from the Bay Area.
As I was sitting by a glass window facing a beautiful landscape of green grass and tall trees, where the birds seemed to be in their paradise, my phone rang and it was Keldamuzik telling me that she was a few minutes away from the shop. Five minutes later, I saw a young lady coming towards the front door with a guy, holding a video camera in his hand. “It must be her”, I thought to myself. I walked towards the door to let her in and she smiled at me like she already knew that I was coming for her. She followed me to my seat and because she was my guest I thought it would be nice to let her sit by the window facing the trees.

Before I had my pen and paper ready to take notes, Kelda already started the show. The guy with the camcorder was taping her while she introduced herself to the camera and was giving the audience a heads up about the interview we were about to have. As we started, I introduced Keldamuzik to Jeff Callaway who is a multi-talented artist, (musician, singer, writer, film director, mentor, etc.). For that day Makodef had the honor to have Mr. Callaway interviewing our featured artist.

I don’t like them to say “Oh that’s that rapper girl” because I don’t consider myself a rapper, I consider myself a Hip-Hop artist, within that I do rap

From the interview that took place I learned a lot about Keldamuzik. She did not start her music career until she moved from her hometown, San Jose, CA to Oakland. It’s in the “Town”, that she got introduced to the game by artist friends who told her that she had enough talents to really do it. As a female artist she took her gender role and made a style out of it. She breaks it down as being a “Femcee” which means a Female MC and her message will give you a female’s perspectives of what is going on in the Hip-Hop game. Produced by a local record label “GoldDigga Entertainment“, Kelda has an album called “Diva” in stores. Along with that she runs a reality TV show that she named “Diva TV: The Bay Area’s first Hip-Hop Reality Show”.

Throughout the interview, I have to mention that Chris Taylor, one of Makodef’s assistants, was recording the sections on video that we will broadcast later on Makodef TV. From the interesting conversation that J. Callaway and Keldamuzik were having, I quoted their own words as following:

Jeff Callaway: What is your particular style what kind of messages do you give?

Keldamuzik: Pretty much I call it Female Hip-Hop, and I call myself a FEMC. There are true lyricists out there but that’s all from a male’s perspective. I touch all kind of issues just like anybody else but it’s just coming from a female. That’s just what’s different.

J.C: How different is it to break through right now?

K M: It’s difficult, that’s why I created my own Reality TV Show it’s called Diva TV which is about me, my journey and what I do being a female in a male dominant game. Stating out, everybody wants to put you on the spot to look at you different from any regular dude. Why can’t I be treated like the next dude that comes on Rap City or “106″ to just talk, you know? With being a female, they look at you like, “Do you sing? Do you dance?” and based on how you look, that’s when they start to be judgmental. I have been through a lot of difficulties doing this, but I overcome that by just having confidence in myself.

J.C: Who are some artists who are you influenced by?

KM: I definitely love Da Brat, the reason why I love her so much is not only because my mama is from Chicago, but, you know, Da Brat is a mouth piece–she just popping it off. Her music sets her apart from a lot of artists out there. She is just her, you know, she is original–no always trying to show skin–not talking about dudes and stuff. She makes music for everybody out there whether it’s Black, White, or Hispanic, whoever.

J.C: What are your future projects, your goals?

KM: Ok! As far as future projects, hum! Right now the Diva album in stores, it’s selling in all the stores, Rasputin, iTunes, and RapCity. Go to my site, my myspace.com/keldamuzik. We are getting some shows together around the Bay and state wide. I am also working on tours going oversee for the army troups and it’s going to be in Asia.

J.C: What do you want people to know about you, so there won’t be any misconceptions?

KM: I want people to know that I am an artist, at the same time I don’t like them to say “Oh that’s that rapper girl” because I don’t consider myself a rapper, I consider myself a Hip-Hop artist, within that I do rap, within that I do write, within that I do, you know, make up different concepts that people would like but I don’t like to call myself a rapper, the MC. When people put a stamp on you they have high expectations from you. I just want to say I am a Hip-Hop artist. I like to say I am a writer and express myself through Hip-Hop as a writer.