HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 587: 27 October 2011

Maria Tanner Spends 5 Minutes With...... Ladi6
It probably helps that I have one floating around In my bag at all times and after getting chatty with Ladi6 I thought it only appropriate to gift her one, regardless of it being our first time meeting, or her first time to the Cook Islands, but with a smile that gorgeous and wit to match I couldn’t let her leave without it. Tiare Manoi, that is, and seeing as Ladi6 is here to not only perform at Club Raro this Friday for the Divas in Paradise concert but a little Cook Island sunshine, it seemed right at the time considering she just gifted me with 5 of her minutes during breakfast.
Swapping the cooler climate of Berlin for some much needed subtropical terrain Ladi6 has spent the last 6 months cooing the ears of the European market, not a hard feat when you have a voice that drips like honey and a lyrical iron fist. Caroline Tamati, better known as Ladi6 singer, songwriter, hip hop artist and performer has that escalating nature about her which translates over to her work, “we were only intentionally there for a 6 week tour but dates just ended up getting added on,” she describes. Dates that saw her touring her album ‘The Liberation Of….’ across Europe, rubbing shoulders with the likes of spoken word legend Gill Scott Heron, opening for hip hop heavy weight Mos Def, supporting Naughty by Nature and “musical icon” hip hop diva Erykah Badu.
Flipping sides like a coin throughout our conversation I’m never quite sure who I’m talking to, Ladi6 the performer or the self described “shy by nature” Caroline Tamati, either way both personas are equally enthralling. Although a late addition to the Divas in Paradise concert line up, the lyrically talented artist has been pushing the musical boundaries of not only European audiences but also here in the Cook Islands, “I get it,” she says, “it’s about getting other people to understand what you do and what your about.” Experimenting with synthesized beats well still keeping her elementary hip hop sound Ladi6 along with the aid of ‘music geeks’ and band members Parks and Julien they only ever look to ultimately ‘impress each other’. Ladi6’s song writing process has been a lengthy one having started writing diaries and poetry at a young age she credits drawing on her ‘on stage’ vulnerability to coin versus that display her wittier self, “the song writing process is a really important form of expression and I’ve always been able to put lyric, to melody, to song.”
Clocking up 10 years of on stage performance the learned hip hop artist says it took her the first 5 to understand that having “dual personalities “was really important, “It takes a couple drinks to really get me going, but when I’m on stage I’m the other more outgoing me,” she adds quite candidly. “But when I’ve been put in magazines similar to ladies like Erykah Badu and Lauyrn Hill, it’s not good for my ego,” Ladi6 laughs, “because I’m thinking your right I am, I am,” she jokes flipping sides on me again. -Maria Tanner.

Herald Issue 554 09 March
- Norm exposes Trio of Doom
- Briefs from PM’s media conference Tuesday
- Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy
- Norman George resigns from Cook Islands Party
- Letter of Resignation from CIP
- Norman selfish says Prime Minister

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