Miss Red Cresce a Haifa, in Israele, dove scopre giovanissima il reggae e la dancehall. Nel 2011 conquista a Tel Aviv l’interesse di The Bug, produttore inglese centrale nel panorama dub, che decide immediatamente di produrla. L’anno successivo si sposta a Londra, dove mostra il proprio talento di MC in diversi live di Kevin Martin/The Bug. Pubblica a fine 2015 un mixtape di dancehall graffiante, con produzioni di Mumdance, Andy Stott, Mark Pritchard, Evian Christ e Stereotyp.
L’abbiamo intervistata in attesa di vederla a Sonido Classics, alle 00.30 a BUKA c/o Ex Cinema Aramis/Striptease, accompagnata da Sarah Farina.
MC: The description of Mi Lost’s video is the following: “The inspiration behind the song and video is the feeling of living and being a part of the small community in a sleepy and almost neglected city in the north of Israel, but wanting more from life”. Can you tell us something more about your community in Haifa? What do you want from life?
MR: I think growing up in Haifa and just being there is really closed down; you can’t really explore a lot of stuff, see culture and stuff that interests me. I don’t really care about what people of a certain age do, like 60 or 70 years old, what they are looking for. But Haifa is this type of city, a city for retired people. So, when I was growing up, at the age of 14 or 15, not that much was happening for people of my age. As a vocalist and a musician, I wanted to see shows, but Haifa keeps you far away from all this stuff, you’re kind of stuck in the same view, same feeling, not much is coming by, you need to create it by yourself, basically. If you’re not gonna do it, nobody is gonna do it.
So ‘Mi Lost’ was like when everybody’s sitting in a cage, and one comes out of the cage and he looks outside and he sees what’s happening, what there is out there – and he just wanna come back in and tell everybody: “Yo, you have to go outside”.
You know, Israel is a very isolated place, I don’t think a lot of people that live and grow up in Israel really understand how life can be outside of this circle.
It’s part of that, part of that type of feeling: you are being controlled by media, by the government, all the time you are being controlled by what is surrounding you. I didn’t read any Israeli newspaper, just because I couldn’t believe anything, nothing seems to be real anymore. It’s all inside politics, inside conflicts that I don’t feel part of, I was just brought up into it.
MC: I was wondering how people react when they see a white Israeli woman singing in Jamaican patois. Do you get a lot of backlash? I don’t recall any criticism toward white male Mcs doing it at the parties I attended in Italy.
MR: I think is just surprising, it’s really surprising. I also never think about “Hey, what they think?”. And I also never had the chance to go to Jamaica, but I adore the musical culture, that’s what I wanna listen to, all day every day. Music coming out of Jamaica from the 1970’s, 80s, 90s and 2000, it’s something that keeps on coming on me, I have a lot of appreciation for this culture.
I come to big it up as well. I dig everything about it, of course there’s something that’s a bit more harder for me, but generally I think that people are just being surprised. It’s a global phenomena, it’s running around the world, getting all over: in Europe, in America, Asia, Italy, it’s getting everywhere. I think it’s important to just to keep it alive, I don’t steal fresh blood from this, I have the respect for this and I want to take it also to my place.
MC: Have you ever had a duet with Soom T?
MR: Yeah, we shared the stage in a party in Brasil, in Rio, it was really great to see her, also with another great MC called Deize Tigrona, really big respect to have them with me in a show. It’s important to me, knowing that I’m not alone in this male kind of environment.
MC: What are the female voices that grabbed your attention?
MR: New voices coming out… well J Capri was amazing, she recently actually passed away in a car accident, big loss, she came more from that pop/dancehall scene that I really like, I think she was really charming. I also like Cha Cha, she’s a very nice MC.
Historically… Lady G and all of the women that came out from Jamaica in the golden time of reggae. I love Lady Ann, I take a lot of inspiration from her and from old school voices. Sista Ruby, Sister Carol, Lady Saw, I like Spice as well. Tifa, also from Jamaica, she put out some tunes recently, she’s really prolific.
MC: As a vocalist what do you think about the bodily aspect of sound system culture?
I think it’s extremely important for the system to be well used at a party. To me it’s one the most important part, if the sound system is good, I know the party is gonna be on point, ‘cause it’s a part of everything, you can’t go to party if there is no subs, no bass. You need to have the full power because it gets you higher, it gives you the full experience.
I don’t wanna hear myself thinking inna dance, I wanna feel the sub, you know?
For me, as a vocalist, I don’t always get to enjoy my performance from the sound system, sometimes I am behind it, but when I see the people and the energy I know what is happening ‘cause I’ve been there and I know how it feels. You can automatically notice when it’s right.
PW: Do you have a relationship with Rastafari belief?
I cannot say I have one religion. I come from Israel, I’m jewish, I’m not religious in any way, but I have my religion. I grow up in a mixture, in Haifa you have the Jewish part, the Muslim part, the Christian, the Druze… You know how many religions you can get in Haifa? I said to myself if I wanna go in a Rastafarian way, because I truly believe in the music and I love the energy, you can feel it, it’s high. But I cannot say I have a 100% religion that I go with, but I have respect, I understand the stuff that they talk about. In Rastafari, in Judaism, there are aspects that I do agree with, I do feel and understand but I cannot say I am a follower of one religion. In the daily life there are some sort of ceremony that they do and I cannot say I do this kind of stuff. I have my own.
