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Ana Tijoux's "1977" Nominated for GRAMMY Award
"As one of South America’s best-regarded MCs, male or female, the
prodigiously loquacious Tijoux is seldom at a loss for words." - LOS ANGELES
TIMES
"Tijoux is an artist with the promise to cross borders and
genres." - BILLBOARD
ANA TIJOUX UPCOMING 2011 TOUR DATES:
2/12
– Bootleg Theater - Los Angeles, CA
2/14 – The Casbah – San Diego, CA
2/17
– Salon Vive Cuervo – Mexico City
2/18 – Elbo Room – San Francisco,
CA
2/19 – The New Parish – Oakland, CA
2/20 – The Sol Collective –
Sacramento, CA
4/9 – Vive Latino Festival – Mexico City
Hip-hop
reina Ana Tijoux was lying in bed at 4 AM in Madrid, Spain, when she got the
news that her breakthrough album ‘1977’ had been nominated to the 53rd Annual
GRAMMY Awards. As the second Chilean artist to ever be nominated, Tijoux was
understandably a bit shocked at the news. The possibility had never really even
crossed her mind.
“For me, the GRAMMY nomination is the cherry on top of a very surprising trip that my album has made,” she says. “I had never imagined anything like this, I'm at a complete loss for words.”
Tijoux’s life has
been marked by these underdog success stories. She has always flourished when
the cards are seemingly stacked against her. Born in France to Chilean parents
who had fled the harsh regime of Augusto Pinochet in their native Chile, Tijoux
grew up as an outsider between two worlds, and never really fit into either. But
she eventually would find her calling while making rhymes on the streets of
Santiago in the 90s, right as hip-hop was about to take off in the local scene.
From the very beginning, the pint-sized MC was bashing barriers as a
female rapper in a male-dominated genre using her distinct flow to help catapult
her first group, the underground hip-hop sensation Makiza, to become widely
regarded as one of the early classics of its genre. Since Makiza, Tijoux
development as a solo artist has taken her to the next level, to uncharted
waters for a Latin rapper.
This past spring, Tijoux’s debut U.S. tour
covered more than 20 dates across the country, packing rooms from the sunny
coast of San Diego out to the gritty hip-hop goldmine of Detroit and wrapping up
in the Big Apple. The buzz continued for Tijoux as she was featured as the MTV
Tr3s “Descubre & Download” artist of the fall as well as a performance in
NPR’s influential “Tiny Desk Concert” series. This followed a busy summer where
Ana completed her second lengthy U.S. tour and had her hit single “1977”
spotlighted as the iTunes “Single Of The Week” and in a playlist by Radiohead’s
Thom Yorke.
Arguably one of the top MCs in Latin America, Tijoux has
been nominated by the MTV Latin America VMAs for “Best New Artist” and “Best
Urban Artist” in recent years. She has been featured on tracks by Argentine
electronic-tango collective Bajofondo, Mexican hip-hop icons Control Machete and
Chilean beat master DJ Bitman. But it was her collaboration with Julieta Venegas
on the track, “Eres Para Mi,” which helped expose Tijoux to a mainstream
audience. The song became a TV and radio smash hit across Latin America and the
U.S.
With the album ‘1977,’ Tijoux proves her abilities as a true “rapera”
through her jazzy vocals, sophisticated lyrics and hynoptic beats. The album,
named for her year of birth, paints a picture of her childhood in France and
pays homage to the early 90s era of hip-hop that influenced her as a teenager in
Chile.
“I started re-exploring the classic albums - Nas’ ‘Illmatic,’
Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘36 Chambers,’ and A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Midnight Marauder,’”
Tijoux says. “It was like running into your first ex-boyfriend after many years
and falling in love all over again.”
“’1977’ is like an album from that
‘golden-age’ of rap, a style that I never get tired of,” she explains. “I can’t
stand much of modern rap music, it’s just not what I’m about: bling, fancy cars,
etc. That music is like the brothel of rap. I’m trying to stage a revival of the
generation that I liked the most – ’92 – ’95.”
Recorded between May and
September 2009, ‘1977’ was produced by a trio of Santiago’s best: Hordatoj, Foex
and Tee. Among the special guests include acclaimed Detroit-based MC Invincible
on a virtual Myspace collaboration for“Sube” and Solo Di Medina on the French
track “Ooh La La.” “I think it’s a fairly simple album, straight from the vein,”
Tijoux says. “I wanted to make a straightforward record, just good lyrics, good
beats, good samples and good scratching… that’s it.”
Tijoux is currently
at work on the follow-up to '1977' with plans for a new album release in 2011.
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