Jane Chika Oranika (born March 9, 1997),
known
mononymously as Chika (often stylized CHIKA), is an American rapper. She first garnered attention on social media before signing to
Warner Records in 2019. The following year, she was included in ''
XXL''s 2020
Freshman Class and was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Early life
Chika was born in
Montgomery, Alabama.
Because of her interest in music and
slam poetry, she attended
Booker T. Washington Magnet High School
Booker T. Washington Magnet High School (BTW) is a public magnet high school in Montgomery, Alabama.
History
Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center (CCPAC) was the first magnet school in the Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) school district. C ...
. She was accepted at the prestigious
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
, but due to tuition costs, she enrolled at the
University of South Alabama
The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May, 1963, and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alabama. The first ...
instead. She dropped out after her first year to focus on a music career.
Career
Music
Chika first gained widespread attention following an
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
post from November 9, 2016, the day after the
2016 United States presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
. In the video, she covers herself in pale foundation, saying "African-American? Never felt that, never heard of that, never tasted that, never smelled that". Early in 2017, she created the #EgoChallenge, using
the Beyoncé song of that title to promote
body positivity
Body positivity is a social movement focused on the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities, while challenging present-day beauty standards as an undesirable social construct. Proponents fo ...
and self-love. That year she also released a
Pride
Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...
-themed remix of
Ed Sheeran
Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...
's "
Shape of You
"Shape of You" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album '' ÷'' (2017), along with " Castle on the Hill". The dancehall and R&B-infused ...
".
On June 4, 2017 she released an independent EP of poetry called ''Full Bloom''.
In 2018, Chika went viral for a freestyle addressed at
Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
over West's own "
Jesus Walks" beat. The freestyle concerned West's support for
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...
and caught the attention of
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (; née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show ''Red Table Talk'', for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. ''Time'' named ...
,
Sean "Diddy" Combs, and
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu (), is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Influenced by R&B, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut al ...
.
She later released a freestyle dedicated to
Nia Wilson
On July 22, 2018, three sisters, Nia, Letifah and Tashiya Wilson, were attacked by a man wielding a knife, later identified as John Cowell, after exiting a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train at MacArthur station in Oakland, California. 18-year-o ...
.
In August 2018, she featured on
Rachel Crow
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her au ...
's single "Coulda Told Me".
Chika released her debut single, "No Squares", in April 2019. The following month, at the invitation of guest host
Lena Waithe
Lena Waithe (born May 17, 1984) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She is the creator of the Showtime drama series '' The Chi'' (2018–present) and the BET comedy series ''Boomerang'' (2019–20) and '' Twenties'' (2020–pres ...
, she performed "Richey v. Alabama", another of her songs, on ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California, as part of ABC's l ...
''.
The song dealt with the state of
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
's
2019 abortion bill and was named for a friend of Chika's.
That summer, she signed a deal with
Warner Records.
Chika released two more singles as a lead artist in 2019: "High Rises"
and "Can't Explain It" featuring Charlie Wilson.
That year, she also featured on
JoJo's "
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identiti ...
", which reached number 18 on the ''Billboard''
US R&B Digital Downloads.
In December 2019, Chika announced that she was working on her debut extended play titled ''Industry Games''. On January 23, 2020, Chika confirmed the title and posted snippets of music from the EP, telling followers the release was two months away. She released the EP's titular single on February 18. The EP was released on March 12, 2020.
On August 11, 2020, Chika was included on ''
XXL''s 2020
Freshman Class. She was nominated for a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
for Best New Artist. and a
NAACP Image Award
The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...
for Outstanding New Artist. On March 11, 2021 Chika announced that her second EP ''Once Upon A Time'' would be released at midnight.
On April 10, 2021, Chika posted a widely publicized note to her Twitter account explaining her decision to retire from music while reflecting on the "mental toll" that life as a musician in the spotlight had taken on her health. In an Instagram Live session in which she interacted with fans following her initial retirement announcement, she criticized "trolls" or "stans" who "dogpile on top of people's other mental problems and make them worse." She specifically cited the effects of online abuse on her ongoing battle with depression on her decision, although she left a small possibility for a comeback in her final statement.
Films
Chika had a role as a high school student in the 2020 Netflix Original film ''
Project Power
''Project Power'' is a 2020 American science fiction action film directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, produced by Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless, and written by Mattson Tomlin. It stars Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominiq ...
''. She also contributed the track "My Power".
Fashion
In May 2019, Chika featured in a
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, a ...
#MyCalvins advertisement,
also writing poetry for the brand's S/S 2019 campaign.
That same year, she participated in a ''
Business of Fashion'' panel at
Paris Fashion Week
Paris Fashion Week (french: Semaine de la mode de Paris) is a series of designer presentations held semiannually in Paris, France with spring/summer and autumn/winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation. ...
and posed for the December cover of ''
Teen Vogue
''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since 2015, following ...
''.
She was recognized by ''Business of Fashion'' as one of the top 500 people shaping the fashion industry in 2019.
Personal life
Chika is the youngest of her Nigerian-American parents' three daughters. She is of
Igbo descent and was raised in the
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement faith.
Chika identifies as
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...
and addresses her sexuality in her music and videos. In her video for "Can't Explain It", she put her own spin on ''
A Different World
''A Different World'' is an American sitcom (and a spin-off of ''The Cosby Show'') television series that aired for six seasons on NBC from September 24, 1987 to July 9, 1993. The series originally centered on Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and ...
'', one of her favorite sitcoms.
On May 30, 2020, Chika was briefly detained by police at a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
protest
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
following the police
murder of George Floyd
On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...
. She addressed the incident on social media the following day, emphasizing the peaceful nature of the demonstration prior to police involvement.
Discography
Extended plays
Singles
As lead artist
As featured artist
Music videos
Awards and nominations
References
{{Authority control
1997 births
African-American women rappers
African-American poets
African-American songwriters
American women songwriters
American people of Nigerian descent
American spoken word poets
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Bisexual women
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from Alabama
American LGBT poets
LGBT songwriters
GLAAD Media Awards winners
Living people
Musicians from Montgomery, Alabama
Poets from Alabama
Rappers from Alabama
Songwriters from Alabama
University of South Alabama alumni
21st-century African-American people
21st-century LGBT people
21st-century African-American women