Women to Know: Chadia Rodriguez

That's definitely the genre dominating the charts and the sales of Italian music market. But, at least in Italy, trap music is something made especially by men, figures like Sfera, Capo Plaza, Dark Polo Gang and so on. Maybe, though, things are about to change and the merit is also of Chadia Rodriguez. 

Born in 1998, half Spanish, half Moroccan, raised in Turin (where she even played in the women's youth Juventus team) and now based in Milan, Chadia Rodriguez has produced four singles, that made her conquer charts and audience, not without controversies. She starts writing songs at a very young age, and thanks to the help of common friends, one of her demos ends up in the hands of Big Fish first, and Jake La Furia then: after the release of her autoproduced single Dale, the duo not only grants her a deal with Sony, but they both become her agents. The sound of Chadia's songs follows the current trend of trap music, that's to say the mix of Latino and Arabic sounds, besides a great use of autotune: these two elements play, in Chadia's world, even a bigger role, because they perfectly mirror her origins. Her lyrics are something never seen before in Italian music: Chadia is a woman who has sex, smokes pot, who does whatever she wants, without being afraid of the opinion and the judgements of other people, and without being afraid to tell everything she feels like to. The Queen of successes / Factory of my successes, she sings in Sister (Pastiglie), I get up at 4 am and I send you a pic of my booty / That's why you have to bring my weed, not flowers / That's what I meant when I said 'I'm a different type of girl', I sleep always in a different bed and I travel around Italy on my own, she raps in Fumo Bianco. 

When we talk about Chadia Rodriguez, and more generally about the (few) female artists in this scene, is almost inevitable to make a comparison with the same reality in the US. Chadia named as one of her role models Cardi B, a woman who was able to get what she wanted relying only on her own forces, working as a stripper to pay for her education and then starting a music carrer where she speaks without filters of her sex life, her desires, her excesses and her mistakes. The beginnigs of Chadia were not so different from the ones of Cardi - she worked as a nude model - and in the same way her songs reflect authentically and precisely the life of a young woman, in all its aspects. Chadia has always been comfortable in her own body, and she's not ashamed of showing it. While in the USA, despite the great number of haters, Cardi B is considered a successful self-made woman, in Italy Chadia is for many just a 'whore'. 

"Calling me a whore is something so predictable that I don't even care. Sometimes looks can be deceiving, though, and you can't judge a book from its cover. Why do judge me just because before starting making music I worked as a nude model? In my life I put my heart in everything I do. When you call me a slut you don't hurt me, you're banal, you make me laugh", has once claimed Chadia. 

The issue is quite complex. On the one hand what Chadia is doing is totally innovative: for the first time in such a sexist and macho environment like the one of trap music, the woman isn't seen as the usual 'bitch', the classic half-naked dancer twerking in videos, but she's the one stealing the show, singing about her desires, without filters. On the other, it's a bit sad that to get a recognition in the trap world, women can't rely only on their talent, but have to resort to their body and to super sexy looks. So it's quite inevitable that Chadia unleashes many critiques and comments, which most of the times don't regard her music, but just her image and her look. Chadia seems quite unbothered by these comments though. 

Nonetheless, Chadia's message seems to have reached the younger generations. Many girls, in fact, approach her on Instagram to thank her, to tell her about their experiences and to tell her how her songs changed their perspective on their bodies and their possibilities. 

The first woman to cover the Spotify Italia rap playlist, Chadia Rodriguez is ready to take over the entire trap world. While she's in tour around Italy, today drops also her new single 3G, feat Jake La Furia, produced by Big Fish, that anticipates the EP due to come out next January.