Often touted as Nigeria’s biggest female rap artiste, Sasha has come a long way in the Nigerian music business and she has a wide array of medals to show for this.
Her presence in the business of rap music dates far back into the period when artistes were simply into music on the strength of their passion for the arts.
In addition to pushing the limits of her personal career, Sasha has also touched the lives of young artistes positively and it is on this premise that she earns a spot in this week’s entertainment profile.
In this piece, we will examine the hard facts, moment and several other areas that you probably didn’t know about in the life of this gifted rapper.
- Sasha’s real name is Antonia Yetunde Alabi
- Besides her stage name, she is also fondly called the ‘First Lady of Nigerian Hip Hop’
- She is a Law graduate
- Sasha has won both local and international awards
- Her most successful song till date is ‘Adara,’ which she released in 2008
- With the song, ‘Adara,’ Sasha won the Best Female Artiste award in 2009 at the Women in Entertainment Award in the UK
- Sasha won the Channel O award for Best Female Video and then proceeded to win MTV Base Africa Best Female Artiste in 2010
- She has a clothing line christened ‘Eclectic by Sasha’
- She was once a tomboy and was not interested in girly activities
- She now considers herself a woman now and has shed the tomboy tag
- Sasha remains one of the biggest advocates of Hip Hop and what it represents in Nigeria
- Besides being an artiste, Sasha also calls herself a poet and motivational speaker
- Sasha admires men who are God-fearing and she explains why. “For real! I want my man to be God fearing. The thing is, when a man fears God, then you should know that everything else follows.”
- Sasha also admires men who are confident, hardworking and ambitious
- She describes the task of being involved in music while she was studying Law in the university as both ‘easy’ and ‘not easy’
- Sasha has never had any desire to be in the court room as a practicing law
- The two parts of law that she find particularly interesting are ‘mediation’ and corporate secretaries that give legal advice
- She loves settling arguments but does not like the idea of doing it in a court room
- Her mum was a retired principal
- She comes from a home where education is considered a key asset
- One of the reasons Sasha took a break from the music scene was to carve out some time to focus on her clothing line, ‘Eclectic by Sasha’
- She looks forward to day when she would have her retail clothing line in every state in Nigeria
- Sasha was a brand ambassador for Samsung along with Banky W
- She is a brand ambassador for telecom giant, Etisalat
- One of the first Nigerian producers to give her a shot at the big stage was eLDee
- The first record label she worked with was Trybes Records
- She hit the limelight in 2001
- Some of her earliest singles include ‘Emi le Gan,’ ‘Work It,’ ‘Oya’ and a host of others
- In 2004, Sasha won the Most Promising Female in Africa award at the KORA Awards
- Sasha also has a fragrance brand called ‘Eclectic’
- She loves poetry and believes rap is rhythmic applied poetry
- Sasha got eLDee’s number for the first time from a friend
- The first time she met eLDee face to face, he asked her to do a ‘freestyle’ but she declined and said, “I told him, ‘I can’t freestyle but I can free write’ and he said, ‘what does that mean?’ I said ‘give me a beat and I’ll write a verse and a chorus right here’ because I had given him my demo and he didn’t like it. So I wrote my verse and I wrote my chorus and I left and two days later, I got a contract in my email and the rest they say is history.”
- Her decision to opt for rap came naturally as she considered it a God-given talent
- Sasha claims not to have a formula for success except staying in line with God’s purpose. “If you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, then he is going to keep upholding you.”
- She is the last of eight children
- The first rapper she was truly passionate about as a younger Sasha was Tupac
- She never felt odd delving into rap while her teenage friends were more into RnB and soul
- Sasha considers her years with Trybe Records a blessing
- Artistes that inspired her at that time were Tupac, TLC, MC Hammer, Kris Kross, Fugees, Plantashun Boiz, Trybesmen, late Tina, Blacky, Ese Agese and others
- Her decision to study Law was completely hers
- The TV series that sparked her desire to study Law was ‘Jake And The Fat Man’
- After graduation, Sasha did some online courses on Mediation and is looking into Alternative Dispute Resolution because she has a huge interest in it
- She was an active voice in the fuel subsidy protests in Lagos that greeted President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2012
- Sasha is not interested in politics
- She began styling clothes from her days as an undergraduate. “I made clothes for students from other Universities. From then, I styled people for TV shows, award shows, red carpets…”
- Her mum’s fashion line, ‘Poise Fashion’ was one of the inspiring elements that drove her into pursuing her passion in fashion
- The business of her brand, ‘Eclectic by Sasha’ was officially born in December 2011
- Sasha has repeatedly denied ever being romantically involved with Nigerian rapper, Naeto C despite the frequency of the rumour
- At a point in time, she was rumoured to be pregnant, which turned out to be untrue
- She has 7 siblings
- Sasha is 30 years old.
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