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Music

Introducing Gita Your New Favorite Rapper

A crash-course in Oakland rapper Gita AND a premiere of her track "Jungle Gardenia".

Gita is a firecracker. Since she dropped her Two Stacks produced debut, "Hood Rich" late last year —FYI the video where we first spotted her clutching a copy of VICE magazine, heeeey gurl!— she’s been quietly going about her hustle, readying herself as the next female to shake up the hot dog cart that is hip-hop. Her sound? It's a kinda harsh-ass hood mentality borne out of the Oakland projects, chopped up with the hashtag-rap weirdness of her home girl, Kreayshawn. Sort of like a sugar-coated N.W.A.

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Anyway, after what was the longest interview in the history of interviews (seriously, there's a jillion hours more transcribing to look forward to on Noisey) where we philosophized about everything from chicks versus dicks, how she'd go on a dinner date with Danny Brown or, umm, Hannah Montana, and the perils of waxing, we got down to the nitty-music-gritty.

So here's your Gita crash-course, along with an exclusive of her luxurious new track "Jungle Gardenia".

Noisey: So, you're working on an EP, could you tell me a bit more about that?

GITA: I am, yeah, it’s funny, months ago I wanted to do a mixtape and I was like "yeah, that would be cooool", and then somewhere down the line I was like "fuck that shit, like, I’m gonna skip that whole little process and I’m just gonna do an EP". So that’ll come out some time late October or early November this year.

There’s been a fair bit of hype around you after "Hood Rich". Why do you think that is?

I think because it looks like I've come a long way in such a short period of time, that makes people feel like "oh shit, who is this girl Gita?" But I put in the work, I’ve been out here grinding since I dropped out of high school and it hasn't happened over night. Things don’t come about 'cos of luck, it comes out of hard work.

Alright, lets talk about your move to New York from Oakland. Why?

One of my home girls —though we’re not cool no more— her and I grew up together, but her boyfriend got murdered by the police and some shit was going down with me and my family. It was all bad and she just hit me up like "‘yo, I know you and I ain’t talked in a year, Levi’s dead, why don’t we go to Harlem to go see my sister?" I thought about it, then just called her back and was like, "Let’s do it, bitch". We stayed out there for a month in the coldest fucking arctic-ass winter in New York. After that, I moved out here permanently in 2010, I was like 19. Shit, time flies.

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So which is better?

West Coast. I mean, it’s hard, it’s big, everyone and they momma’s momma got a gun, but what I appreciate about the West Coast is the culture. Everyone is kinda peaceful in a way when it comes to like weed, BBQ food, chillin’ with yo' 'folks, in that nice ass weather.

But the East Coast is a serious world, it’s a real grind. It takes like a certain type of person to live in New York, where the West Coast is for everyone, New York is not. The girl I grew up with left after the first nine months of being here, she couldn’t handle it. So I’ll rep West Coast ‘till the day I die, but New York is where I cut the cheques.

You've got a pretty bleak back-story. Anything you've done in the hood you regret?

Oh man, I don’t understand people that want to answer that question. How can you disclose all the gangsta things? I saw someone do that in an interview recently, I’m not gonna say no names but I was like, "what the fuck, bitch?" How can you disclose those things? I can say that I’ve done some foul things trying to survive, but I would never go into it.

I find it really funny that you’re a kinda insular sort of person, because it seems like you know everyone – Venus X, Azealia Banks, one of Wiz Khalifa’s boys, the A$AP Mob, and talking with you, you come across as a bit of a social hand grenade!

All those people you’ve just mentioned have a real "I’m on my shit" type of factor. One thing that people don’t understand is how this world operates…real will recognize real, y’know what I’m saying? There’s never been a time that all these people I’ve met really got to know "Gita". Over time, with my career, we’re going to get to know each other down to a tee. But until then…

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So they're very much business relationships?

I mean, people aren't hitting me up going "Hey bitch, let’s go get a fuckin' smoothie!", motherfuckers is really on they grind, even when they got their shit signed. I like people to be progressive and productive. A lot of my friends that I grew up with, weren’t always productive or ambitious, y’know what I’m saying? I can’t be round people who aren’t ambitious or want to be better ‘cos shit is contagious, like, what the fuck yo? You don’t want to see the world? The block isn't the world. The hood is crabs in a bucket.

Crabz In Tha Hood! So which of your female counterparts are you keeping an eye on?

Right now it's Azealia who I, like, crave the most. When I first came to New York I saw her video and it was like dayum, "She’s pretty, she can fuckin’ flow, this song is fuckin’ hot, what the fuck?" Then boom, she just sky rocketed. It’s funny ‘cos people try and come at her now, like she just got into it, but that bitch been on her shit for years hustlin’. I respect that.

A lot of stuff I’ve read on you (including this now, soz) focuses on the fact that you have a vagina and that you rap as well. Does that bother you at all?

Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. Where we are, it shouldn’t be about us getting at each others necks. One thing that I can say about dudes is they don’t really got that issue.

Right, last year rap was a huge sausage fest…

Sausage galore! But there’s SO much room for females right now.

Girl Power to you Gita.

Follow Gita on Twitter @GITASPEAXDAILY