Highly decorated at home and abroad, Ladi6’s career is embossed with industry awards, considered critical acclaim, and countless international shows alongside a who’s who of respected music icons.
Ladi6’s third studio album, Automatic (read a 5 star review on the album here), was recorded between Studio A in Detroit, Michigan and Revolver Studios in Waiuku. Ladi6 and Parks traveled to America to work with Waajeed AKA Jeedo to record their new album at the renowned Studio A recording studio in Detroit, Michigan with grammy winning engineer Todd Fairall. Jeedo needs little introduction to music fans, as his work over the years has spawned absolute classics starting with his first Platinum Pied Pipers album, Triple P.
The first single ‘Ikarus’ produced by Parks has been described as a beautiful amalgamation of soul and futuristic hip-hop complemented by Ladi6’s hypnotic vocals.
Ladi6’s sophmore album ‘The Liberation Of…’, was a game changer. Recorded over two months in Berlin with production duties shared between her producer Parks and German beat auteur Sepalot. The album was certified Gold in New Zealand and spawned the Platinum-selling, Top 10 single ‘Like Water’ which gained an honourable mention in America’s Unsigned Only competition and was voted by MTV Iggy as the Best Love song of 2012.
In 2011 Ladi6 picked up two New Zealand Music awards (Best Urban album and Best Female Artist), two Pacific Music Awards (Best Pacific Urban album and Best Female Artist) and ‘The Liberation Of…’ won the prestigious Taite Music Prize.
Ladi6 relocated to the artistic mecca of Berlin for the summers of 2010 and 2011. During this time she performed over 150 solo shows, performed at festivals such as The Big Chill and Glastonbury and supported her musical heroes including Gil Scott Heron and Erykah Badu. These shows received rave reviews and the European media said she was “one to watch” and “stratospherically that good”.
Ladi6 has been a vital part of the NZ hip hop scene since its inception. She began her musical career in all female hip hop crew Sheelahroc and developed her lyrically introspective smoky soul sound over years of consistent touring and features alongside an Antipodean elite including the likes of 50HZ, Shapeshifter, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Scribe. Ten years on from her first gig she released her debut award winning album Time Is Not Much in 2008 with production by Parks and Mu (Fat Freddy’s Drop).
