HAWA. Photo by Guarionex Rodriguez, Jr.
HAWA, a 22-year-old artist born in the Guinea capital of Conakry and with roots in Berlin and New York City, first began releasing music in 2018 with "Might Be" (previously, she became the youngest person ever to join the New York Philharmonic as a composer.) Her first singles were intriguing cuts of space-age melodic rap, and her debut EP THE ONE, released in 2020, suggested that HAWA wasn't content to color inside of contemporary hip-hop's lines.
Today, HAWA doubles down on her genre-spanning influences with "GEMINI," the lead single from her upcoming debut album HADJA BANGOURA, out on November 4 via 4AD. Inspired by the rhythms and tones of UK garage, deconstructed club, and '00s R&B a la Kelela, "GEMINI" finds HAWA as confident and engaging as she's ever been. In the song's music video directed by Courtney Sofiah Yates, HAWA acts as an unseen chorus for a rocky relationship. Watch below:
HADJA BANGOURA is named after HAWA's late great-grandmother. It's produced by beloved NYC artist Tony Selzer – listen to his FADER Mix here.
HAWA 2022 tour dates
September 22 - Bad Bonn - Düdingen, CH
September 23 - Reeperbahn - Hamburg, DE
October 26 - Public Records - Brooklyn, NY
November 5 - Pitchfork Festival - Berlin, DE
November 16 - FiftyLAB - Brussels, BE
