Fresh Voices in Hip-hop: Ana Tijoux

Ana Tijoux is Chile's fastest rising hip-hop star.

Born in France to Chilean parents living in political exile during Pinochet's dictatorship, Tijoux returned to Santiago as a teenager in the early '90s. She started rapping in French and switched to Spanish when she joined local hip-hop collective Makiza. After a stint in Latin funk bands and briefly going mainstream pop, she returned to her rap roots and decided to go it alone, releasing her debut album Kaos in 2007.

Have a listen to Tijoux's first single "1977," taken from her second solo album of the same name. At first it's hard to know whether this is even rap. Instead the Chile femcee talks to you, and not at you, in the same voice you'd expect her to use if she told you over a Sunday coffee that she had a lot of laundry to do. Speed is the chilled Chilena's forte as she neatly packs a cascade of Spanish syllables into every bar of the song without ever sounding urgent. Native Chilean guitar obediently strums in the background while gentle snare rolls and tiny cymbal crashes keep a lazy heatwave beat. It's no wonder that the siesta-inducing track has Tijoux softly voicing a “Shhh!” after every line in the chorus.

The video for “1977” nods to hip-hop's founding fathers with Tijoux pulling b-girl poses while covered head to shell-toe in red Adidas and wearing a Public Enemy t-shirt. Washed-out photos that blend into faded pencil sketches provide a background while Tijoux herself is moved around by giant hands on what looks like a malfunctioning iPad touchscreen.

You can download Tijoux's new album Elefant—a mini-mixtape of her songs remixed by a host of indie hip-hop production heads, including Seattle's own Jake One—for free from her website here.