A Montreal rapper just won a new Canadian music award that recognizes up-and-coming Black artists.
NDG’s Naya Ali has become one of the inaugural winners of the SOCAN Foundation’s SiriusXM Black Canadian Music Awards.
It’s the latest accomplishment in her quickly rising career.
“It’s been wild. I think even towards the end of this past year, things have been moving a lot faster,” Ali told Global News in an interview.
She was born in Ethiopia and came to Montreal with her mother when she was a toddler. Ali says her upbringing in NDG contributed to piquing her interest in becoming a rapper.
“When you know, you know! It’s a great, great area, and a great area for the arts,” she said.
Ali may be coming out with polished music and visually striking videos now, but the 32-year-old’s path to stardom was a winding one. One of the early stops was the NDG YMCA, where in her early teens she’d watch yearly shows put on by rappers from the community.
“There was a buzz. There was an NDG buzz and I always used to, you know, want to be part of it. But I didn’t know how,” she said.
She started writing poetry and rapping, but by her early 20s she had given up the dream.
“I didn’t think it was viable,” she said. “I just focused on school and focused on going to Concordia and McGill and then I worked in marketing.”
She says wasn’t happy. Working an office job, it became clear what she really wanted to do. Story continues below adver