Sasha also known as the "First Lady" of Nigerian Hip Hop has remained the most visible female artist in Nigeria for 8 years now.
Born on the 21st of May 1983, the hip hop artist whose real name is Yetunde Alabi’s first outing as a budding rapper was in 2001, at a Girls nite out talent hunt show where she competed with other girls and was named first runner up at the end of the day. The next day, she went with the other contestants to perform to a crowd of over 500 people at the Lagos lekki beach where she instantly became the crowd’s favorite.
A couple of months after that memorable performance, she met Eldee of the popular rap trio, Trybesmen and after listening to her rap, he signed her onto Trybes records.
In August 2002, the single “Work it “was released to the media, this had her rapping alongside her label mates 2shotz, Timi, Del and Eldee. The reception for the single was unbelievable and due to popular demand “Oya” was released in October of the same year. It went into the charts at number 3 the first week and became the Christmas anthem that year. The video debut was on BEN TV in England in January 2003 and then finally on all Nigerian television stations where it got heavy rotation.
With her group Trybesmen, she performed in a range of concerts including opening for International artistes such as R&B group DRU HILL in May 2003, and GINUWINE in September 2003 amongst others. Her performances wowed the audience adding to her steadily growing fan base.
Her first single “Emi Le Gan” released in October 2003 and met a warm and receptive audience, and the video released on all TV stations in February 2004 for which she wrote the script was directed by Eldee. It topped the charts for weeks and her style was compared with her international counterparts like EVE, Missy Elliot and Foxy Brown. Her own musical influences include the late Tupac shakur, Missy Elliot, Lauryn Hill and Beyonce Knowles.
“I definitely have a style of my own but all the same I take it as a compliment to be compared to already established females in my genre of music, I draw influences from people who are multi talented and not afraid to speak their mind, I ‘m working on someday being able to attain the level of success if not more that they have achieved”
She got another major break as one of the artistes at the 2004 MTN Y’hello television show where she shared the stage with big acts such as High life crooner Sunny Nneji, South African acts Tamara Dey and Mapaputzi, Lord Kenya from Kenya and other notable Nigerian artistes. The program aired nationwide on 23 local television stations and also on DSTV music station, Channel O.
In August 2004, Sasha added another feather to her hat when she was selected alongside top selling artiste Tuface Idibia to represent Nigeria in the KORA West African preliminaries held in Ghana {the first of it’s kind}.
She came tops in a stiff competition aired live on Ghanaian television station TV3 where she competed against Ghanaian well known acts Batman and Miss Belle, Togo’s Orcyno, Benin’s Kessim and Cote d’ivoire’s Guizo winning a nomination as West Africa’s representative for the category of Most promising female in Africa at the 2004 KORA awards ceremony that was held on the12th December ,2004 at the Sandton Convention centre in Johannesburg, South Africa .It was broadcast live to an approximated 700 million viewers across Africa, Europe ,the United States and the Caribbean.
This was not her only nomination in 2004; she was also nominated at the 2004 Amen awards for her Single “Emi le Gan” in the category of best upcoming artiste.
She performed at the Miss Commonwealth benefit concert in November 2004 opening for the project fame all stars of the widely watched and recently concluded Project Fame Academy on DSTV’s channel 37. In the same year, she initiated her pet project To educate young females in secondary schools and universities on the increasingly prevalent disease of Breast cancer.
In 2005, Sasha left Trybe records and joined one of Nigeria’s biggest record label, Storm Records. Under the label, she released “Adara”, a single for her debut album. The single became a national anthem all over the country and her video received massive airplay on major TV stations and music channels.
“First Lady”, Sasha’s debut album was released in December 2007. The album was a huge success and she earned respect of her dedication, hard work and stellar performances.
She was the first ever Nigerian female artist to perform at the 20th anniversary of the World Music Awards in October 2008; she has shared stages with a host of International and National acts which include Boyz II men, Dru Hill, Rihanna, Shakira, P Diddy and John Legend.
In June 2009, she opened for Rkelly on his most recent tour in Sun city South Africa and also performed at the eviction ceremony for BBA 3.
Sasha is currently a Law undergraduate at the University of Lagos, and apart from her musical and writing career, she also designs most of her stage costumes and outfits through her developing clothing line Eclectic! She has customers cutting across various higher institutions ranging from University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, Babcock University, Igbinedion University, and Osun State University amongst others. She is multi talented and always willing to give back to the community.
She is also the national ambassador for Nigerian mobile phone company Anabel
She remains unarguably one of the busiest artists in Nigeria but always makes out time to give back to her community which she believes made her who she is today.
“I believe as an individual, I have a social responsibility to make a difference any way I can” and this she has done consistently over the years.
She was part of the "Save a street child" campaign in Lagos in January 2009 and the recently launched "Maternal Mortality" project in May 2009 which is an initiative by renowned Nigerian Fuji musician Kwam 1 to educate and help cater to the needs of young mothers who seek adequate medical care.
Sasha is currently enjoying major rotation of her latest single "Gidi Babe" and she just released a single titled “Put it Down which features Mozambique singer Dama do bling.
She just returned from South Africa where the video for the song titled "Making Money" was shot, she enthuses that "it’s a song everybody can relate to considering the economic crisis the world over!"
She is set to perform Gbedu, a song she featured in at the 2009 channel o awards with teen sensation Jon, who won the first edition of mnet reality TV show, naija Sings.
Without a doubt she has lived up to her name and the entire world awaits the First lady to keep taking them by storm.
Award nominations
1. Soundcity Music video awards 2008
Best Female Artist
Best Cinematography
2. Hip Hop World Awards
Best rap single 2007
Best rap album 2008
Best Collaboration (with Jimmy jatt for Too much)
3. Channel O
Best Female Artist
Best Newcomer 2004
4. MTV MAMAS AWARDS
Best Female 2008
5. African Music Awards UK
Best Female 2009
6. Kora Awards
Most Promising New act 2004
Best solo act (female) 2009
WON
1. Female artist of the year 2006- Law Dept Olabisi Onabanjo University
2. Most promising female artist 2005- Amen Award
3. Most Promising artist West Africa 2004- Kora Award
4. Most Entertaining 2008-Faculty of Law Unilag
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