Okay Acoustic: Toya Delazy
Toya Delazy is a rising South African pop figure and Queen of "J.E.H.P"--the sound and word she coined as her own that means jazz-electro-hop-pop all at once. Okayafrica TV decided it'd be right if Toya came through and sat down for an Okay Acoustic cover of her hype-electric breakthrough single "Pump It On." "Pump It On" is the debut single from Delazy's 2012 album "Due Drop" (that won the South African Music Award for Best Pop Album). The official video still has more YouTube views than any of her others to date.
We got Toya behind a piano at the legendary Cutting Room, to play for us and talk about the epiphanies and resolutions that inspired the song. She explained that it "liberated her"--the song is about courage and trusting your own eccentricity--and it grew out of her own experience as a musician and a performer. She got her start playing acoustic instruments at local pubs, opening up for "the punks and the goths" before crossing over to her more synthetic, vintage-futuristic hybrid sound.
She played a very passionate arrangement of "Pump It On" and maintained the original electricity of the record without the bells n' whistles. For now she's busy touring Africa, but she did talk about contemplating a move to NY. Check out Toya Delazy--the South African Music Awards Newcomer of the Year-- below in the lastest installment of the Okay Acoustic series.
Producer: Allison Swank
Videographers: Lance Steagall + Jay Sprogell
Sound Engineer: Robert Lux
Editor: Jay Sprogell
