Artists 2 Peep @ SXSW 2010: Anita Tijoux

Ok, I don’t know about y’all but over here at The Couch Sessions - we are beyond stoked for this year’s upcoming SXSW music fest in Austin, TX - Mach 17-21.

For those of you who don’t know, SXSW is one of the largest and most popular music conferences in the US. Going down since 1987 the event takes place in downtown Austin in over 80 venues and brings together thousands upon thousands of singers, DJ’s MC’s, producers, industry execs and music fans –all who are there to network, perform, discover new bands and party their asses off.

SXSW is not only an excellent launching pad for artist who are on the verge of blowing up, but also for those who are new to the game and looking to promote their music for the first time. This is no time to be closed minded and stuck on one genre becasue there is a little bit of everything waiting to be absorbed.

So now that it’s pretty much a month away I thought it would be cool to highlight some of the artists/groups that you may never heard of, but should definitely try and peep if you’re gonna be down in Texas for this year’s awesome festivities.

First up to bat is Anita Tijoux – a half French/ half Chilean female MC who is widely known in Latin America. Heavily influenced by hip hop coming out of the states in the late 90’s Anita (who rhymes in both French and Spanish) has been making much noise overseas for over 10 years. She was the member of a couple of funk and hip hop bands but her career really began to take off when she decided to fly solo in 2006. Her  recently released album called 1977 (which is the year of her birth), was chosen by WorldHipHopMarket.com as one of the best global hip hop albums in 2009 – alongside artist like K’naan, Speech Debelle and k-os.

You can definitely hear the 90’s style rap influence in some of the production and in others she manages to bring in traditional Latin sounds as well. Her voice is soft with a light squeak (think Ladybug from Digable Planets) - but she rarely spits in English which is why I think her showcase could be interesting to peep. Odds are that her audience will consists of many English speaking music fans  - so she will have to work a little harder on breaking the language barrier by presenting  a unique and energetic stage performance to somehow make up for what we won’t be able to comprehend.

You can catch Anita’s SXSW performance during the Chilean Music Showcase (which will highlight sounds such as hip hop, Latin funk and psychedelic rock coming out of Chile) -date and location TBD.

And stay tuned for info on our official SXSW Couch Sessions Showcase- believe me, you WON’T wanna miss this!