Before The Crown is a 10-song album written or recorded in the last decade. To put that into context, Tiziana was a teenager when the project started; “I wrote my first song in 2014.”
She explains that the concept, which is unique in an industry that has grown with audio technology and studio access, is her journey through music, as a rap artiste who represents the coast while staying fresh.
“I want it to tell a story of my very start in music as my sound kept growing over time. I want it to represent the growth of my writing and rapping as an independent artiste in Kenya’s coastal scene,” said the artiste, who I first interviewed when she burst into the scene as an outlier, a female rapper from the coast, with the song Kadem Kabaya.
Set from an early age to earn her stripes and money in showbiz, she talks to me in between her hip hop radio show called Pwani Vina, on Blue Radio, an innovative audio-visual station based in Mombasa.
In Before The Crown, she still sounds 18, fresh, eager, and hungrier, tapping into Swahili ballads like she is a Taarab queen, slows it down with drill, speeds it up again with multi-lingual bars, showcasing her versatility throughout the album.
“It’s been recorded all over, from Mshomoroni to Nairobi, Chuo Records, Kusini Records, Street 33… and from different producers, Tash, Edward Ananda, Samora GKV and Libra Devine,” she elaborates.
With less features, she has to get into different rap pockets to deliver a thorough project.
Always feisty, her songs are disses to exes, disses to haters, odes to boyfriends, and even her love for debauchery – some of the lyrics can’t be played in a Kenyan home.
She laughs when I point that out, saying after, “My style blends raw rap energy with a melodic expression, rooted in Mombasa’s coastal vibe and influenced by global hip-hop. Naughtiness? That hip hop!”
In 2019, Tiziana released, Who are You and Bow Down, she disappeared, only to resurface post-corona during the Yes Bana challenge.
She had paused the game to give birth to Zendaya, her lovely daughter.
“Actually, Before The Crown is rooted in my life before everything changed.
It captures a season just before motherhood, growth, and major personal transitions began shaping who I am today,” she explains.
She pauses to reflect on the subject that many before her have dived into, how motherhood can impact a career, especially showbiz, where presence matters.
“I could say this happens to many female artists so for me to come back to the scene after going MIA for two years, took a lot of hard work because making a comeback is never easy for any artiste, especially a female rapper.”
Talking to her in 2019, Tiziana, born, Tiziana Zabibu Khassam explained her music persona, the sex appeal, saying, “Fans always want a piece of me. They want a piece of sexy. Sexy is expensive though, it’s not cheap to maintain but it’s in me, so I’m grateful. That’s why I’m Miss Attitude!”
And now, she has used her persona to pivot towards beauty and cosmetics, running her own store in Mombasa.
“…a mum must survive, so entrepreneurship is a must in this economy!”