By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: Masia One may not be a household name in Singapore yet. But the Singapore-born hip hop artist has topped music charts in Canada and even became the first woman to be nominated for a Rap Video award at a North American music show.

And yet, she said she’s still waiting for Singapore radio stations to play her music.

Masia One can be called another product of East meets West.

The Singapore-born rapper got her first taste of hip hop when as an eight-year-old, she bought an illegal cassette tape at a local market.

But it was only after moving with her family to Canada where the artist gained musical success, including two albums, her own record label called Merdeka Group and performed in Japan and Indonesia.

On whether the singer would have been able to enjoy the same amount of success if she stayed in Singapore, she said: “I probably won’t be doing what I’m doing if I grew up here because there will be perhaps a greater pressure to be a sweet girl.

“Not that I’m not a sweet girl. Once I hit North American soil, there was so much more easily found everywhere. So it was easier for me to explore whether I wanted to break dance or whether I wanted to do street art.”

But she tries to infuse as much of Singapore and Asia into her lyrics, especially in her latest album called “Pulau” which means island in Malay.

She added: “The music might not be typically Singaporean but if you listen to the music long enough, you’ll hear little things worked in like “hot like chilli padi”. The rest of the world might not get the joke but if you were Singaporean you will get the joke.”

The singer continued: “You want where you’re born, particularly Singapore to support who you are and support where you’re from. When I started my record label, I adopted the Merlion, so that I could always show the world that Singapore is not just the place that you can’t chew gum. I wanted to show more culture and where I was from. And my interpretation of hip hop comes from the person that I am.

“But at the end of the day, there’s something very sweet about everyone catching up and feeling kind of silly that they didn’t catch up when the rest of the world started knowing about this girl from Singapore that did all these in the mainstream of music. So it’ll come, I’m a very patient person.”

Even after graduating with a degree in architecture, her parents are still very supportive of her choice in pursuing her dream.

She added: “My dad says ‘architecture is very nice’ while my mum says ‘get married to a nice rich husband who drives a Mercedes’. I love that they always show me the different sides of life. Because if they were just like yes-men and just went along with what I wanted, I would never have the balance I need in my life.

“Even though they give me these other options, they’re still supportive of my choice and at the end of the day, I got to pursue my dream and I assure them its a business. It’s not me just bouncing around on a stage. It works out in the end for sure.”

While some hip hop lyrics are not very kind to Asians and women, how does this Asian female rapper reconcile that with her music?”

Masia continued: “It’s definitely a boys’ club and there are a lot of misogynistic lyrics. I’ve been offered money by the industry to rap in a bikini and do all kinds things like speak about really sexually explicit lyrics.

“So at the end of the day, I realised what it was and I knew that I just had to start my own label, own my own masters, own my music and have the independence to put out what I believe in and who I was and eventually people will come around and it paid off in the end.”

And the musician is pushing on, hoping to conquer America next with a new mainstream hip hop album expected in 2010.

For that, Masia is working with Che Vicious, a producer linked to Dr Dre, and who has worked with American artistes like 50Cent, Lauryn Hill and Aretha Franklin.