Durban’s Liyah London performs with the stars
Durban — Liyah London is a name music fans will be chanting around the globe as the Durban-born musician’s star reaches its zenith.
From pop music to rap, the 20-something might be small in size but her talent is big enough to see her performing and hanging out with stars like Pitbull, Usher, LL Cool Jay, 50 Cent and Mims.
She started her career as Liyah but recently trademarked the name Liyah London for use on all her records and other merchandise.
“Some of my milestones were performing with LL Cool J, and that was really super cool. My main milestones were my big performances: there was one where I performed for 1.8 million people at a street festival in Miami. Doing numerous shows throughout Florida with some of the biggest rappers in the world, like Pitbull, Mims, 50 Cent, was definitely a highlight of my career.”
Liyah is the daughter of former Durban Heights and Bushbucks soccer player Rafiq Hassan, from Overport and his wife Ferial, also from Durban.
Hassan said Liyah started performing at about the age of four.
“We bought her this little tape recorder for Christmas. It was pink.
“We’d go to work and come back and she would basically figure out how to tape songs and try to dress up like Madonna and all these artists and put on a show for us. That’s how it started,” said Hassan.
The family moved to the US when Liyah was a little girl although they returned to Durban to visit family.
In 2011 she performed with US rapper and singer Pitbull in South Africa.
“He is so down to earth, so humble, so kind, so sweet. I had known him when I was in school. I was performing around South Florida and he and I had done a few shows together. Then I got the opportunity to go to South Africa to open for him because my song Raise Em High was charting there.”
To date her most successful record has been Fooled while her singles Raise Em High and Breaking the Game have also been popular.
Liyah is hard at work in the studio and fans can expect to see several new songs dropping over the next few weeks.
Liyah told the Independent on Saturday that no matter how experienced or successful you are, you have to work hard every day.
“I don’t stop. I’m still perfecting my craft every single day.”
Liyah said she had always listened to rap, but never thought she would record herself performing.
“I had called Mims and I was like ‘hey, you know I really need to get records done, I need to get songs recorded. Do you know of anyone you could put me on to, some really good producers, songwriters? So he’s like, ‘let me think about it and I’m going to get back to you’.”
That’s how she started working with her current team and they’ve been writing and recording round the clock in her studio at her home in New Jersey.
“I love all my music but this project is so different. It’s exciting because it’s going to showcase a whole different side of me that my fans and nobody has seen before. On some songs I’m singing, on others I’m just rapping.”
“I always thought I had to box myself in and stick to my pop music until this project. You just don’t know until you try something,” said Liyah.
From a close-knit family, Liyah said she often asked her parents for their opinion and her mom and the neighbour sometimes hung out in the studio and commented on what’s happening.
However, it hasn’t always been glamorous. She was seriously hurt during a live performance and had to take time off for two major surgeries.
Liyah is known for being outspoken on various social issues and has been an anti-bullying advocate, having experienced it for years as a child.
You can learn more about her on Instagram under the name Liyah Music.
Independent on Saturday