Calling from her house in Germany, she sounds confident about her career direction and happy about her artistic vision. As the interview continues, (no questions previously prepared). Fly finds out that she is actually both African and German.

I am mixed and you have to understand that the amount of mixed people in Germany is incomparable to the amount that you guys have over in the UK. There are not as many black people here in Germany, so we are sort of strangers. I’m not saying it’s horrible, it’s not horrible at all but we are strangers here

Born & Raised is the title of her latest album, she says, “Yeah, I think it just came out a few days ago. Maybe a week or one and a half weeks, I don’t really exactly know. It just came out recently.”

“Well, I mean yes. I am promoting it, like doing interviews with you for instance. I would love to do a tour in the UK but it’s not planned yet. It may happen like next year. I would really really love to come to the UK because I just love how the people from the UK work with music because I did a promotion tour for four or five days. Being in the UK and travelling from Manchester to London” Joy Denalane continues, “I’ve been to all kinds of cities, small villages, all kinds of radio stations and I’ve just loved the way people perceive music in the UK. It’s very special and unique. I’m not talking about black or urban music only; I think that’s not the main genre in England. Just the way people talk about music, and even like the pirate stations. That culture is very traditional in the UK. We don’t even have that, we don’t have something like pirate stations and that’s something special for me at least. Coming Germany, that just expresses how people love and how important music is in their life because nobody really makes money out of pirate stations. I see young kids doing pirate stations, they’re like twenty, twenty one to twenty five years old.”

Born & Raised has a Joy Denalane and Lupe Fiasco collaboration, on the song and single Change. Joy Denalane admits, “Cool! Lupe is a very easy, humble, grounded, friendly, young person. Who is into music like crazy, he would just rap or stand in front of you and have a conversation in a five second space, he’d take the space to just rap. He loves to innovate the whole time and it was really great fun working with him. It was very natural, he’s really nice and polite, we exchanged chat addresses and we were chatting like where you at? ‘Oh I’m in Paris’, ‘Oh I’m in London’. He’s funny, cool and a very uncomplicated person.”

Joy Denalane rewinds time and speaks about how it was growing up with two parents from two different cultures, “I mean, I’m not fully German because my Dad’s, South African. I was ‘Born & Raised’ in Berlin, I am really a German but people might sometimes think because of my accent that I’m American. I think if you talk to me longer than five minutes you’ll hear that I’m not and the reason why I speak the way I do was just because I work with African-Americans. So, I just picked it up like that, you know?”

Born & Raised is clearly inspired by classic soul and hip hop artists, Joy Denalane says, “That’s just because I love those two genres that you just mentioned. It’s what I’m listening to and it’s what really really inspired me. It made me the musician I am. Hip hop was really plays an important role in my life because coming from Germany, being mixed race or black or whatever. I mean, I’m mixed race but some people would say ‘Oh she’s black’, it really depends on where you’re from and who your talking to but it’s how people perceive you. I am mixed and you have to understand that the amount of mixed people in Germany is incomparable to the amount that you guys have over in the UK. There are not as many black people here in Germany, so we are sort of strangers. I’m not saying it’s horrible, it’s not horrible at all but we are strangers here.

“We different look INS, we are strangers because there are not too many of us, we are strangers. So, when hip hop came to Germany. That was just like a total change in my life because all of a sudden the style and the people who did hip hop were black. It was cool to like hip hop also. It was a very cool genre, you know? The whole life style was accepted here in Germany as something really cool and it totally changed my perception and how people looked at me had totally changed over night, sort of. I loved the music and the whole lifestyle, so that played such an important role in my life. I grew up with my Dad listening to black music. He would and play records over and over for the family from jazz musicians, to soul musicians to R&B musicians. I grew up with black music really.”

Hugh Masakela is Uncle to Joy Denalane. “I worked with him on my first record. He plays and he sings on my first record. He’s also in my video (laughs). You can find it on www.youtube.com. There’s a video called ‘Soweto’ like the town Soweto. There’s a German version to it, on my first record and in this video you will see and hear Hugh Masakela.”

Vocally Joy Denalane has been compared to by national press to Mary J Blige and Syleena Johnson to Faith Evans. Though, her career is nothing like those artists and she has her own sound and music.”No it was not my goal to be compared to anyone and I think nobody who does something wants to be compared. Really, I mean that’s not the goal. I think it might be a step in the right line because I think to compare things or people is a very natural human thing. It’s necessary because if you had to explain to someone something new, then you would have to find a comparison to make that person understand”, confesses Joy Denalane. She goes on, “But that’s not only in journalism that’s the human thing like I’m not a journalist but if I explain something like a song to a friend of mine, then I’ll automatically say this song sounds like…it’s a mix between and such. That’s a normal thing everybody needs a comparison, you have to explain something to that person who doesn’t already know. So, I say this is something totally natural, and I’m not mad about it at all. If anything, I’m very honored because the singers I’m being compared to I look up to and singers who inspire me. I wouldn’t mind if one-day people would decide to give me my own box, with my name on it and say this is Joy Denalane.”

Favorite songs of mine have to be Heaven Or Hell featuring Raekwon

Joy Denalane also reflects on the album’s international appeal, “Oh no, I mean its where I’m from, it’s where I started and so the whole story started here. Including people who supported me, who helped me to go where I like to get this far. That all happened in Germany, and there was a certain moment where I started going to the U.S more and from the U.S, like musicians, like my band for instance, I have two bands, one is from Germany and the other is from the U.S. That inspired me as well, people I’ve worked with on the record, the American musicians, they’ve really inspired me too. Of course, they’ve inspired me when we were recording but for me it was even more interesting for me to exchange information about music in the breaks like when we had a break. We were in the hallway together and we started talking about music, and everybody had to say something about artists or maybe what music I should listen to. That is what really really inspired me, so I can say business wise and music wise Germany is my first country but then music wise there is also the second country that also really inspires me and that’s the U.S. I can’t lie about it, it’s the U.S.”

In 2002, Joy Denalane released her Erykah Badu Baduzim looking album Mamani. Joy Denalane explains the truth behind that record. “I mean, I love Erykah Badu, really. I think she’s great, she really also changed the game. She’s also one of those artists who matter, who wrote history, and then I liked her style when she came up with Baduizm, great and her second album. I just like her as an artist. I didn’t record this record with the head wrap on; I wasn’t really thinking of Erykah, I was thinking about my roots more, my South African roots. That’s what was the inspiration. It was my mission to show people in Germany where I’m from, I’m German but I’m half South African at the same time and I combine like my German culture with South African culture. I just wanted to make a point with this, so the head wrap like symbolized more of my African side than Erykah Badu’s, ‘Baduizm’. The content is really far removed from ‘Baduizm’. I wasn’t even thinking about that.”