The rise of Gigi LaMayne

Peter Matika, Senior Leisure Reporter
IT’S easy to write off today’s rappers as nothing more than self-taught entrepreneurs, whose strongest skill is their ability to spit clever lines wrapped in suffocating layers of self-promotion.

It is also a well-known secret that most rappers are not at all concerned with education but are rather concerned with getting high on drugs and alcohol, while promoting exaggerated vanity by posing for pictures to post on social media.

However, today’s roaster of upcoming and established hip-hop heavyweights comprises of rappers who spend time writing essays and researching on papers to focus on what’s important in their careers.

One typical example of such a rapper is South Africa-based rapper Gigi LaMayne who is of Zimbabwean decent.

LaMayne, whose real name is Genesis Manney, aced subjects: new media, consumer culture, anthropology of the state, and the development of anthropological boards.

The Joburg-based rapper literally took the colloquial term schooling to a new level by completing her undergraduate studies in media and anthropology with four distinctions. She graduates from Wits University this year.

A self-proclaimed bookworm, LaMayne is said to have been on the dean’s list of students who pass in the top 10 percent of each degree programme since she began her studies at Wits in 2013.

LaMayne said education was the key to success and that for her, as a female rapper, it was a milestone achievement, given the social and economic challenges being faced globally.

“Finally finishing my degree is a form of my emancipation as a student who struggled to get through university because of finances,” said LaMayne in an interview.

She was reportedly an active participant in last year’s historic South African Fees Must Fall student movement.

The award-winning rapper has had collaborations with some of the idolised South African rappers such as Khuli Chana.

Together they produced the hit track Ice Cream Maker, which shot her to stardom. She is scheduled to release her debut album, Genesis, later this year. She has since dubbed 2016 as The Year of Lamayne.