We just met you on the screens and on the radio. Where have you been so far?

Well, in Bitoriano! I've spent most of my life there, until I got to college. It's a very small town. It will have about 250 inhabitants. There's a big change from town to city. In a small town we all know each other. They're the same as always. And all of a sudden you go to high school, to Vitoria, where you realize you're a number. But the truth is that in life it's also like this, and it came to me well to assimilate what would then happen to me. However, life in the people would not change for anything and the passage of my childhood and adolescence for the people, I have lived it as a privilege.

And how did it come into the rap world?

I've always liked poetry, and writing in general. It made me enjoy a lot. I don't know when I started listening to rap exactly. I met rap in Basque. It's also curious, because we usually look for all our referents outside of Euskal Herria, but I got rap in Euskera. And I saw that there was a certain similarity between rap and poetry. Structure, metric... And I thought, Why can't I do this? I can put a base and rattle the letters of my poems! And that's what I did.

How does one think to do?

To put it all, I didn't know how the songs were made -- I still don't know today -- I didn't know how to get that flow, how to adapt my voice to the tempora -- but I started doing what was leaving me. As I do now. It was a process of experimentation. But rap is, in part, affordable. Without knowing any music, if you have a base and a message, you can do something. And I had a lot to say. So I started looking for the bases and writing the letters. I would write and then I would sing on a base, and I had to change some things -- this summarized, this extended -- and my friends said to me: “This looks good!” I said, “well, go ahead.”

At the same time, I started reading about the hip-hop culture, and I fell in love. Marginalized groups in the Bronx created it as an instrument of resistance, saying: “Look, we live in misery, and no one is doing anything here.” It was a way for their voices to be made known. And I saw it was the best way to say it.

And since the creation of rap came to the tabside…

It was a vicious circle. I motivated myself, my friends encouraged me, I motivated myself more… I started listening to more and more rap. I could rap all day, literally. All of a sudden, I met the hip-house. In Bachillerato, the cultural week is organized, and that year I decided to introduce my work to the public. Soon I went back and turned back to what was presented then, and I created the song Hazia. And we created the music video of the song together with the Enbor group, with the help of Hala Bedi. Everything had happened very quickly. I remember vaguely, but it was a very nice process. Not just a process of immersion in the rap world. I've learned a lot on this road.

Is it an individual tour?

It's not an individual tour. The video clip itself, for example, is teamwork. The Enbor group is a group of racialized women that was originally formed to shape the videoclub, but what was spontaneously created has had a longer journey and is still in progress as a space for reflection and care about our racializations. On the other hand, when I got that song, Haizea Alonso had just taken his own (Nire Bala, December 2019). And I didn't have an awesome relationship with him, but I knew him, and one day we met and talked about giving concerts collectively, among other things.

It's very hard to get into a scene that's always been kids'. I saw myself, woman, reasoned, young, in a space of completely white boys, and I thought, “Where am I going?” And Haizea was also a woman and a young woman, and we saw that we could be a kind of guarantee in front of the party. And the truth is, it's helped me a lot.

Ningra is your artistic name. Where did you choose it?

Ning is my name. Then I added to. Not because it comes from the word rap – I have been told many people, and not – but because it seemed much more beautiful phonetically and aesthetically. The thing is, I have two names, one that my parents put to me, Uxue, and the other Ning, that I have since I was little from China. And I've always been in a constant clash with that name, because it makes me more Chinese. People have laughed at me, they have abandoned me … and, therefore, I have always wanted to take away that Chinese touch. And the choice of this name as an artistic name is for me a form of empowerment; to say, "Look, this is my name, it's part of my person, and what makes me different has nothing wrong. I don’t have to suffer contempt.” And it's over.

Criticize the logic and entertainment system of record companies in your words. What kind of hip-hop do you dream of?

We live in a culture of entertainment, they keep us blinded, uncritical, with no personality of their own... Capital drives entertainment machines and needs them in continuous production. It's very difficult to create a complete break with this system. The only thing that matters in capitalism is the value of change, and the dependence on it leads you to want to partner with record companies to produce music. But I believe that in this context we should promote the culture, the culture that I dream of – not just hip-hop – that is not based on entertainment, that fosters criticism and that arouses a desire for reflection. It is difficult, but it is possible to draw up quality projects without going into business logic through self-management. When we made the video clip Hazia, I could see that with my own eyes. It's self-managed and quality. It's hard, but it's possible.

What is the point of singing in Basque for you? Does it make political sense?

The Basque language is not my mother tongue. I speak Spanish with my parents and friends forever. In my region you mostly hear Castilian, and I dream in Spanish. Speaking in Basque has been my choice. Of course it makes political sense. It is clear that Euskal Herria has been oppressed for many years, that Euskera has been banned, that those of us who speak in Euskera have been looked at badly and that we are still being watched. So, it seems to me that the mere use of Euskera is an action of resistance. The Basque country does not have the scene it deserves, and I wanted to give it my push. So I didn't hesitate to start creating.

In addition, when speaking I feel more comfortable in Spanish – because I am more fluent and I adapt to the registration of the street – but, at the same time, when writing, it seems to me that I write better in Basque. After all, at school I have learned Basque, I have read and written in Basque. Then there was a subject, Spanish, but it was an exception. I think this ease also helped me decide. The Basque is associated with the language of the school, and Castilian with the street, and doing hip-hop in Basque is also to turn it around. Translate the Basque into the street.

How do you see the Basque rap scene in terms of gender? Lately, referent women have become known... Are women taking the stage or is it a phenomenon of mirage?

Fortunately, I think that the rap of the Basque Country is far from the oppressive tone of the gallop or rap mainstream games sponsored by Red Bull. But within the Basque hip-hop you also have to fight. For example, rap produced in Euskera in Euskal Herria is very scarce, the quantitative difference between rappers and women is very evident, there are hardly any racialized women... Here too, there are many things that need to be changed, and it is up to us to be there.

I, for example, have had virtually no female referrals. Aneguria and Basu. Two. Fortunately, more and more women are getting the micro, but it seems to me that the idea that women are taking the micro is a chimera. I think when a woman, or a person who doesn't normally take the stage, grabs the micro, suddenly it's given a big spectacularity, a boom occurs, and there seem to be a thousand women instead of a woman. But no, there's only one woman.

In your first song you turn the politicized people around with a progressive and anti-racist mindset.

There are a lot of people who consider themselves anti-racist and then have racist attitudes. Majority. It's easy to criticize racism in general, but we don't realize that those little actions of our day to day have enormous value, and it's they who feed the racist system. We believe that because we are politicized, our process is over, but the process of dismantling never ends. In that song I wanted to give a little bit of wood, precisely, to the politicized people, discuss and put on the table some subjects.

Among them, cultural appropriation, hegemonic white feminism...

Until recently, I have not been aware of these things. The issue of racism entered my life very recently. But since I start reflecting, I feel the posture of diversity. I'm invited to a round table, or I see a feminist poster where there are many kinds of women, and then on the round table or at the meeting there are only white women. I don't feel uncomfortable with the anti-racist discourse that the feminist movement has today. I was fascinated that this theoretical discourse is not a practical translation. Decolonialism, blablabla yes, but then comes a rationalized woman to a few days, tells us four or five truths and we get bogged down. And the initial panic is normal, but in the face of that astonishment, we have to know how to put it, and self-criticism is not bad either.

In this context, get on the stage and take the micro, put in a video clip… Has it been easy?

At first, I got hit in my head. As the whole scene is boys, I compared myself to those referents and thought “I will not get anywhere; I will never have the level that they have”. I think I feel super empowered, because I hold a position on the stage and express my strength. In the table I have a position that matches my message. But in many moments, I haven't felt empowered. The truth is, I've had a really bad time. Not only by jumping to advertising, but also before. I had a lot of doubts. We know we have to empower ourselves, but it's not easy at all.
Now, having lived through all of this, I feel it's been a process of empowerment. Having the wind next to me has been a huge push to move on. So far, it can't stop empowering you. And especially around you. Because as I get off this stage, I often turn my head to the point where I get really sick, and there's not a lot of room to grab. Friends, family... And in my case, believing that things have to be fought and that we have the capacity for transformation, that there will be bad and good times, but that it will be worth it. Empowerment is a very rough process.

I recently read in an interview that today’s young people don’t know what militancy is…

Where have you read it? What a rage! It's not true. What adult power is that said, no? Furthermore, I believe that these comments do not help. That this phrase drives young people away from the objectives of those who have said the same phrase. I therefore also think it is strategically wrong. And it's also not true. Each one lives in a different context and the current context gives us facilities and obstacles. And perhaps the facilities we have lead us to adopt a certain attitude towards life. But also from that attitude you can change things. We're not doing anything for them anyway. It's no use throwing a song. It is well known that times are changing, but it seems to have to be said. The ones we have are different forms and tools of struggle. Season.

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Rap for transformation

“I’ve always thought that we need to change society. From a young age. And that as products of society we also have our responsibility. I believe in our capacity for individual and, above all, collective transformation. And when I discovered hip-hop, I found it a very effective way to spread my messages. By the philosophy of hip-hop, by the intrinsic dimension of music and by the ability to reach. At the same time, it's also sad when you offer people just a few messages with a rhythm. I do not devalue the work of musicians, it is necessary to shake musical consciences. But I think the real struggle is in the streets.”