Ninja (British rapper)

Ninja performing with The Go! Team.

Nkechi Ka Egenamba[1][2] (first name pronounced n-kay-chee)[3] known as Ninja is an English rapper and the female lead vocalist for the British indie band The Go! Team. Doing a mixture of rapping, chanting and singing, Ninja is well known for her energetic stage performances and dancing. In 2005, NME voted Ninja the 15th coolest person in music.[4]

Early life and education

Born Nkechi Ka in 1983,[1][2] Nkechi is short for Nkechinyere, and means "what God has given" or "gift of God" in Igbo, the language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group in West Africa, numbering in the tens of millions.[5] Ninja is from London.[6] Her father is a Nigerian lawyer,[7] and her mother is half-Egyptian, half-Nigerian.[7] Ninja is one of five children and was brought up in a very strict household.[7] She had been studying at university before she joined The Go! Team.[8]

The Go! Team

Ninja became lead singer for the The Go! Team after founder Ian Parton created the first The Go! Team album in the studio. With Ninja, the live band became a "separate entity" to the original studio vision, as the performances became radically different from the recordings, particularly due to Ninja's freestyled vocals contrary to the sampled vocals present on the album.[9] Parton acknowledged that Ninja had become the "face of the band" in an interview with Erik Leijon in September 2007.[10]

The Go! Team playing at Berlin Festival in July 2007.

Non-Go! Team work

Ninja co-wrote and performed on Simian Mobile Disco tracks Its The Beat and Hot Dog from SMD's debut album Attack Decay Sustain Release

Ninja co-wrote and performed on the track Time Machine by French band Rinocerose.[11]

She co-wrote and performed on the Cut Chemist track The Audience is Listening.

Discography with The Go! Team

Albums

Singles

EPs

Featured on

See also

Citations

External links

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