Iwas born in Abidjan Cote D’ivoire. I grew up in Guinea and did a bit of time in Senegal. I am the leader of the first R&B band in West Africa, called Ideal Black Girls. We got together as friends, and now we become family. Two of them live in Paris, one lives in Senegal and I am here. Now that I have a production company, I’m actually thinking about producing the band to bring it back. I do soul afro-rock music. I never knew I was a singer, but I loved singing. I sing in the bathroom. I would be doing the dishes. I would sit under the rain, wash the clothes and sing.
Our first recording in studio, I remember it. It was amazing. People were so proud. We said, “We did it. Yes!” From there we never stopped. We had a lot of support, because people were excited from other countries. But our country was too much of a fight. People judged you a lot. First of all, you’re a girl, she’s supposed to be married. So not doing that was one problem. The second thing, getting into music. Music is made for grio and we did not do that. We did hip hop, which was actually considered for delinquents.
Our parents were very, very much in pain and they struggled [to understand]. We ended up moving out of the house, because it was too much [drama] going on. I remember one of my friend’s father took a gun against the producer who wanted to make us tour. Because we were young, they didn’t understand why you traveling. My mother cry every time I have luggage. “Everybody children are getting married. They’re going to school. You’re very smart. You should be president. You have your luggage. Always walking around…” But you know what? My band and few of the bands in Guinea, we cleaned the reputation of hip hop. Because we were going to school. We’d all been to college. We had the first album in high school. We had the second album in college. People started to respect us and say, “Okay, these girls are something”.
I had my down moment, because when I got in this country [United States] I didn’t come here to stay. I was in a good place back home. We were getting out there. We started to travel in Europe and go everywhere. Financially I was very stable in Guinea. When my husband was here he had pancreatic cancer. So, I came up here to start [helping him] with that. I had a few English words which I learned in college and I struggled a lot to figure out exactly what is happening with him. He passed away a few months after, and his daughter was here, my stepdaughter, so it be a big turn in my career. I had to be there for him. I had to be there for her. I rushed into learning English. I wasn’t used to being small, because back home, I was on certain level. I had to literally start from zero. It wasn’t easy. I’d never gone on job interviews and stuff. That was a challenge. But I was determined, because I said, I have got to do something for this child.
But after four years I did snap out of it. I worked in Macy’s. I worked for Ralph Lauren. I worked a lot. I was only working, working, working, working. Literally I could work seven days a week. I had no break. It helped me avoid my sadness. If I’m home, I cry all day. So, I made sure I wasn’t home. So these are the challenges and it brought a lot of soul out of me. The challenges brought everything I got out. This is one thing I could thank this country for. It pulls every piece of me out.
Natu Camara, New York City
Images by Jose Tutes
Our first recording in studio, I remember it. It was amazing. People were so proud. We said, “We did it. Yes!” From there we never stopped. We had a lot of support, because people were excited from other countries. But our country was too much of a fight. People judged you a lot. First of all, you’re a girl, she’s supposed to be married. So not doing that was one problem. The second thing, getting into music. Music is made for grio and we did not do that. We did hip hop, which was actually considered for delinquents.
Our parents were very, very much in pain and they struggled [to understand]. We ended up moving out of the house, because it was too much [drama] going on. I remember one of my friend’s father took a gun against the producer who wanted to make us tour. Because we were young, they didn’t understand why you traveling. My mother cry every time I have luggage. “Everybody children are getting married. They’re going to school. You’re very smart. You should be president. You have your luggage. Always walking around…” But you know what? My band and few of the bands in Guinea, we cleaned the reputation of hip hop. Because we were going to school. We’d all been to college. We had the first album in high school. We had the second album in college. People started to respect us and say, “Okay, these girls are something”.
I had my down moment, because when I got in this country [United States] I didn’t come here to stay. I was in a good place back home. We were getting out there. We started to travel in Europe and go everywhere. Financially I was very stable in Guinea. When my husband was here he had pancreatic cancer. So, I came up here to start [helping him] with that. I had a few English words which I learned in college and I struggled a lot to figure out exactly what is happening with him. He passed away a few months after, and his daughter was here, my stepdaughter, so it be a big turn in my career. I had to be there for him. I had to be there for her. I rushed into learning English. I wasn’t used to being small, because back home, I was on certain level. I had to literally start from zero. It wasn’t easy. I’d never gone on job interviews and stuff. That was a challenge. But I was determined, because I said, I have got to do something for this child.
But after four years I did snap out of it. I worked in Macy’s. I worked for Ralph Lauren. I worked a lot. I was only working, working, working, working. Literally I could work seven days a week. I had no break. It helped me avoid my sadness. If I’m home, I cry all day. So, I made sure I wasn’t home. So these are the challenges and it brought a lot of soul out of me. The challenges brought everything I got out. This is one thing I could thank this country for. It pulls every piece of me out.
Natu Camara, New York City
Images by Jose Tutes
