Bootleg Bop Radio Presents: Girl Gang

Get to know Girl Gang, the music collective who are putting on all female cyphers. West London bad galz, Naomi Richardson (Fashion Stylist, Art Director & Photographer) and Shayna Marie (Radio Personality/DJ) are the creators behind Girl Gang, a collective of creative females who put on series of rap cyphers that also include singers. With already two episodes up on Youtube showing the world what they’re all about, Girl Gang spit and sing their truth while rocking in pink and lilac.

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When did Girl Gang begin?

The idea of Girl Gang came about in December 2015, started as an idea then we just ran with it and began planning. In April 2016 we shot our very first episode.

What inspired you to come up with Girl Gang?

Whilst presenting our previous radio show together we had a wide range of artists come on our show and the majority were male, at the time there were only a few female artists that were doing their thing. So we thought let’s start an all female project in the music industry, like let’s do a cypher and then it’s just clicked. To be honest there just isn’t anything out there like Girl Gang. Typically cyphers will only consist of rappers but we include singers as well, we eventually want to get some female poets involved in the future too.

Tell me about the members of Girl Gang, what makes them special?

We have an all female team and we do everything In-house. We named the cypher Girl Gang because we’re a gang of girls coming together to create something dope and doing something positive.

Why did you decide to choose the color pink and lilac to represent your crew?

Naomi Richardson: I style all of the shoots & events and I’m actually quite obsessed with pink even though I’m a bit of a tomboy, I feel like everyone loves pink these days so why not. The colors stuck and now pink and lilac will be our colors throughout. It’s a statement at the end of the day, and of course we have to rep our set in true gang style. Even though we’re dressed in pink don’t be fooled we mean business and so do our artists who come and perform on our cyphers, we’re all strong talented young females.

Tell me about Girl Gang’s most recent performance at Boxpark, what was it like?

Boxpark was amazing. We had over 300 signups for the event, not sure if all of those people came but it was such a good turn out the place was packed such a good night, great turn out & great vibe, everything went so well for our very first event. All of the artists who came to perform absolutely smashed it and because of that Boxpark wants us to come back next month at Shoreditch and we’ve also been given a slot over at the new Boxpark in Croydon so it’s very exciting for us at the moment.

Why do you think Girl Gang is a collective needed in the London music scene?

We hope that through our cyphers we can bring more talented female artists to the forefront, get them out there seen by the right people, promote them, support them, uplift them and empower one an other.

What is the Girl Gang manifesto?

Just like any gang, the girls rep their colors and they throw up their set. Girl Gang operates on a strictly No boys/men policy.

What can people expect from Girl Gang in the near future?

You can expect to see more shows and events. We want to expand GIRL GANG to other parts of the UK, basically travel around and find all the best female artists and eventually branch out to other parts of the world. We wanna take over the world leaving trails of pink iridescent glitter all over the place.

Naomi Richardson + Shayna Marie

GIRL GANG CREW MEMBERS: Adrianne McKenzie, Tamari-Lee Ledgister (Media Team), Aziza Jones(Project Manger/Admin) , Yasmin Giminez (PR Marketing Co-ordinator)

Instagram: @girlgangcyphers

Facebook: Girl Gang

Youtube: Nay and Shay Presents

#GIRLGANGCYPHERS #LONDON