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SNS Meets Silvana Imam

Meet Silvana Imam; the Lithuanian born, Sweden raised rapper is a superstar in Scandinavia. Between playing the biggest arenas across the Nordics and releasing music on her newly founded record label Naturkraft, the Stockholm-based artist is a real wizard when it comes to continuously develop, from music to style, that the New York Times once dubbed “comic-book villain” look. Silvana, the “176-centimeter Pussy Riot,” is the face of a young Sweden that struggles with the rise of right-wing populism. Silvana Imam is a symbol for a generation of young girls and boys here in Sweden, openly gay, creative, outspoken, clever, feeling different in a “normal” world, just a bit off for the Main Street, but providing an identity to something so difficult to describe. Check out her interview and playlist below. Tack Silvana

SNS: It is a pleasure to meet you Silvana. Please introduce yourself. SILVANA: I’m Silvana Imam. I'm a rapper. Creator. Artist. Based in Sweden. My father is from Syria and my mother is from Lithuania but yeah I rap in Swedish.

SNS: You have been keeping busy ever since you released your first project. Multiple nominations and awards later you still find the time to run your own label and company and release a movie and a book on top of that. How do you do it? What drives you? SILVANA: It is simple. What drives me is; I have so much within me that needs to come out, I live to create. I love to be in the studio, I love to perform. I love to express myself and have a strong sense of need. But also, I have a degree in psychology and when I started studying it was because I wanted to make people aware of their own actions and their own psyche and this is something that kind of follows me in everything I do. I want to make people aware of themselves and free their minds in a sense. This is very important to me. I want to be a truthteller of a kind.

SNS: Sounds like you have a strong sense of purpose, when did that come to you? SILVANA: It actually came to me at a very young age. Ever since another child told me that I’m not supposed to be a certain way that I was weird. So, I started to think to myself, why? Why am I weird? and why are they teasing this person or that person? I wanted to understand that. Throughout my years at school, I was an outcast but somehow, I understood that I cannot view myself through other people’s opinions.

SNS: Do you ever rest and how does that lazy Sunday look like? SILVANA: Natalie Massenet said, “ When you love something, it doesn’t feel like work.” I found myself in a new situation after leaving my ex-manager, I had to start over and rebuild my company. I’ve realized that I fucking love doing the work and being involved in that part of the business. People around me were building imaginary castles and turning people against each other so I wasn’t comfortable dealing with the business side before. The gallery space, music, book, and movies all these things keep me busy and I NEED that. I can’t simply sit around and do nothing, but I also have this other side of me that’s really like you know… Home-based. I do enjoy hanging out at home and catch a random Souljah boy interview at The Breakfast Club on Youtube.

SNS: You’ve just released a new project “Helig Moder”. How does the creative process look like for your records and how was creating Helig Moder any different from your previous projects. SILVANA: It always the same process. Conversations in the studio with my producer NISJ about anything and everything on our minds. We vibe of each other. I’m not a session rapper I need a good conversation to spark it off. I rarely do a song on the spot. Although It did happen recently with the first song from this project “Jag ser ljuset.” It was one of those songs that was written. It came out in 20 min tops. You hear people saying that, but it rarely never happens to me.

SNS: Why do you think it happened this time?
SILVANA: It was something I never wrote about earlier. I guess I had emotions, or I rather call it energy within me that really had come out.

SNS: You have always been outspoken and never afraid to speak your mind on topics many artists shy away from. Why is that? Where does it come from? SILVANA: I basically don’t care what people think about me. I am always going to do me regardless of what other people think. I could read into all the negative things people say in the comment sections, but I chose not to. I also feel that I'm a part of something bigger than just me. I have good intentions and I’m secure with who I am. And I feel comfortable speaking about my truth.

SNS: For some people that sounds like a lot of responsibility. Do you ever feel like it is too much? SILVANA: I did feel that in 2015. I felt that it was too much for me. Everything was new, and I couldn’t handle it. But I know I've learned that it’s not even a responsibility. It goes back to that I cannot view myself through other people’s opinions. I am who I am, I know my intentions and if you like me you like me. If you don’t then you just don’t. The thing is I believe in what I’m saying is good and that my intentions are good.

SNS: Who or what inspires you? Creatively, musically? SILVANA: Right now? Oprah, Will Smith, Eckhardt.

I would say Tony Robbins though in some ways he’s a bit too much. I can take in some parts of it, but I don’t really relate to everything he is saying just like Dj Khaled. I don’t relate to everything but. Khaled says; Think good thoughts, be the key! These are really good things that he is saying but it is in a SUPER COMMERCIAL Americanized way. You start to think. What else is there? What else can I do? What else can I feel? It motivates me to spread good energy to the next person because that person might share that energy to someone whom really needs it and in that sense, it makes me a part of something bigger than myself.

SNS: You’ve been asked to do a playlist for us. How do you listen to music? SILVANA: I don’t listen to the radio. Streaming services, I buy music from the artist pages and I buy vinyl.

SNS: Do you collect vinyl? SILVANA: I wouldn’t say collect but I have quite a few records.

SNS: What are you currently listening to? SILVANA: I’ve listened a lot to the Kanye West "Ye" album and "Kids see ghosts" Album he did with Kid Cudi. The Irrepressible Feat The forgotten Circus – "In this shirt" is on repeat. I can listen to a song on repeat until I get sick of it. I need to be in that emotion. I’ve listened to a lot of Aaliyah recently.

SNS: We know you like clothing and your always on the best-dressed lists. Do you study fashion? SILVANA: I wouldn’t say I study it, but I can go to a store and look at the fabric, feel the garment. I have a really strong sense of what materials and shapes I like. I'm not necessarily into fashion I think fashion is kind of problematic and I’m also a part of it, I know to promote it by wearing expensive clothes.

SNS: Could you say that clothing is one of your guilty pleasures? SILVANA: Yes 100%

SNS: You favorite pair of kicks? SILVANA: Yeezys all day. The 700s.

SNS: Plans on designing your own pair of shoes? Silvana: I have a good relationship with adidas and I’m looking at what they doing with RAF Simons and other collaborations. It’s so interesting to learn about the materials that go into making shoes.

SNS: What are your plans for the future? SILVANA: I’m building a house but not a physical house and that’s all I can say about that.

SNS: Thank you