Though there isn’t much on the internet to go off of for Chemical Flo, a.k.a. Claudia Lubao, her energy and spirit come through very clearly in her work. Today I’m going to look at Chemical Flo’s song Mary Mary.
First, Chemical Flo’s mix of Swahili and English is much more subtle and quick than other artists that I have written about e.g. Fid Q and Young Lunya. Where those artists may use whole verses to weave in English words, in Chemical Flo’s songs she will switch from Swahili to English word-to-word and it’s crazy! Though Mary Mary isn’t completely a 50/50 with Swahili and English she’ll weave in an English phrase or word once or twice that makes you double-take and rewind. She’s so fast with her speaking and it really comes across as one of her strengths.
Now, I don’t have much context for what Mary Mary is about, I’d like to talk about the energy her song conveys. Much of the song is in Swahili but you can tell that her message is assertive and concrete.
As we’ve been speaking a lot about woman artists this month Chemical Flo does a great job in representing her Tanzanian soil. Chemical Flo has a lot of these types of songs across the platforms that I could find her at; songs where you can tell she has a certain message to tell and that assertiveness comes across very clearly. I do wish there were more platforms and ways that I could access songs from Chemical Flo because her sound is something that should be heard.