More at home performing for trannies in dank NYC electro clubs than popping Cristal corks at Diddy’s house, Mapei merges together Neneh Cherry’s bolshy fashion sense, Lauryn Hill’s social commentary, and Lil’ Kim’s rawness into a fierce style that is about to tear the rap world a new asshole.

“I haven’t had a lot of long-term boyfriends because I scare them,” Mapei says in a throaty drawl a few days after breaking up with her other half. “My mum worked all her life wiping people’s butts. I don’t want anyone to be in charge of me. That’s the way it’s been my whole life. I’m a strong personality, I want to be free.”

This month the self-proclaimed “product of Wu Tang and American Idol” releases her DJ Mehdi-produced debut EP, Cocoa Butter Diaries. Featuring four tracks that span the divide between booty bass, French electro and East Coast hip hop, Mapei’s rap manifesto draws together experiences from her tumultuous childhood and uncomfortable, yet morbidly entertaining, observations about crackhead children and date rape.

“Comedy meets tragedy is the story of my life, so that’s what I do with my songs,” says the striking 25-year-old. “My mum couldn’t take care of me as a kid so I grew up in a home. I moved from Rhode Island to Stockholm and lived in all these different places. Now I’ve become totally schizophrenic and just don’t care any more. I have let it all go. But along the way I’ve learned how to make a bad situation into something that can be both honest and funny.”

Like Marshall Mathers at his best, Mapei’s rap confessionals sail dangerously close to the wind, but her willingness to publicly exorcise her demons and satirise society’s ills has already won her fans in Spank Rock, Ghostface, Diplo and Justice, who are in the middle of producing her debut album.

“I’m just trying to bring together different worlds and combine them into one… plus I like fucking with people,” she laughs. “In my video for ‘Video Vixens’ I have a beautiful white chick shaking her butt and a tranny rapping in the bath. I want homophobic hip hop heads to watch it and be like, ‘She’s really beautiful, but that’s disgusting… should we be watching this?!”

© TIM NOAKES 2009