If it wasn't for a deep dislike for university, New Zealand might not have witnessed the fast rise of rapper Jujulipps.
The South-African born, Auckland-based musician was struggling to complete her third and final year of university in 2020 when Covid made study even harder.
A university friend who was also a producer encouraged her to write and get into the studio. That decision took her to a future she never envisioned - a music career - as well as an unflinching single Hilary Banks, landing Jujulipps on the Student Radio Network charts across Aotearoa in 2021.
Rapper Jujulipps Photo: supplied
"Covid came and ruined so many things and changed so many things…," she said. "I am just going to put my foot forward and go for it."
That journey continued with Jujulipps featuring at various New Zealand and Australian festival including Rhythm & Vines, NESTFEST, Northern Bass and SXSW Sydney. She has furthered the success of her first single with the song Airplane Mode, which won Te Tōtahi Toa (Favourite Single), i kawea mai ki a koutou nā Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ) at the Student Radio Network Awards in 2023.
The trophies keep coming. In April she won the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut for her EP Get That Shot at the Taite Music Awards, an accolade she says she was very grateful for.
Three of her songs are on Three's new award-winning sex work show, Madam.
"I'm definitely a hustler," she says.
"I feel like I have learnt more in the last three, four years then I have in how long."
A childhood in South Africa gave Jujulipps an innate sense for rhythm, paving the way for a quick transition from university student to chart-topping rapper.
"Music and rhythm is something that I didn't have to dig deep to get into," she says. "As soon as I tapped into it - this is something that feels incredibly natural."
Auckland Live Best Independent Debut winner Jujulipps. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Robinson
Like all musicians and performers, Jujulipps has faced criticism including at her first festival performance at Northern Bass. She was so nervous that she walked on stage, performed and walked off without acknowledging her fans, the technical crew or anyone else who had helped her get to that point.
"And that was taken very badly," she says, adding that at her next festival she was still nervous but took time to acknowledge those around her.
"I'm always focused on longevity… and in order to be doing that, you've got to be working on your craft and you can't do that without any type of criticism."
New work might mean more critiques, but also the potential for more accolades. And Jujulipps has new work coming out next week. It's a remix of her song Special inspired by a gqom (pronounced gwom with a click of the tongue), a subgenre of South African house music.
Later this year in October, Jujulipps will release another EP called Superstar. She wrote and recorded the album during the day while working nightshifts.
"You will listen to this EP and be like 'I have an idea of who this girl is 1,000 per cent," she says.
Jujulipps Photo: Supplied
