As the DJ on stage plays some new tracks, loud beats stream from the speakers, bumping in the ears of the patrons at Thunder Canyon Brewstillery downtown. The music is so loud it can be heard out in the street.
A rapper begins to spit lyrics into a microphone over the music as the crowd cheers with excitement.
Her name is Big Mama Trahma, born and bred in Tucson, and she is one of a handful of female artists in town making noise in the male-dominated genre of hip-hop.
During the day, Trahma, whose real name is Randi Gauvin, works as an emergency roadside assistant for AAA but at night and on the weekends, she hustles as an artist.
To make herself stand out amongst the boys, Trahma strives to be different by being original. Her round pink ’70s sunglasses go with her big, colorful personality that her fans recognize on stage.
“I try to make an impression whether I’m singing to seven people in a weird bar or a huge crowd,” Trahma said.
An online rap competition in 2018 put on by local artist AKT Aktion started Trahma’s hip-hop career. She submitted a video of an early rap she wrote, a very dark and interpersonal rhyme that caught a lot of attention of other local artists and producers.
Trahma dropped out of high school her junior year to take care of her sick grandmother. When her grandmother died in 2011, the young rapper’s life spun out of control.
Trahma turned to heroin and theft, which eventually led to nearly three years in prison.
She lays it out lyrically: “27 I was still a felon, trying to put the past on the back shelf, suicidal thoughts come and go...”
Now at 29, Trahma is addicted to music and the art of the rhyme, putting prison and addiction behind her.
“When I met a certain group of individuals that just told me from the jump, ‘You’re really good at this,’ it felt good to (rap),” Trahma said. “It was super therapeutic.
“If I’m going to do something that I’m going to be really happy in doing … it’s music.”
Trahma sees that female artists are heavily sexualized, so she tries to take a more poetic and influential approach to her raps but still embraces the cocky side of hip-hop in some songs.
“I wouldn’t say it’s harder for a femcee or female lyricist, especially when you’re good, because it’s the reaction from the product that you’re putting out,” she said. “I think there needs to be more positive influence about growth and learning, how to deal with emotions and using music to play off of whatever mood you’re feeling.”
Trahma and fellow female rapper and friend S.Beezy, or Sirena Brown, were both part of the 2019 Tucson Hip Hop Festival’s women’s cypher rap video that garnered a lot of attention for being an all-female cypher (or hip-hop jam session.
Sirena Brown, aka S.Beezy, says female rappers have to stick together, rather than being pitted against each other.
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“The funny thing is, all of us on it, myself, Lizzy Page, Chezale and Trahma, we had never met each other before that. We just got to work,” S.Beezy said.
S.Beezy had sent the women some beat options to rap over and then they met up to record the rap and shoot the music video all in the same day of meeting one another.
Seeing something produced solely by women and female rappers was a big move for these local artists.
“The girls got to stick together,” S.Beezy said. “There’s not a lot of us that are confident of going out and doing it because of the way culture has made it as a female artist, you’re either this way or that way. I feel like there’s lines that you have to tiptoe as a female artist.”
Being women in the music industry is important to both Trahma and S.Beezy because it represents a sense of community and that they have a support team backing them up no matter what.
“There’s a little bit of healthy competition but it’s never ‘Oh I’m better than that girl.’ ” Trahma said. “We really empower each other.”
Chezale Rodriguez, another local female artist, knows that making a name for herself in the industry is important as a woman, to represent the underrepresented, according to Rodriguez.
“We all know it is a bit of a boy’s club, in a male dominated industry,” Rodriguez said. “But I always have felt like my talent speaks for itself. I’ve never felt doubted.”
Jocelyn Valencia, one of the co-founders of the Tucson Hip Hop Festival, knows quite well that seeing women in the rap industry is inspiring, especially because she represents an entrepreneur role within the industry.
“It feels like an honor,” Valencia said, “I definitely wish that there were more women founders in the space, but I definitely feel honored and also a huge responsibility for being one of the few (women).”
Tucson’s female hip-hop community may be smaller, but they bring a lot to the table when it comes to talent and creativity.
Trahma is slated to perform on a main stage alongside other women in all elements of hip-hop, including graffiti, breakdancing and rapping at this year’s Tucson Hip Hop Festival, which was moved from late March to Oct. 17 due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
“(We are) letting them know that the girls can play, just as hard, if not better, than the boys,” Trahma said.
Randi Gauvin, aka Trahma, left, and fellow rapper Sirena Brown, aka S.Beezy, right, were both part of the 2019 Tucson Hip Hop Festival’s women’s cypher rap video that garnered a lot of attention for being an all-female cypher.
Randi Gauvin, aka Trahma, left, and, Sirena Brown, aka S.Beezy, center, were part of a 2019 Tucson Hip Hop Festival’s women’s cypher rap video. The local rappers met, then recorded and shot the video in one day.
Randi Gauvin, aka Trahma, performs during her birthday celebration at Thunder Canyon Brewstillery on March 8, 2020. Trahma works as an emergency roadside assistant for AAA as her day job and works on her hip-hop craft at night.
Randi Gauvin, aka Trahma, center, hangs with other hip-hop artists during a “For the Record” meeting, where local hip-hop artists meet weekly to share information, collaborate and learn how to raise their profile.
