At just 12 years old, Vv Pete knew stardom was in her future. Just a kid from western Sydney, she’d just pulled off her first-ever performance – at her primary school. “You know when Iggy Azalea released ‘Fancy’? I wrote my own version. The whole school just lost it,” she tells NME, laughing at the memory. “I remember my teacher telling me, ‘you’re going to be a superstar.’”
Eleven years later, Veronica Peter’s signature club rap – fuelled by biting hot-girl lyricism and no-fucks-given personality – has turned her into the self-assured and at-times savage Vv Pete. After years of grinding, she marked a milestone in her journey last week: the release of her vibrant debut mixtape, ‘Varvie’s World’. “I’m bringing people into my universe,” she says. “It’s about being authentic to yourself, loving one another and taking risks.”
Straight out of high school, Vv Pete was turning heads in the music industry. Her early mentors, Esky Escandor and Stan Bravo, from the highly respected Street University – an initiative designed for young people to hone life skills in western Sydney – gave her a fateful call in late 2020. “They said, ‘OneFour are coming today. I need you to rap for them,’” she recalls. “I rapped and they shared me. The video hit 10,000 likes and took off on the internet.”
Australia’s most successful and viral drill rappers aside, Vv Pete’s been championed by the likes of Denzel Curry and Jay1, whom she’s supported on tour in Australia. She almost missed a recent co-sign by SZA, who shared a snippet of ‘Varvie World’ single ‘Wassa’ with her millions of Instagram followers.
“I skipped past it because I thought it was a fan page and then something told me to go back,” Vv admits, slightly horrified. “It was a blessing to know that a big artist like her are looking out for people in the underground. I respect her for being humble because she understands that your favourite artists were once upon a time up-and-coming.”
“I made the choice to follow my intuition, and everyday I’m seeing milestones and confirmation from the universe”
The kinetic, alluring ‘Wassa’, featuring Formation Boyz, marked Vv’s first time on a gqom track – a genre of South African dance music popularised by taxi drivers in the city of Durban and characterised by hard-hitting, ass-shaking beats. “Just paying homage back home, just to any culture really, but especially from Africa… it’s amazing to go back to my roots,” the Sudanese-Australian artist says.
The mixtape is a conduit to Vv’s own heritage and an homage to the hotbed of musical talent that is western Sydney. It’s also a reflection of her international mindset. Drill, Jersey and Baltimore club and baile funk from the favelas of Brazil all course through its DNA. The project collects contributions from her close collaborator and manager UTILITY, French composer Brodinski, Lebanese-Australian producer DJ Plead, Dominican producer Kelman Duran (who worked on Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’) and Berlin-based Aussie producer Cassius Selects.
It’s one part strategy, but also a natural progression of Vv’s own musical interests. “I don’t just want one crowd,” she declares. “I want dancehall people that listen to me. I want K-pop fans that listen to me. I want people in India that listen to me. I want that worldwide.” Vv’s ambition charges the mixtape; as she raps on ‘Got It’, “when a boss girl want it, a boss girl got it.” The way she sees it, when you’re chasing your dreams and the bag, “there’s no excuses. There’s no time to lay down and cry about it.”
From her conception Vv Pete was surrounded by strong women, which in turn resulted in her own self-belief and larger-than-life personality on-stage and off. The interlude ‘+211 444 444’ features a recording of her mother saying in Arabic, “I’m very proud of you. Sudan’s very proud of you.” But like many from ethnic families know, the desire for a stable white-collar career often sits in the undercurrent of parental hope and expectation. “My mum’s always been super supportive of me. When I was younger I actually wanted to be a scientist,” she reflects. “I had to make a choice whether I’d pursue it but that’s not what my soul wanted me to do.
“I feel like you can be stable in yourself. I think the biggest way to be stable is when you actually believe in yourself and not do what another person wants you to do,” she adds. “I felt like I made the choice to follow my intuition, and everyday I’m seeing milestones and confirmation from the universe.”
“I want people who are going through the same thing to feel empowered, to stay confident”
Vv’s since won her family over. One particularly validating moment was a sold-out, 750-person show in Perth which her grandfather attended. He once wanted her to go to university. “Now, he tells me, ‘Just follow your dreams’.” But the same can’t always be said of online commenters who hate to see a determined Black woman on Australian shores whose lyrics are unabashed and sometimes confrontational. Vv acknowledges they’re “an obstacle to overcome”, though she isn’t too fazed.
“Hate comments still push the algorithm, though. The more hate, the more likes and views. They just don’t get it,” she laughs. “I sing lyrics like I do because I want people who are going through the same thing to feel empowered, to stay confident, embrace the hate, stay authentic and never lose focus. I haven’t even addressed cyber bullying yet but when I address that in a song, it’s really over for them.”
Now that she’s unleashed ‘Varvie’s World’, Vv Pete’s working on furthering her reach – staging an Australian tour that will take her to the Sydney Opera House to Tasmanian outsider festival Dark Mofo, and evolving from a big fish in a small pond to, in her words, “a great white shark ready to bite”. As she raps on ‘Wassa’, “I’m queen of Sydney, open the gate.”
“I’m telling everyone that sleeps on me to open the gate. There’s people that say, ‘Nah, she’s not going to make it’, but they’re starting to hear me,” she says. “Be confident even if they’re hating. You’re a king, you’re a queen. Just like I am.”
Vv Pete’s ‘Varvie World’ is out now via Trackwork