Eliza Legzdina was raised in Latvia, her debut project reflects on coming of age under the hangover of the Soviet Union and rejects the ever-present male gaze. Legzina’s experience growing up was shaped by women’s sexual objectification, paired with the expectation that women themselves should not express desire or seek pleasure. Since the fall of the USSR, Eastern European women have been portrayed by the world’s media as prostitutes, strippers, models and other hyper-sexualised stereotypes. 

‘IRON CURTAIN GOLDEN PUSSY’ aligns national liberation, Latvia’s emancipation from the USSR, with sexual liberation and what also feels like a personal reclamation and consolidation of identity for Eliza.  Since moving to London, Legzdina has been active in both poetry and party scenes. Her debut EP’s exploration of female narratives of desire and representation reflect a personal narrative of an artist really coming into her own.

Trained in opera from the age of three, Legzdina’s musicality shines through on the project. The production, a range of hip-hop, RnB, trap and reggaeton is highly polished, ready for Rap Caviar. Her voice, smooth, expressive and often delightfully naughty, rides the beats with ease. In production and punch lines there are comparisons to be drawn with hip hop titans Doja Cat and Meg the Stallion. With tunes this tight she seems ready to join them at the top. On the project’s lead single she flirts, “I need cash, and bigger things that’s why I don’t care what’s in your pants”. And as the track’s title, ‘Tic Toc’ suggests, she knows the game of success.  We hear her confidence as soon as the 808s of trap opener ‘Honey’ hit.

As with much of the tape, on a fleeting listen the tunes could melt into the melange of mainstream trap and pop party hits.  But don’t let the slick production fool you - Legzdina is a true one-off.  The money she’s talking about is that Golden Pussy.

In her own words, ‘Gold has been traded and fought for since records began. More precious, more powerful, and more objectified than gold is woman. Throughout history, women have been traded, controlled and jealously guarded by people who fear their true power. Now women everywhere are waking up to the fact that their pussy is more powerful than gold.’  

Legzdina knows her power and she knows the power of popular sound. There’s a subtlety and playfulness in how she embeds her political message in each track. She explores her experiences of queerness, sex positivity and feminism, ‘I’m a girl that knows her worth/ soft skin/good brain short skirt’, but with lyrics so catchy that the patriarchy could sing along perhaps unaware of how much they’ve been schooled. 

‘IRON CURTAIN GOLDEN PUSSY’ flips the male gaze back on itself and then it’s all eyes on Legzdina, a star in the making on her own terms.