Paper Jets

Hip-hop artist Ladi6 waited until the end of our interview to drop the bomb. Before the release of her third studio album Automatic, she was on the benefit. "I'm really busy now but it's better than last year. I was on the dole for a week," the lady, real name Karoline Tamati, admits. After that she came to her senses and got back on with the job. Spilling drinks on unsuspecting diners or forgetting to ask if you want fries with that is all part and parcel of growing up and entering the workforce. But for a chunk of our drama and music professionals, there is no end in sight to the minimum-wage jobs which put bread on the table. Describing herself as ultimately lazy, last year Tamati grew tired of slaving away in the studio, writing lyrics and recording with her producer/partner Brent "Parks" Park. She says she was homesick for their 10-year-old son, Philly, who otherwise has to travel with the pair to Ladi6's Berlin-based studio, to the U...

I sit at the kitchen table willing the conversation to move on, a smile fixed to my lips. "Michelle, you're having a homebirth aren't you?" Stares, gasps, silence. It's lucky I'm not a private person. An entertainment journalist, notorious gossip and eternally sanguine, I relish most chances for attention. But though rare, there are moments where I want to cover myself. Days where the lovely, stretchy, figure-hugging outfits I snapped on in a moment of pregnancy-awe are suddenly all too stretchy, a bit too snug and all too revealing. There are the occasional moments I want to smother my burning cheeks with my hands. Glancing up nervously from the seasoned chatter of the mothers around me, now is one of those moments. "My friend had a homebirth and absolutely swore by it but that does not sound like my cup of tea!" One well-meaning mother scoffs. "A blow-up pool in the lounge and all that mess, forget it!" "I just d...