Mimi, A-Ni, and Kena Ohoa, AKA MAKO Girls are a talented trio of sisters that are doing big things in the music industry. The West Indian decent young ladies are the total package. Not only are they excellent singers, but songwriters, and dancers as well.
MAKO Girls are an Atlanta based Pop/R&B group that has definitely mastered their craft as entertainers. They have been featured as one of the Top 8 Girl Groups on bet.com and performed hundreds of shows across the U.S. and abroad including the Bahamas, London, and Jamaica.
With over a million followers on TikTok, the MAKO Girls have acquired a huge fanbase and worked with major brands such as Beats by Dre, JD Sports/Nike, Cosmetics X Disney, Sony Music Entertainment, IHOP and many more. Their desire and passion to succeed is the driving force to making them a powerhouse group in the music industry.
The Fleet Mag reporter Becky Gaston AKA DJ Pynk Dyamond, had the opportunity to sit down with the MAKO Girls to discuss their musical journey and more. Check out what they had to say.
When did you get into music?
MAKO Girls: We started in 2013. We could sing, dance, and rap amongst other things so we decided to become a group. We took vocal lessons, started writing songs, and doing showcases. We took it seriously. Also, while in elementary and middle school we put together dances with our cousins.
Who is the oldest?
MAKO Girls: Kena is the oldest, Mimi is the middle and A-Ni is the youngest.
What girl groups do you like?
MAKO Girls: 5th Harmony, OMG Girls, and TLC of course.
Who inspired you to make music?
MAKO Girls: Mindless Behavior which is a boy group. We watched how they developed and saw how ambitious they were to achieve their goals. We believe music has a message and we were also inspired by the timeless music artists. We listened Michael Jackson and Aaliyah because they were around our age when they got into the music industry
What do you feel is the most challenging part of being an artist?
A-Ni: Trying to separate yourself from the competition, build your own brand and finding your lane.
Mimi: Learning to balance everything. As an independent artist you have to do everything and put on all the hats. You have to learn how to market yourself, how to budget your finances so that you can continue to do the things you want to do. You have to put yourself out there, even on social media you have to talk to other people and network. It’s a lot as independent artists.
Kena: I would say for me it’s two things. Consistency and opening up to fans. We pretty much are private when it comes to our personal life but we know our fans want to see more of our day to day life. So for us it’s more of opening up but not putting too much out there. We do post on social media to show we are out here and this is our craft.
What career would you have if you were not a recording artists?
Mimi: Hairstylist, I’ve gotten into the wigs and installing them here and there for people. I’m picky over my own hair so to learn to do it myself was a big thing so I can control how it looks and I’m good at it. Hair is a really good business to get into. If I wasn’t doing music I would open up my own salon.
A-Ni : A cosplayer full time or definitely something sports related because I’m very athletic. I have been in sports all my life as a competitive gymnast and I played volleyball. I’m also a contortionist and I do Muay Thai boxing.
Kena: I was thinking once of becoming an Astronaut because I love science and astrology. I am also into Cosplay and I’m a gamer.
Who helped you the most in your musical journey?
A-Ni: My vocal coach Mr. James Slaughter. He developed me over the years, he helped me with my vocals and my sound. He passed away last year in 2022. He was the one that we would go to for everything. He was great with our music and sound.
Kena: Mr. McIntyre, he runs the artist development company we were going to, Marvelous Enterprises. He saw the growth in us and he recommended us for opportunities as well. He would tell us about the music business and what happens behind the scenes. He is a big influence in my life. Also JT, was a life coach who was my mentor and like a therapist, he had a lot of patience.
Mimi: DJ Fahrenheit. He is like our uncle, he has been with us since the beginning. He was always someone we could go to and he would come up with ideas for our shows. He always made our songs come to life by how he put them together. He was a visionary and he put our show tracks together too. He was always looking out for opportunities for us because he could see our dream as well. He’s in the industry too, he’d deejay for Jagged Edge and Jeezy. He knows the game and he always puts us on game by telling us how we can improve as artist.
If you could go back in time is there anything you would change during your musical journey to get where you are today?
Mimi: One thing I would change is keeping the momentum and keep building more content. I feel like a lot of times we got the ball rolling and things were going good then we thought we could let it do its’ thing. We really didn’t think of it too much when we were younger. If we had kept the momentum going I feel we would have been in a lot more places. Even on TikTok where we went viral we could have kept building and making content.
Kena: For me it’s not more towards the music but how I was thinking. I would say being more courageous, and more relaxed and confident in our craft. Because at certain times it would be draining after doing all the videos, singing and practicing. So changing that mindset so it would be easier to get up and go all the time.
A-Ni: Definitely the hairstyles we had….. I can’t even look back, those pictures were outrageous. It was way too much going on.
I just want to tell you ladies thank you for being part of the Virginia Fleet Weekend held Sept 22-24 you guys were awesome.
MAKO Girls: Thank you we enjoyed ourselves too.
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