The gospel singer has turned hot rapper, dancer and peer model to thousands of young Fijians in the hustle and bustle of Sydney. For no one who will watch MC Trey, her stage name, for the first time will think that this young bomb could have been set off in the Fiji Islands to bop, pop and grind like the world’s best rap artists. But yes Thelma Thomas has ‘ripped the mike’ with Sydney and the world’s best rap stars.

And like Thomas most Fijians know that to be able to sing and do it well is God’s gift. If you look at her performing from afar and catch those agile movements and body popping shakes one will think she was from the talented hip hopping Bronx area of New York. Incidentally, she grew up on the music and breakdance moves of the Rock Steady Crew, when the synthesiser rhythms of Herbie Hancock ruled, and the happy rhymes of the Sugar hill Gang and Africa Bambaata dominated the airwaves.

Born and bred in Fiji and doing Fiji’s name real proud, MC Trey’s latest gigs include keeping young talented potential Fijian musicians off the streets and on the stage. World rated rap stars MC Trey has performed with include the great Lauryn Hill of the Turn Those Lights Down Low remix fame and RUN DMC of the Walk this way piece. Her father, Abraham Thomas, of Bua, in Vanua Levu and mother Fanny Whippy, of Savusavu, moved to Sydney when she was still young.

“My dad was a choir conductor at the Butt Street methodist church in Suva, I grew up around that,” she said. “My first performance was in front of the church with my dad, I was about 4 or 5 and it was a gospel number. “My dad sings a lot, that influenced me, but just growing up in Fiji, music is a big part of our culture, that definitely played a big part in my development.