In Conversation with Rico Nasty

The shot of adrenaline that ignites mosh pits, Rico Nasty, paints the colours to her own sound. Her intensely raw euphony seamlessly blends punk, hip-hop, pop and, more recently, electronic noise into a whirlwind of beautiful anger. The mother of a scene, Nasty is the architect of worlds yet-to-be-imagined, and characters demanding to be heard. Getting her start back in 2014 on SoundCloud, the Maryland native began establishing herself within the rap scene with cult singles iCarly and Hey Arnold. Fast forward and with four albums under her belt —not to mention a mountain of EPs—2020 marked the release of the iconic Nightmare Vacation, and just two years later, Las Ruinas. There’s been no rest for the wicked in her calendar, and with a year full of surprises, Nasty is taking us through her transformations and evolutions, diving deep into her imagination.

Hey, how are you today?
I’m excellent. About to go to brunch with my best friend.

Nice! Enjoy! Do you have any current obsessions?
Yes.

And….?
Oh, fuck. They’re going to be sold out now! I love mini foods. They’re like these surprise toys you get from Target. I like Gundams. I like kombucha.

Solid list.
Sonny Angels!!! I left those out!

Shhhh! They’re definitely going to be sold out now! Could you walk us through the journey that has led you to where you are now?
Where exactly am I? Oh my god, I don’t even know. I don’t think about the journey until I’m doing things like this and somebody asks me this type of question. It’s just… it’s beautiful watching everything unfold, but I’m just trying to learn how to love being myself outside of being a musician, if that makes sense.

Totally. We all come from somewhere, and that’s embedded in who we are.
Yeah, I genuinely feel like there comes a time when there are parts of you that get glorified, and then you’re like, “Oh, so those must be the best parts of me.” It’s been a lot of realizing that everything about me is pretty beautiful. I’m just trying to be happy with life. I’m 26 now, so my frontal lobe is developed.

 Congratulations!
Yeah, something about being 26 just makes me feel like, “Okay, I’m an adult now.” I don’t know what it is, but I will be in this body for a while, so let me get to know myself.

The relief and clarity of finally growing up. Where have you drawn your inspiration from throughout the years?
I draw inspiration from everything. When you’re an artist, everything is susceptible to your creativity. You can take anything and use it for something, which allows me to create a world within my music. I also love how my friends and I have a lingo now; it creates a space just for us.

In a way, you’re building your inspiration through world-building with them.
You know what? I’m customizing everything to fit exactly how I like it. Oh my god—on that topic, one thing about me that’s changed over the years is now I have T R U S T in a tailor. I live by getting my clothes tailored. It is a whole different experience. I want my clothes to fit exactly how I want, kind of like everything in my life. I do everything my brain tells me to do. I feel like I’m in that era of fulfilling that creative hunger of just doing shit.

Because the frontal lobes developed. Something’s happening.
Yeah, something’s happening.

And how do you think this reflects in your music-making?
The music I’ve been making is more authentic to who I am. The previous project I dropped, Las Ruinas, was very relationship driven. I was going through many things in my personal life and wasn’t quite ready. Now, I’m on top of the fucking world. I just feel like that bitch, and my music reflects that more now. I’m so excited to share the album with people. I’m so glad everybody loves the dance project with Boys Noize and what they’re hearing so far because there’s so much more coming.

Do you have any rituals for making music?
I feel like God is a ritual, so if I want a good day, I pray when I wake up. I was huge on that ritual shit earlier in my career where I would be like, “Oh, yeah, I need my sage and incense and rose quartz and all this bullshit.” But honestly, if you’re going to make good music, you will make good music.

It’s undeniable if you’re making good music; it’s not the rose quartz.
You get stuck on those vices; it comes around and bites you in the ass. What if one day you don’t have the rose quartz?

You’ve got to make your own rose quartz.
From scratch like Nara Smith! I love that bitch so much. I swear. I love people that are just themselves and don’t give a fuck, and it pisses people off. I think it’s so, so cool.

 The more people we see people getting upset, the more we love her.
Exactly. You know what they say? If you’re not getting hated on, you’re not a bad bitch. It’s not even really hate. The people in her comments can’t comprehend the energy she puts into what she wants to do. I can’t believe that everybody doesn’t live like that. Let that bitch cook! Literally, let her cook.

 Let Nara Smith cook—you heard it here first, folks. You released your first mixtape when you were in high school; what was it like to just say, “Screw it” and put it online?
I love music so much that every time I drop a project, it’s the same feeling I would get when I was younger. You feel like a really sexy boy called you, you’re a bit antsy. I think I fell in love with that feeling.

You were a part of the BIG SoundCloud moment. What was that like?
It was very male dominated then, so yeah, it was different. But it was also easier. SoundCloud was my TikTok. I would upload a bunch of shit on there, like, spam post. So it felt good to just release music whenever I wanted.

And how did the Kenny Beats collaboration come about?
Kenny would be in my DMs like, “Let’s work, let’s work, let’s work.” One day, I had no producer in the studio, so I took him up on the offer, and I said, “Pull up, you better have some beats.” Back then he had been working with Hood Rich Pablo, and bro did not have a profile pic. So I thought he was a black man, but he’s white. So he shows up and I’m like, “Where’s Kenny B?”

Ha-ha…
…It was so funny! I literally looked him up and down, and I was like, “You’re the producer? Okay. Show me what you got,” and he kept playing me these super soft, girly-ass beats. You know the type of beats that I’m talking about. And I was just like, “I want some rock shit.” 

Give a girl some space to scream! Nightmare Vacation felt like a moment where you gained a new wave of listeners, right?
It really feels like that because of COVID. I couldn’t see how good the album did until I went on tour.

 Yeah, I can imagine—especially given the circumstances it was written in, performing in person finally and seeing everyone loving it and going crazy.
I remember I dropped Nightmare Vacation in December and then I did Rolling Loud the following summer. Obviously, I had to perform these new songs. I was fucking nervous ’cause I had never performed them live. I had done virtual shows, but not a physical performance. That show in particular, I remember being like, “Holy shit, what if they don’t react to the new songs?” Well, that didn’t happen, and I think it made me fall even more with my fans. I said, “Y’all are going to grow with me,” and there I saw it.

Building on that, you’ve really been exploring a new sound. You had your Fred Again remix and more recently the HARDCORE DR3AMZ EP with Boys Noize. Are you finding your fans are growing with you into new genres?
I do, I do. One thing that I’ve always loved about rave culture is how it’s taught me to govern the culture with my own fans. It’s all about respect. It’s all about unity. All about helping one another, loving one another, getting fucking shit-faced and having a blast. We look out for one another. If somebody falls in the mosh pit, we help them back up. If somebody loses their phone, we stop the music. If somebody needs water, if somebody needs anything. It’s such a cliche, but we’re one big fucking family. And every time I look up, it’s a cookout.

Part of the way you create is by making characters that you embody. As you dip your toes in more electronic waters, can we expect a new character?
That’s so fucking funny because you know a girl loves her characters. Let me introduce you to Raven. I don’t know why I call her that, I think it’s a combination of me loving purple, Edgar Allen Poe and rave culture. I’m not sure what she looks like. Trap Levine and Taco Bella have these signature styles, but I only know that Raven came about from being overseas a lot.

Tell us more about Raven’s latest EP.
It’s super short and sweet, with only three songs. I wanted to give people something to clean their house to, something to get dressed to.

And what inspired these three songs?
Oh my God. Well, with Boyz Noize, we would go into the studio and he would literally play his DJ sets. So I think that’s what inspired the music a lot; simply listening to other DJs. Go to a couple shows and listen to what they’re playing, what got their crowd going. It was a lot of going to the studio, studying BPMs and learning how things move into one another. Then figuring out how we can make this Rico Nasty. How can we make this fun? It was so inspiring to be a student again.

Has being a student again inspired you to explore other new genres?
Yes—but I heard somebody say something that hit yesterday. I don’t remember which artist said it, but they were asked, “What would you tell your younger self?” He said, “Don’t think too fast.” And that’s how I feel because people are right now doing everything I was doing three/four years ago. Whether it’s the type of music or the things they’re experimenting with. I’m trying to not think too fast because I think I’m right where I need to be. Everything I’ve done is finally making sense, and people can see my influence.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my friends the other night. One of them said something about how when you have an idea, you have to act on it.
Dude, fuck, you know what? That came from the Rick Rubin book, The Creative Act. It’s called The Cloud. It’s a cloud of ideas, and once you think of something, it goes into the sky. And if you don’t use it, it can go. It talks about not feeling weary when people take your ideas. You know what? Let’s talk about that because every time people are ‘copying me’ I’m told to do something about it. And I’m just like, “Bro, that idea was travelling, somebody was bound to get it.” I feel like if anybody great is sharing the same ideas as me, I feel great. Bitch, I’m great. What are you talking about? You have to stop looking at it like a jab in your creativity.

Putting it in this perspective definitely fosters a more mindful way of creating.
I feel blessed to be a part of this renaissance of hip hop and have a community of women. When the internet breeds jealousy, it can be hard to say that, but I always make sure to. I’m very proud of all of the women that I’ve come up alongside, even the bitches I’ve had beef with. We came from nothing. We did something with our lives. And that’s beautiful to me.

Being a part of this new renaissance also uplifts those who came before you.
Yes, totally. Because we wouldn’t be able to do any of it if it wasn’t for the women before. Point blank period. Can you imagine how hard it must have been when there was no one to relate to? You know how lonely that is? I look at Joan Jett for a lot of things. She was one of the girls running with the boys and was just so hardcore. Everybody told her no, and she proved them all wrong. I think that’s why I love her so much. She played the underdog for a while and came out to really show people where everybody was getting the sauce from.

Yeah, and she made more money than some of the men :p.
You feel me. We love you Joaaannn!

Okay, important question. If you could tell Hello Kitty anything, what would you tell her?
I would tell her: “Be who you are for your pride. And leave that boy by tomorrow. We only see Karomi and My Melody, so just let that boy go. He is not on the forefront of the cuties.”

This issue explores hyper-expression; could you meditate on what it means to you?
Hyper means that you’re hyper cunt, you’re hyper-cool, you’re hyper, period. I think that life can be dull, and you might need a hyper person around you every now and again to spice it up. I love being hyper.