Switched on Pop - Berlin's Hottest Club is Rico Nasty & Boys Noize

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

There are few artists pushing the boundaries of their respective genres like Maryland rapper Rico Nasty and German-Iraqi electronic producer Boys Noize. The two have run in the same circles for over half a decade, but their joint collaboration has reached an apex with their three song EP, HARDC0RE DR3AMZ, a dance-floor ready project that owes as much to Berlin techno as it does to Dutch gabber music. Rico and Boys Noize – a.k.a. Alexander Ridha – are also incredible friends with a lot of love for one another, and for producer Reanna Cruz, all of these reasons make the duo’s EP one of the best projects of the year. On the heels of Berlin techno being added to the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage for Germany, Reanna sat down with Rico and Alex for this episode of Switched on Pop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched-on-Pop. I'm producer Rihanna Cruz. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding, and I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. So I don't know if y'all are tapped into the dance music world, but big things have happened recently. Fill us in, Rihanna. Berlin Techno has just been given UNESCO heritage status, putting it on par with Stonehenge, Persepolis and Yellowstone National Park.

The Hagia Sophia. Amazing. Wow. More specifically, it's been added to the National UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Germany, so a little less specific than Stonehenge, but it joins the ranks of other local genres like Jamaican reggae and Garifuna. Intangible cultural heritage. I feel like we're overdue for some podcast editions. Just saying.

We'll be the first in line. Okay, so what does this mean? So what it means, basically, is that UNESCO and Germany have decided that Berlin Techno is one of the most important cultural touchstones of the country. Now, Berlin Techno takes most of its cues from Detroit Techno in America. Birthplace of Techno, yeah. Right, the birthplace of the genre. The Berlin version actually got its start from somebody in West Berlin traveling to Detroit in the 80s and liking the sound so much that he brought records and some of the black producers back to Europe to kickstart the scene in the country. And it flourished when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Yeah, I remember NPR did a really great story about the creation of the Berlin club scene and that there was basically this like curfew off the United States. battle between East and West Germany of who it's the open the latest, and that when the Berlin wall fell, they sort of basically found parody and said, no curfew, clubs go on forever. Like, really, that's what happens, right? Like, you can literally party truly all weekend long and never have to leave the club in Berlin. The one time I went club in Berlin, we left for the club at midnight. Like, that was the start of the night. I was like, what? This is, this is insane. But it was... I think that's early.

Midnight is early. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is early. I see TikToks of people lining up for Burgine, which is the biggest techno club in the world. I see TikToks of people lining up at seven in the morning. Like, people are going for morning jogs next to people waiting to get into Burgine. Incredible.

Great outfits. Now, for the initiated dance head, it might be hard to distinguish American techno from Berlin techno, because both have, you know, the same BPM range. 120 to 150, they both have booming four on the floor beads, but European techno has European influence, taking inspiration from other local subgenres like Dutch gabber music. And over the past decade, few artists are bringing that German techno sensibility to the mainstream, like Berlin-based DJ, boys' noise. Boys noise. Wow.

Exactly. Oh, give me that. Rihanna, can we take just a second and break down this sound? I feel like the characteristic sound of techno is that rumble kick drum, where the kick hits almost twice. It's like, it's like the reverberation of the warehouse club that you're in. You can hear the kick drum, get that extra rumble woofs kind of sound. And you've got the oomts-oombeat with off-beat high-ha-ha-ha-ha. these rolling, filtered, very simple sequenced bass lines.

Do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dd-d-d-dddd-d. Oftentimes, acid lead sounds, like, just like squelchy, distorted, terrifying synthesizers. You often get a lot of that ethereal pads. And then very commonly, you'll get just this, like, German voicing one word, like, consciousness. Or, luscious. Or, or. conviviate. Ooh.

Very little harmony, not a lot of movement. Like, not much changes. All the changes in, like, the micro textures and timbers and filters that are opening and closing and little elements changing bit by bit. But you're not going to get, like, the big EDM drop in the middle of a Berlin techno set. No, it's basically this forever. All weekend. Yeah. Consciousness.

Yeah. No breaks. Very sparse, very heavy, very indel. to a degree. I feel like the kind of dancing you do to this is like very intense and driven and like exhausting. Whenever I go out dancing to techno, I feel like I get home and my neck hurts because I'm not like dancing and like, you know, moving my limbs or anything. I'm just kind of standing there and like nodding my head forcefully. It's like rather than a normal workout, it's like when you put the like the electrodes on your abs that are supposed to like do the workout for you and your body's just just just, shaking. That's what I'm picturing. Exactly.

Okay, so what is Boy's noise doing to bring the Berlin techno sound to the masses? Well, I think part of what makes boys noise so special is that he is pushing the limitations of Berlin Techno. And part of how he's doing that is collaborating with American artists, particularly American rappers. He's collaborated with Playboy Cardi before on the song Unlock It. Yeah, point lean, smoking that reef Yeah, got to test with my body, I look like a leaf Yeah, just testing my shoddy, I want to come meet you.

Okay, that's neat, kind of using like the synth sounds of Berlin techno, but putting them in a hip-hop context with much more syncopated beats and rapping. I feel like you have to be a certain kind of MC to be able to flow on top of these sparse, heavy Berlin beats. Like, my sense is not everyone

can just hop on a boy's noise track and rap. Yeah, these beats are very nuanced, and it does take a skilled MC to rap over them. For example, Snoop Dog on the song, Got It. Hmm. Oh, gee. I got my game straight from the bitch.

I'm the shit. Head it straight to the tissue. Guns and magazines, you can come and get your issue. Same-ass nigger, don't let them tell you bitch. I've been-hatted. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, so much more like a Berlin techno track and that it's four to the floor with some of those nasty, acidy house lead sounds. But he's slowed the tempo way down to conform better to like a hip-hop vibe that Snoop can wrap over. So Boy's Noise has worked with many rappers up to this point over the course of his career, which has been over a decade.

His muse, as of late, has been none other than Maryland rapper Rico Nasty. Nice. Whoa. I mean, I can see why Rico's style would fit with this Berlin Technosound. Her delivery, her power, her drive. Like, that's a cool match there. That's very aggressive, and it's a good fit. It makes me think about, Rihanna, you did this really great story a few weeks ago

about the sort of state of hip-hop. and how it's represented at Rolling Loud and sort of we're in this moment of hip-hop trying to find what is this next sound going to be. And I think Rigo Nassi is really smart to collaborate with boys' noise and find this hybrid between Berlin dance music and U.S. hip-hop. Yeah, Rigo is one of my favorite rappers and has been for the past six, seven years.

She's special for a number of reasons. Her delivery has bite. She's coined her own genre, which she calls Sugar Trap. And she is wholly on a phrase. to hop into different genres and try new things, which is what makes the collaboration between Rico and Boys Noise so special. The two have linked up frequently over the years from Brooke Candy's FMU in 2019 to Boys Noise's production on Rico's song Money featuring Flow Millie.

Fun Wild Thing sample. Yes, Wild Thing is the sample, but the song is a sample of that sample because it samples two live cruise, we want some, you know what. Yes, right. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very throwback. Her flow is like on the opposite end of the spectrum from someone like Ice Spice, maybe. Ice Vice is kind of laid back, kind of cool.

Unbothered. Rico Nasty is like, like, I'm in your face. Every syllable is like throttled. It's really fun to listen to. And Boys Noise can be heard all over the track, even though this is more on the hip-hop side of his sound. We have these distinctive techno-high hats, these like bit-crushed abrasive, percussive sounds, which you could hear about a minute into the track. Yeah, I hear it.

One of the best collaborations between Rico Nasty and Boys' Noise and one of my favorite was her feature on his record Polarity on the song Girl Crush. Okay, there we go. That's the thing. That's like we've got the rumble bass, we've got the super aggressive lead sounds, we've got the super simple sequence bases. That's straight up to Toy Techno. But again, he's comfortable playing with the BPM and bringing it way down to sort of make this new sound to fit and blend with her vibe. Girl Crush was the first time that I noticed the two working together. And it immediately stood out to me as uncharted territory for, Rico nasty. She's not really rapping on the song. Her timbre is different. It's much smoother than the abrasive confrontation of her solo work. And I find it sultry in a way to that point we hadn't previously heard from her. It makes me think of some of the stories you're telling us from that Rolling Loud Hip Hop Festival, Rihanna, like if hip hop is losing some of its commercial dominance in the 2020s, maybe this kind of techno,

singing pop hybrid is like one potential direction for the future of the genre. Well, that leads us to 2024. And Rico Nasty and Boys Noise have a new EP out called Hardcore Dreams. That's with the zero as the O and a three as the E. And you won't hear the conventional sounds of hip hop anywhere on this EPI. Check out my favorite song from the EP, The Deeply Catchy Adin Tintin. Yes. Yes, that's fun. It's slaps. It's got the sounds of the Detroit Techno thing, but it's a bit more Europop. It's very upbeat. It has this octave back and forth baseline that makes it very almost like Eurovision-y, but still has some of those really dark undertones of the Detroit Techno, some of those synthesizers that kind of things. It's a great contrast. Really fun track. Exactly, and that's apt because the title of the EP Hardcore Dreams references hardcore dance music,

a European genre of dance music characterized by strong, intense kick drums, and high BPM. Like, I'm talking up to like 200 BPM. Woof, yeah, failing limbs. You could check it out on the song Shooting Star by Bang from 1997, one of my personal favorites. Yes, yes, it sounds like Ace of Bass on Speed. Yeah, it's like predates the contemporary sped-up remix phenomenon. That's fun. So the Hardcore Dreams EP from RICO and Boys Noise is a beautiful example of their collaboration together

because it's blending together techno and hardcore sounds by the way of 2000s Eurodance with vocals on top, courtesy of Rico Nasty, whose experience prior has been in the hip-hop sphere. And this EP continues the path of Girl Crush, rejecting the traditional hip-hop direction that RICO has been known for in favor of this dancey club-focused direction. I wanted to unpack the three songs on this EP, Ardintin, Vagina, and HOT-H-H-T-H-H-H-WAT, as well as the similarities between these artists' respective genres and their artistic endeavors. So I got on Zoom with Rico and Alexander Ridha, also known as Boys Noise, for an absolutely delightful conversation. Alex was in his studio and Rico was with her son and her dog, making for a very chaotic interview. But oftentimes, I wouldn't even have to ask a question. The two of them would just go back and forth.

I feel like we wouldn't want it any other way. Exactly. Right from the get-go, they launched into talking about their new EP without me even posing a question about it. And it's amazing to be talking to two people who you can tell have such deep admiration for each other as artists and collaborators, especially as someone who's been a fan of both artists for years. You'll see what I mean. Check out my conversation with Rico Nasty and Boys Noise after the break. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness.

I have a few pretty tough questions for you. Okay. Ready? Do not sugarcoat something for me. No, no. No. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated.

the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits. I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. I'm Rico. I'm Rico Nasty. MC Rico Nessie. Oh, God, not M-G. You know my secret.

I'm the D.C. You're the MC. Yeah, he's the other M-C. I hate that so much. My secret. And not my fucking, can we do not disturb these all of? Yeah. I'm Alex.

I'm making electronic music for most of my life. I've been DJing for longer than I live. No. It feels like it. I'm the emce. He's the DJ. And we do our thing. On the ones and twos.

It's funny when Rico and I met, I remember that in the studio. You told me, oh, man, I've been rapping all these songs. I want to sing something. And that was years ago. We finally made something where you could sing. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm so bipolar.

I'm always like, I want to rap. I want to sing. I want to scream. I just want to do it all. I really, really enjoyed, like, even the earlier music that we would meet together. It was always, like, super upbeat, super fun. And I don't know, for this project, we kind of, like we'll let the fun take over dead ass it's just really fun yeah i feel like we really caught

that reason why we make music right it was really like yeah we're making music because we want to make music and have fun and not think about what it's supposed to be not think about anything basically we just like go with the flow of the night and we would jump back and forth and i feel like the music that we put out captures that quite well. Yeah, I think it was all about learning how to like making music again. And what's so special about the Boys Noise Rico Nasty collaboration in your own words? For me, it's kind of a musical dream to have the world clashing together. You know, like, I love to like bridge things that weren't supposed to or like do things.

where people are like, you can't do this. I'm always attracted. I've been since day one. Like whenever someone says, no, you can't do it, I'm like, we'll see about that, you know? Yeah. And when I was starting to DJ, I was the youngest forever. I don't know.

I wasn't accepted in the techno world for a long time, you know, that they just didn't want to give me that. And that's because I was just not doing what they were doing. You know, I was doing something that I felt was cool. And I did it because I thought everyone else is doing that. Why should I also do what they are doing? They already doing everything so well, and I'll play that. But I'm not going to repeat that.

So that's why my music turned out to be the music that I did. And I feel like Rico feels the same in her world too, right? You're not afraid to go and try something you haven't tried before. I think we have like common denominators when it comes to our worlds too, which makes it like, I don't know, like when I think boys noise, like I think loud, I think unpredictable, I think a little bit of mysterious, a little bit of like, you know, party, there's an underground vibe there. It's happened with a lot of cool people for sure. You know what I mean? And then when you think Rico nasty, it's like loud. It's unpredictable. You don't know what you're going to get. And then it's also like you never know what we're going to reference because I feel like we are from two different worlds.

Like we could be thinking of this or thinking of this or thinking of this. Like I feel like it was, I think it was both of our like curiosity that really just brought it together. Like I think we just wanted to hear what it would sound like if we were just like, let's just give them three songs that they can write. vibe out two and see what happens. Like, I think the rest kind of just happen. Yeah. That's beautiful.

I think you guys have a really lovely partnership. And I feel like even just listening to the two of you talk about each other, like, there's so much love. And I love when, like, you know, two artists are working together and you talk to them and it seems like they're genuinely friends. And I feel that way about you guys. Like, the love is there and I could feel it. And I think that's what makes the music so great, part of it at least. You know what? You just said something that I want to add as well as.

like you want to make music with your friends. Like, you know, because like with Eureka, I would do fucking 20 albums because like we're friends and we have so much fun together. That's all I want to do. Honestly. I don't want to do anything else but making music with my friends. That's the best. And we could do anything together, I feel like too.

Like we can make whatever. Literally. You know, this isn't like a project that was like, oh, let's just work together. Like we've known each other for like six years almost. Yeah, longer. Yeah, long, yeah. It's been a minute. Yeah.

And it's kind of just like cool because we'll see each other. We've been in Germany. We've been like crazy sides of the world and still made time to hang out and see each other and make music and play music. And I just think that is something that a lot of people I feel like in this industry look for. like just, you know, I don't want a whole team of homies. I just want one homie. I can send them shit be like, hey, this fire, you like this? You know what I mean? Something that is remarkable about the both of your work is your ability to subvert expectations in a way because the both of you practice in like rap, R&B, hyperpop, and electronic genres writ large.

What does genre as a concept mean to the both of you? I just look at genre like a you know how you like spin the wheel? I feel like genre is just like a different category

on that wheel like you can do whatever these days so whatever scratches your ear in the best way then just go for you you know

when I when I started coming up there was strictly house music DJs it was strictly techno music especially in Berlin like a lot of the OG techno guys were like it's got to be like this

and you can't raise your hand when you DJ and you know and I was always, I mean I've had so many different inspirations and I love to play different records throughout my sets and different styles so I'm so glad that I don't have to fight these dudes

anymore and I think it's quite normal now to just do any type of genre and you know when I DJ I put in like a Brazilian vocal over a techno track and some Arabic chans over some house. You know, like everything's kind of like, it's cool.

And I feel like it's become kind of normalized in a way, which I love. I'm so sorry, my dog is snowing like this. Can you all hear my dog? A little bit, a little bit. It's okay. Dude. They are crazy, girl. You sound insane

Part of the reason why I fell in love with Rico's music was basically that. I follow rap, whatever, and I've been buying rap and hip-hop when I started off and everything. And there was a time when I got really bored by it because, you know, there was so much repetitive stuff. You know, I love sounds. So it was just the same sounds over and over,

same snares, same kick drums, everything's same. Yeah, because I feel like, drop comes in waves. So like whatever's popular. If you're early on it, by the time it hits mainstream, you're kind of like tired of it. I feel like that's how it is like with underground stuff. It's like niche until it's not. I mean, that's what make me love hip hop though.

I do love hip hop because it is like the forefront of a lot of trends. It's constantly something new happening. I will say that. Like I was getting bored with rap and but not necessarily like hip hop. I've always loved hip hop because I feel like, you know, there might be a rap beef here and there. There might be something here where, you know, somebody did a challenge that plays with their pen. Somebody did a freestyle that makes me want to challenge my pen. You know what I mean?

Like I feel like hip hop is like a competition. It's super, super competitive. It's all about who can either say something the wittiest or something. say the hardest shit in the simplest way. It's like all about wordplay and stuff like that. And like you said, Alex, you're listening to the sounds and the beats. So it's like, you're

not even worried about that. Like, for sure, you're like, please, I was a difference. Exactly. And so to come back to when I heard your music, it was the hardest stuff I heard in a long time. And you know, and that was the combination of

you, your rap, your voice and the music. Yeah. And so that's why I was like, man, I have to meet RICO, or I think we're going to do some crazy stuff if we would meet together. And hell, yeah, it worked out. I always felt too, like you're on just like a whole other playing field than what I was normally familiar with. Like, you don't make music like anybody else that I work with.

And at first I was like super nervous because I'm like, oh my God, is he going to be able to do some hip-hop shit? Like, what kind of stuff is he going to do something? And you're literally to be able to do anything and everything. And I find that so cool because I think it's very hard to like be a woman and have the ability to be like multifaceted. Like, speak good at a lot of things. Like I feel like if something works, a lot of people just want to do whatever works. So I'm just like happy that I got the chance to work with somebody who like wants to see me in a new light and wants to see me like trying new stuff.

because I feel like it challenged me a lot, and it made me like, I'm enlightened in my music taste now. No, same for me. I've been in a studio with a handful of rappers, and, you know, I don't want to call you a rapper, but, like, I'm trying, like, every time I'm trying to, like, you know,

flip this situation a little bit, so I would play techno or, like, a straight disco records from the 70s or something, and no one has reacted the same way Rico does, you know, like, you're not afraid to push yourself because you have that feeling and you might not be like, oh man, this is not like what I've done before, but like that's your strength and that's your power.

And that makes you really special and stand out from the rest, in my opinion. I mean, I haven't seen anyone doing anything like we did. You know, like tell me, just tell me another one. I can't. Like, that's the thing. That's why it's so, like, unique and specific because, like, I can't think of anything that sounds like what you guys are doing. Like even when you guys put out Girl Crush, I was like, oh, wow.

Like, this is the first time I heard, like, something like that track in that capacity featuring somebody like Rico. You know, I think it's very unique. And the work that you guys do together is very unique. The thing that I think one of you said about, like, the underground, I believe it was Rico, the underground, you know, takes a few years. And then it's in the mainstream. And it's like if you're kind of at the forefront of that wave, by the time the wave hits,

it's like over. That's how I feel about like your anger management EP with Kenny Beats because like I listened to that when it dropped. I was like, holy shit, this is a new sound of hip hop that I previously haven't heard. And now, you know, you look at hip hop today and it's like that like quote unquote rage beat is like everywhere. And that rage sound. And I think about it. And I'm like, I heard that first on songs like big titties.

You know what I mean? Yeah. it's fun being first it's fun and it can be sometimes frustrating too like i have that as well in my and more micro kind of genres of techno and house and every year you have like five producers that push sound and then yeah same thing happens like a year later everybody jumped on that sound and those five producers went on to do something else and then they get no attention and then the guys it just literally copied them, become bigger, and like get all of it, you know? Yeah.

Do you guys find hip-hop and electronic music to be similar in other regards? I don't think I ever want them to be similar. Mm-hmm. I like the fact that they're different. Yeah. I like the fact that there's different spaces for all these different things. I feel like nothing should be something else. You know what I mean?

because I feel like electronic music is so, it's like its own world. Do you know what I mean? So is hip-hop. Totally. But they just live in separate houses on the same street. Yeah, I think there's a lot of nuances to both. And, you know, part of the reason why I never liked the term EDM was it would just put everything into one thing. And for me, you know, it's a huge, there's a huge difference between Apex twin and, you know,

you know, David Ghetto. And then even within techno, you know, you have your Berlin techno, you have the heart techno, you have the Detroit stuff, you have the Chicago house, you have New York house, you have, you know, there's so many different things. And it's the same for rap. There's different codes and all of them. There's different cultures, there's different fashion even for it, you know? Very true. So I agree. I think it's nice that we have that and that you can also identify, with it. So talk to me about the EP, Hardcore Dreams, a little bit. It's very upbeat. I'm getting a lot of

trance out of the tracks. What was the mood board for the EP? But I can start if you're like, one thing I wanted to do, that was maybe the lead was like, let's make something like basically that works in my DJ sets or like, you know, that that has like a club kind of thing. Yeah, so we were listening to some of the stuff I'm DJing and then there was just one type of beat. A start it that had these like hardcore gaba kicks in it which was like an early version of vagina and so yeah that one had this kind of hardcore sound basically in it you know these like really gaba freaking kick drums yeah and so that was kind of hardcore and then whatever ricka would do was always like the perfect balance to the weight you know like basically kind of opposite

And so that would make it perfect. And so I guess that's how the title also came along, where it's like hardcore and dreams is, I don't know, it's kind of like a play with these opposite polarizing themes. Yeah. We were just playing around with different ideas. We recorded a lot more songs than the ones we released. We were actually going to release four songs,

one we couldn't clear the sample, unfortunately. Yeah. What was it a sample of? It wasn't actually, it wasn't technically a sample, actually. We did some, we did some interpolation. Interpolation of this, was it a 60s band, Kings? Because it wasn't two-life crew that wrote it, right? We thought it was a two-life crew thing, but it turned out there's another.

Oh, are you talking about all day and all of the night? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, one-on-one. Yeah, they didn't allow us to release that, unfortunately. But anyways, and that one also has us like... It was too dirty. Yeah, it was too dirty. That one also has kind of hardcore flavor. Yeah, for sure.

Arintinton, yes, has also a little bit of that. Arrithinthin is super cut. I feel like she just reminds me of just like a good day with the girls. Yeah. It's like annoyingly cut. I love that. That's exactly how I would describe it. I mean, what does Orentington even mean?

I don't know, but it's provocative. It gets the people going. You know? Exactly. I mean, yeah, I could hear like the kind of contrast between the lyrics and the beats. It reminds me a lot of like Euro dance and like a song like Lamortuzor, like Heaven by DJ Sammy, you know, these tracks that like have these like crazy wistful. lyrics, but instrumentals that are so uplifting. And I don't know, like, I love it. Like, it's my favorite genre. I have, like, a tattoo that says 140 BPM, you know, like, that really, like,

that shit speaks to me. Yeah. Bajana is 140. Hell yeah. I clocked in that. That's my favorite. It's a great tempo. Yeah. I mean, I love, I love that tempo. I love, like, the sounds that you guys are pulling on. I love techno. I love Gabber. I love hardcore. And it's cool to hear that in a collaboration between you guys, because the both of you are kind of pushing these genres forward and being the first to try out new sounds. So this EP, I think, is a really great distillation of what makes both of your sounds perfect. And they mesh together

so well. Wow. That was beautifully said. Thank you. It's been really, really fun having the luxury of, like, you know, I guess like repositioning myself because I'm really known for my aggressive music. And I really feel like, you know, whenever I've talked to Boys Nights about, like, what I want to do for future stuff or like where I see myself and what I hear when I go to like other countries and just like, where do I want to position myself? It was just really fun being able to get that space. So, like, we jumped around. We did make some rap records. We did get on, like, a safety trance type bead.

And, like, we did, like, you know, the orthodox. Rico Nasty stuff. But it was, like, really, really fun being able to step into that space of, like, being sexy and girly and cut again. Because I feel like when was the last time we got a feminine song from Rico, See, that wasn't a feature. Like, genuinely, you know, one of her songs that came out. Yeah. I just wanted to give the girls that, especially before the summertime, like,

we were in there going, like, crazy. When we made hot, I felt like that's when I knew. Like, this needs to come out now. Like, I don't want to wait until September, and then they tell us, hey, where's that song that you had? No, like, this is so good. Yeah, and kudos to you, because, as we said earlier, we did have more song.

We actually do have this other really, really sick safety trends collaboration. But in the end, Rico was like, you know what? Let's just keep it really tight. Three, four songs, they really matched together super well. And I think that was a great thing to do. You know what's weird, too? As we were talking about the info and all of that, I think it's so funny that, like, we didn't really have a lot of.

on the spot. Yeah, we didn't really plan anything. I think like that's another reason why I told you this before Alex, but this like my coffee bean project. Like I feel like, you know, being an artist, getting signed to a major, you get really get caught up in like the budget, the budget of everything, the budget of the music video, the budget of this, the bat, blah, like, you know what I mean? And you lose like the fun and just, you know what I realized? This is going to be some cocky ass shit, but I love this for me. I feel like life is a movie. There was a point in time where you had to dress up and do all this and get ready for

portraying yourself for this lifestyle. And now I see that the lifestyle just is. I can just go out with a camera and people are going to say hi to me or people are going to want to be in the video or I'm just going to dance and chill in a parking lot. But it doesn't really have to be all that pressure. My thoughts on what I want change every year that I get older. I started at 19. So every year that I get older, it's like a different goal.

You know, Ricky, you have such a good heart and you have such a good mind. And, you know, that comes with growing up is like realizing what really is important. It's really crazy. Like you get older. And that's really something I want the younger. generation see here. It's just like, dude,

like, we put so much pressure, like the pressure I was putting on myself at 21, 22, shit, even 24. Like, the pressure I was putting on myself at that age was like

insane. And I'm not saying, loosen up. Put all the pressure on yourself. I'm a successful person and I was putting so much pressure on myself. We could do that. Yeah.

But also realize that whatever goals you're setting for yourself, if you don't meet them, dude, you probably won't even want to meet them by the end of the next year. Like, it'll be some shit. You don't even want for real. Like, that's what we go through in this

in our 20s. Like, I'm not a real adult. I'm not a real adult. Dude, half of the shit that you're busting your ass shit at that age is just like, it's just not even worth it. You hit 25 is when I feel like I started developing. Like, okay, wait a minute. we're going to be here for a while.

You know, I just got to, like, relax a little bit. Yeah, dude, the imposter syndrome, I feel like, you know, your name is Rihanna. So literally, listen to what Rihanna said. She said on the days where you might not feel your best, like, what do you do? You just pretend. And I think that it sucks having to pretend. Who wants to pretend? But in the long run, when you can look back on day,

days and be like, damn, I made it through with a straight face. I'm a bad. They really tried to kill me earlier in this day, and I did not let it break me. Those are the days that bring me genuine joy. Like when I wake up and I stub my toe, I'm like, oh, you try to play. Like, you want me to. It's like, the devil wants a reaction out of you, literally. And you just can't give them that.

That's what imposter syndrome means. It's literally like stubbing your toe and your brain convincing you that your toe is going to fall off. Like, it's not. We're okay. Everything is moving at the pace that it should. So, just be blessed for what you have. I love that.

Yeah. This is great. Ending in some sage advice from Rico Nasty. I'm obsessed. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, thank you. The pleasure. Social and Pop is produced by Rana Cruz, edited by Art Chung, engineered by Brandon McFarlane, illustrations by Aaron Scottley, community manager by Abby Barr. Our executive producer

is Nishaw Kerwa. Remember of the Vox Media Podcast Network, Producting to Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine. Subscribe to New York Magazine at NYMag.com slash pod. We'll be back on Tuesday with a brand new episode,

which you can listen to anywhere you get podcasts. You can also go to our website, Switched on Pop.com. And while you're there, sign up for a newsletter, pop your email in the box and click submit, and you will be treated

to a weekly blast of music recommendations from our team and deeper insights into the pop music that surrounds us. You can find this on social media at Switched on Pop, on X, on threads, on Instagram, whatever floats your boat. Tell us what you think about this new EP. Tell us what your favorite Rico Nasty song is.

And if you just discovered her, I would love to know what you think. Next week is Taylor Week. So we'll be listening to Taylor Swift's new record. We'll see you on Tuesday. Until then, thanks for listening. Attention Spotify. Has arrived at the new Google Jasmine Absolute of Carolina Herrera. fragance intense with character gourmet and addictive. Imagine a jasmine

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