A sea change is taking place. Over the last three years, several rappers have emerged with the potential to be part of a female Hip Hop renaissance not seen since Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Da Brat, Missy Elliott, Eve, and Lauryn Hill dominated urban radio in the 1990s.
Rico Nasty is often mentioned in the crop of emerging performers of the late 2010s/early 2020s that could add their names to the list of artists who are carrying the torch of their predecessors. The 23-year-old rising star was selected as a 2019 XXL Freshman, and she earned a Gold plaque for the “Smack A B####” single.
After releasing projects like Sugar Trap and Anger Management, the Maryland native is close to dropping Nightmare Vacation via Atlantic Records. Apple Music’s Zane Lowe caught up with Rico to talk about her upcoming debut studio LP which is due out on December 4. She made half of the album after the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I feel like I’m still the same boastful b-tch that I’ve always been. I just think the only difference now might’ve been, I had my ego shot down a little bit by quarantine and just by growing up in general,” Rico told Lowe. “So obviously, I just think this whole project, it was made during the time where this is probably the first time in my life where I wasn’t on 10, as far as confidence. Within myself, my personal life, normally everything’s great. And making this album just started getting real tricky balancing life.”
She continued, “That’s why I named it Nightmare Vacation because all the s### that I was scared of at one point, scared to do and scared to say, it just became my second nature. I want to say that s###, I don’t care if I hurt somebody’s feelings. I’m going to wear it. I don’t care if I get dirty looks. Just et cetera, et cetera, it goes on and on… Nightmare Vacation is really just about being yourself, your truest self, going through things that people tell you you can’t get out of and getting out of them, coming out a rockstar.”
