If you ever wanted to know who is on your favorite singer's playlist, or what albums inspired the latest “it girl” the most, tune in for Marie Claire’s resident music franchise Listen Up. In this interview series, we ask musicians about their listening habits and the specific records that informed their taste—and inherently their journey as an artist.
When Rico Nasty debuted with her first commercial release in 2017, few artists in the hip-hop world straddled genres quite like her. She dressed like a pop-punk princess, but her pioneering breakout mixtape, Sugar Trap 2, was bubbly enough to inspire car sing-alongs but could also start a mosh pit.
But according to the rapper, being ahead of the curve of punk-rap going mainstream was “a double-edged sword.” Despite her cult fanbase, it was lonely not being fully embraced by either the alt or rap scene, and ultimately, she felt held back by her label, Atlantic, which she first signed with in 2018.
Working on her new album LETHAL (out May 16) felt like an investment she needed to make in herself. “There was no other option,” Rico Nasty, 27, tells Marie Claire of her decision to leave Atlantic in 2022 and find a new home with famed punk label Fueled By Ramen. “I didn't go to college or anything like that. I have never had another job outside of music besides Popeye's and working reception at the hospital for a couple of months. So, it was like, Okay, I guess I'm doing exactly what I did when I was unsigned, which is taking my money and using it on everything that I need to use it for.”
“It just was like a test of patience and how bad do you really, really want this?” she adds. “And I felt like I wanted it pretty bad.”
The result is a record that shows every facet of the artist, originally born Maria Kelly. It features the rage rap that her longtime fans know and love, more guitars than ever, and even touches on her journey as a mom. She says it was “liberating” to not hold back in any way. “Sometimes when you're an artist, it can start to feel like you're crazy. You're like, Is that my shit? Wait a minute. And then to hear so many people be like, ‘Rico, you need to come back. We miss you.’ [LETHAL is] taking that energy and channeling it in a very cocky way,” she says.
With her most daring project to date out soon, we spoke to the “On the Low” rapper about all of her influences, from Shrek to Rihanna.
Nicki Minaj. I loved Pink Friday, but it was the rollout before Pink Friday—the mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty. I remember I was not supposed to be listening to that, but I was going to school in Baltimore and “Itty Bitty Piggy” was going crazy at the time. One of my cousins was a super fan of hers, so he had the CD, the poster. It was a whole thing. That was the first time I ever saw people be fans of somebody. Then it was Rihanna and Tyler, the Creator, but [Nicki Minaj] was the first.
Loud by Rihanna.
One of my favorite albums is Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD. WE DON’T TRUST YOU by Future and Metro Boomin is really good; Saaheem by SahBabii; I really liked The Kid That Did by Babyface Ray. I also listen to The Cranberries a lot—the No Need to Argue album.
Shrek. Shrek put me onto Joan Jett because I had the Shrek CD. “Hey, now you're an all-star,” that was my shit! And as I got older, YouTube became a thing, and you just start looking up those lyrics and finding those bands and finding similar bands and going down a rabbit hole.
My dad did music, so I feel like I was always in a studio session or watching him rap in the house and rap over instrumentals. I was curious. We used to rap together for fun sometimes. It always became something that I had liked to do socially with my friends, with my cousins. Even in high school, I feel like I was a part of a little fake music collective. It was just always there in the background.
I would've liked to be a part of the ‘90s. The ‘90s were primetime hip-hop with Lil’ Kim. I would definitely like to go back to that, but the style of rap is so different and the way that they used to record is so different. They used to not be able to punch in and shit like that. They had to rap the whole verse all the way through, and I think that's commendable as fuck. That's something that I would love to conquer.
I performed at the first festival I ever went to, so I didn’t really watch too many live performances in real life. A lot of them were on DVD, and I remember seeing Michael Jackson and Prince, but it was really Tina Turner. My grandma had a Tina Turner video of her performances—and her performances were lit. She used to own that stage.
When I got older, I feel like it was more so just whatever was inspiring me, I brought that to the stage. But you know who always has really cool shows though that I really do fuck with? Billie Eilish. She has mosh pits and shit like that, too, so seeing a girl do that, I've always fucked with her.
I’ve got some Deftones merch, and I have every Rihanna T-shirt. Rihanna did a resale of all her vinyls, so I bought every piece of merch with every vinyl for every album she has ever dropped. I’m a super fan.
There are so many hard artists out right now. I really like GloRilla. I love the way that she's elevated but still kept herself at core, and I love her beat selection. There are so many girls out right now—Jorjiana, she’s cool. Amyl and The Sniffers, they’re pretty cool, too.
It would be me, BABYMETAL, Amyl and The Sniffers, Chappel Roan, Flo Milli, Megan Thee Stallion, Bktherula, and Sexyy Red. All girls.
Future, “I Served the Bass.” That is one of the best beats ever.
Amy Whinehouse or The Smiths.
Crystal Castles—I love Alice Glass. Her music outside of that is so fire, too. And Ken Carson’s album that dropped in 2023, A Great Chaos—the one with “Succubus.”
100 Gecs—something that makes people want to jump up and down. I also love the “Fly Like a G6” era of music. I’m going to put on the Megan Thee Stallion remix of “Fly Like a G6!”
“Chopper in the trunk, it's as big as a boombox / And the clip longer than a motherfucking tube sock.” [From “Watch Me”]. It's a really old song, but it's full of fun stuff.
