Sexyy Red Talks ‘Back2DaTrap’, Motherhood and Being the “Gucci Mane Woman”

NME: “I knew it was a good song because I felt it was so relatable and fun, but when I saw it go viral… I’m still in awe of how crazy it was because I still wasn’t expecting it.”

With the beat coming from Grammy Award-winning producer Tay Keith, Sexyy Red didn’t want to “flaw” it. However, only she and Keith seemed certain that “Pound Town” would be a hit.

“My crew didn’t like it,” he said, “they didn’t think it. They thought I was playing to his beat too. ‘You gotta tell some truth in his beat,’ they’d say. It’s Tay Keith’s beat. You can’t play to his beat and stuff. ‘But I sent it to him and he said he liked it, although we didn’t know it would go that far.

There were other bawdy rappers before her – like Lil’ Kim, Khia and Trina – but Sexxy Red denied any influence other than her “baby daddy” as her initial inspiration. After finding out he was “fooling around” with another girl, Red maverick wrote about him and his “lame” mistress.

“I felt like a fool and a cry baby, so I made a song about it,” she says. “Then he heard it. He was like, ‘Fuck you can rap. ‘ And he started showing it to his friends. He was like, ‘Listen to her rap, let her rap. ‘ And then I was rapping for them, and they were like, ‘Are you really tough?'”

This prompted her to enter the studio to make a “real song”. In 2018, Wherry first went viral with his armed rendition of Vanessa Carlton’s ‘A Thousand Miles’ called ‘Ah Thousand Jugs’.

Last November, she and Summer Walker went viral for the fun and funny track “Sense Dat God Gave You.” The song marked Walker’s rap debut and was controversial for its music video, in which the mother-of-two showed off her beloved baby and belly (Walker was heavily pregnant) while twerking at a gas station.

Many criticized the pair for their portrayal as an inappropriate and negative portrayal of motherhood. In an Instagram post by ShadeRoom, Red and Walker came under such scrutiny. One wrote: “this is rubbish; a black single mother pregnant with [dos hijos] with my ass out making rock music.”

Red, however, said that she and Walker wanted to show that “moms can be sexy.”

“We were like, ‘Moms, stay out! It was like a video of a pregnant mom,” explains the 25-year-old, “the idea was. Today, girls can get pregnant and still be reckless.”

Remember back then people were like, ‘I can’t have kids now because I’m rapping. I’m on the road, I’m doing this shit.’ But now it is assumed that girls have children. Seriously. In my opinion all female rappers are pregnant and have babies. They keep making money. They keep doing their thing.”

Sexyy Red’s explicit content has also sparked debates about whether this is music that children should be listening to. Last week, Sexyy Red went to a high school to give locks and haircuts to students preparing for their prom. On his way in, he raised his middle finger, after many argued that songs like “Pound Town” should not be recommended to minors.

In response, she mentioned her charitable intention to give something back to the youth: “You all know I went there to give the boys money to get haircuts and the girls packages for prom week, because I remember when I needed help with my prom things.”

Red’s fans call her the “female Gucci Mane” and the Missouri rapper referred to herself as such on her debut mixtape “Hood’s Hottest Princess”. However, she disagrees with the comparison: “I don’t even call myself that,” she told NME, “I only did one song so that’s what they would say in my comments. I don’t know. I’ll let the fans decide who the real Gucci Mane woman is.”

Earlier this month, the rapper was in London to rock the crowd at this year’s Wireless festival. The 25-year-old entertainer appeared as a guest at Lancey Foux’s performance on Friday and at Travis Scott’s on Saturday on the main stage of the legendary festival.

Discussing his and Lancey Foux’s performance, Red said that it was “fun” and that the “audience was excited”, but that his mood was “sad because [ella] did not get to perform ‘Pound Town’ and [ella] failed to represent all of ‘SkeeYee’.”

She added that it was “crazy” to see one of the biggest rappers in the world, Travis Scott, jumping around her while she performed her “favorite song”, she self-proclaimed ‘SkeeYee’.

She and Foux revealed their long awaited album ‘Back2DaTrap’ on stage. Despite admitting that he “did not know” the rapper Plaistow, the topic came up because his “teams know each other well.”

“My team was like, ‘There’s somebody I think you’d like to do a song with.’ And I’m like, ‘Who is he? And they’re like, ‘He’s a British artist.’ And I was like, ‘Let me see it.’ I started listening to his songs and I thought it was great,” says Red.

This week, the couple have released their new single “MMM HMM”. Their collaboration is one of Sexyy Red’s many upcoming projects: “I’ve got videos coming out, new music. I’m gonna hit the streets and blow up. Take shit, I don’t take shit, be out.”

Asked if he has any specific goals, he replied: “I want this shit to last. When I get into something, I do it to win it.

“This was a bet. That’s how I felt, a bet on luck or something. I’m trying my best to be as good as I can be so I can go all the way in this shit.”

MMM HMM’ with Lancey Foux and Sexxy Redd is out now.