Rico Nasty and the Expression of Anger (as a Form of Rejuvenation)

“You either die or you keep going. That’s it.”

Out of Rico Nasty’s 2.1 million listeners, I was in the top 2,200 listeners. Of the top four artists on my Spotify wrapped she is the least popular. Somehow, I’ve been trying to write about her since the summer and nothing has come out yet. I don’t listen to Rico Nasty everyday, but I’m sure I spent days only listening to Rico Nasty.

Recently, I’ve been thinking of Rico’s lyric in “Jawbreaker.” “I do what I want, not whatever gets the likes up.” Rico Nasty’s oldest song on Spotify is “Hey Arnold” from 2016, so let’s consider that her debut. Despite debuting before Megan thee Stallion and Doechii (the other female rappers in my top four), she’s still less popular in terms of listeners. She has collaborated with both artists on Scary by Megan thee Stallion and Swamp B*tches by Doechii, so obviously I’m not trying to pit these women against each other. I want to explore Rico Nasty as an alternative punk female rapper.

So, what does Rico Nasty want?

Looking further at Rico’s verse from Jawbreaker:

I do what I want, not whatever gets the likes up
They don't like my outfit but they like the outcome
You never seen these shoes, well, that's the reason I bought them
They copy my swag, you can see that I taught them
Fresh to death, I belong in a coffin
But I'm way too liked to die, so often express myself
Put it in a song so I don't kill myself
Listen to it back and then I heal myself

Presumably she wants to do the following:

1. Buy shoes people have never seen.

2. Express herself through music to relieve herself from thoughts of suicide.

3. Review her creation as an act of self-healing.

Style

My most complimented hairstyle is my mullet wig inspired by Rico Nasty. In March, when I was visiting home over spring break, I watched Rico Nasty: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert and I took so many pictures on my phone. I’ve also seen Rico Nasty performance twice in real life. Within a few days, I was in my local beauty supply store trying on pixie cut wigs and looking at crochet braids.

Rico Nasty has a song called “Black Punk” and a big part of being punk for me is DIY, so I had to make the mullet wig and I feel like was born with a mullet wig, and every demographic of person compliments the mullet wig. Rico Nasty is probably my number one celebrity style icon. She has a “punk” style favoring bold colors, spiked or teased hair, leather, fishnets, and heavy makeup.

Maybe it’s the liberty spikes or the black lipstick, but I feel like this music video is a good example of the punk influence on Rico Nasty’s fashion using only Rico Nasty. Obviously, you should look at Black Punk too.

This video shows Black punks with a variety of styles. There’s a lot of people with facial piercings in this video, and I just got new snake bite piercings, and a lot of the people in this video look like me. Rico’s style ethos doesn’t appear to concern itself with being traditionally or stereotypically attractive.

When bleached eyebrows began trending a couple years ago, some people eventually adopted bleached eyebrows as “man repellant”. A lot of punk fashion represented in the video include elements that make some one approachable. The spikes that we wear do hurt especially if they are real. Big hair and big shoes make sure that you don’t get to close.

Rico Nasty LOVES designer fashion. She wears Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens, Alaïa to name a few, and she even has a whole song dedicated to “Fashion Week”. Not necessarily the aforementioned designers, but avante garde fashion is a big part of Rico Nasty’s image especially in her music videos.

Self Expression

This summer was my Rico Nasty research summer. I watched as many Rico Nasty interviews as I could, but recently I rewatched her interview with Kenny Beats on how “Smack a Bitch”, one of Rico’s most popular songs, was created. Released in 2018, I remember listening to “Smack a Bitch” as a freshman in high school, and thanking God that I didn’t have to smack a bitch.

I never wanted to fall into the stereotype of the angry Black woman, but I am angry, and Rico Nasty makes music for angry Black women, unapologetically. The themes in “Smack a Bitch”, facing criticism, self-confidence, loyalty, and success are further developed in her project Anger Management. It’s literally called anger management, so we know that Rico’s angry.

In the interview, Anger Management is described as starting heavy and ending light. The chorus of opening track “Cold” goes

None of these bitches cold as me, me, me

I swear none of these bitches cold as me, me, me

Rico Nasty makes positive affirmations. With a chorus like this, it’s no wonder Rico Nasty has confidence, she knows that no one else is as talented, cool, creative, fashionable, etc. as her. When I read or hear this lyric, I remember the value in being unique even when people may not always see the vision.

“Cheat Code” the next track allows Rico to expand on who she is or isn’t. She isn’t “typical”, she dresses “whimsical”, and takes things “literal” so don’t play with her. She’s “rude” and “the elephant in the room” and doesn’t care about being liked. These traits that Rico embodies could contribute to why she isn’t as mainstream as some of her peers. (Who are her peers truly? She already told us to stop comparin’ her to bitches she’s better than.)

Rico is inspiring because she’s successful which is why we know her. She’s successful because she’s herself whether people like it or not. In “Hatin’” Rico reveals she’s only twenty one at the time. Inspiring to me, as I’m twenty one and figuring it out. The message in Anger Management is to be yourself.

Maybe most personal to me is “Sell Out”.

Try to box me in, I don't need no oxygen
You could leave me to die, I was born to win
You just gotta love yourself
Don't worry about what everyone is doing or did

When Rico describes the intent behind this song she says, “I’m just talking to the people who really got shitted on. Definitely the LGBTQ community, because like a lot of them, they got told that what they were doing was wrong or that they weren’t making sense or they was crazy. That they were ugly. That they were weird…Like imagine you’re trying to kill something, but it doesn’t even need air to breathe. You can’t kill it.”

If it wasn’t clear through everything else, Rico emphasizes here, you have to be yourself and you cannot under any circumstances sell out. From the second verse, Rico reminds us “The expression of anger is a form of rejuvenation”. I’ve been angry a lot, I’m angry most of the time. James Baldwin said, “to be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all of the time”, and luckily Rico Nasty has a song for that.

We owe it to ourselves to express our anger and our pain and our frustration.

Creation as Healing

Back to “Jawbreaker” for a second.

But I'm way too liked to die, so often express myself
Put it in a song so I don't kill myself
Listen to it back and then I heal myself

In her documentary Countin’ Up, Rico said the immortal words, “You either die or you keep going. That’s it, we don't have no other option. The world don't stop, your job don't stop, your kids don't stop, money don't stop, haters don't stop, the internet don't stop, trends don't stop…Don’t nothing fucking stop. Unless you stop, so keep it going.” So if you aren’t going to stop, what are you going to do? Express yourself, create something, be proud.

I’m not angry as I’m writing this. Maybe I’m sad. Who knows? Regardless, I’m creating. Creation is a vulnerable act. Your creation, once it’s in the world, has a life of its own. It’s up to interpretation which means it’s up to misinterpretation too. Self-expression grows increasingly important to me everyday. Fashion and writing and sometimes poetry or music are my preferred avenues of expression.

Everything I create represents me in some way and I love to see myself represented. People (or society) will hate you for anything. Bringing us back to Rico Nasty in “Sell Out”

People hate you 'cause you're different and focused
People hated me so I flipped it
And turned my emotions to something y'all could sing to

Rico said that spite is one of her biggest motivators. I let spite motivate me to. I’m antagonistic. I want to be different because I hate what’s popular and what it represents. I’m angry. I don’t want to be approached. I like music that’s angry and unapproachable. I like music that demands to be listened to on the highest volume. I like music that encourages me to be myself.

Maybe it’s because I listened to Rico Nasty in my formative years, but when I think really, really hard, I can’t come up with anything to be other than myself, and at this point, I’m so used to being myself that it really is my nature. There’s nothing else to be other than myself.

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