Rico Nasty is an underrated female MC in today’s hip-hop landscape. She likes to lean into the experimental side of the genre at times, but also has no problems going conventional either. Releasing music since 2016, the Maryland artist last put out a project in 2022 with Las Ruinas. She has been dropping some singles since that time, but her feature game is what continues to really impress as of late. Some of her standouts include “Ain’t No Way” from Denzel Curry’s Melt My Eyez See Your Future and “Pop” from BLUE LIPS. This past weekend, Rico Nasty made a small return with a new EP HARDCORE DR3AMZ.
For this three-song offering, Rico is working with an international friend of hers. Boys Noize, a German electronic and dance producer, has made tracks with her in the past called “Girl Crush” and “Money.” So, this marks the first time these two opposite talents have clashed for a project of any kind. We believe that this could be a route that Rico could do well in on a full listen.
Listen To HARDCORE DR3AMZ By Rico Nasty & Boys Noize
The up-tempo production matches the wild energy of the “Smack A B****” MC to a tee. Up until HARDCORE DR3AMZ‘s release, the duo teased the project with one track being the opener “Arintintin.” She had a lot of fun making this laid-back EP, especially the closer “H.O.T.” Rico spoke with Hypebeast, saying, “Let the haters know something and give the lurkers a show! Making this was so refreshing and reminded me that everything doesn’t have to be so serious all the time.”
What are your thoughts on this brand-new EP, HARCORE DR3AMZ, by Rico Nasty and Boys Noize? Is this the rapper’s most experimental project of his career, why or why not? What songs are you gravitating toward and why? Which song are you choosing as the best from this EP? We would like to hear what you have to say, so be sure to leave your takes in the comments section. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest news surrounding Rico Nasty. Finally, stay with us for everything the most informative project posts throughout the week.
Rico Nasty is constantly evolving. When the world first met the Maryland rapper, she was hip-deep in the “sugar trap” subgenre she’d invented — think Lil Uzi Vert’s woozy cloud rap with much more saccharine sounds. Then, she broke out with the fist-pumping rage rap anthem “Smack A Bitch.” But just when fans began to define her by that sound, she shifted again on each of her last two albums, Nightmare Vacation and Las Ruinas.
She’s doing so again on her latest project, HARDC0RE DR3AMZ, a joint EP with German producer Boys Noize. After previously working with Boys Noize on tracks like “Girl Crush” and “Money” with Flo Milli, Rico is leaning all the way into the producer’s EDM trappings on her latest, as seen in the EP’s first single “ARINTINTIN.”
And while her pivot to EDM is only a piece of a larger reclamation of the form by Black artists like Cakes Da Killa, Channel Tres, Duckwrth, and Leikeli47, Rico is naturally going to do things her own way. Uproxx reunited with our first-ever cover star via Zoom and as we vibed like a family reunion, she gave us her take on EDM, traveling, and why rage rap is now “really f*cking boring.”
Is there anything you would like for me to know about HARDC0RE DR3AMZ going into it? I would love to know how this one advances you guys’ previous collaborations, how it builds on those.
Our first song was “Girl Crush” and it was some really cool UK grime mixed with German techno. That was my first experience with Boys Noize and just dance music in general. After that, we did “Money” with Flo Milli, and obviously we did songs in between that never came out. It was super fun watching him go out and perform the song, as well, for hella people. And then it was also fun performing the song and barely have been performing the song and everybody knows it because he’s played it so many times.
I met Alex or Boys Noize through Kenny Beats, which was how I got introduced to the EDCs, the Hard Fest, going to Berlin, going to raves. And early on I tried to incorporate that into the relationships that I have with my fans, how the rave kids be like Blur and shit like that. The rave culture is all about looking out for one another and loving one another. So I try to incorporate that with the moshing and all the other shit that I do. Now, I travel a lot and do a lot of shows overseas and they still love to dance out there, so I just wanted to do something that I never did before and really dive into what that could sound like.
I’m interested to see how your fans react to it because obviously you’re known more for the thrash rap, screamo, sugar trap, that sort of thing. And this is a left turn.
Yeah, but we always do that. I mean, when everybody thought that I was sugar trap, I went rage, and now I just keep growing and liking different stuff and literally f*ck anybody who’s expecting me to make something like “Smack A Bitch” anymore. It’s been years, bro.
One thing I hate the most about music is that everybody thinks you’re just going to drop this project and never drop music again, and they don’t allow you to be an artist anymore. I’m an artist. I want to try sh*t. I want to do stuff I never did before. I’m living my life. I’m going places I’ve never been before, eating sh*t I never ate before. I’m around people I’ve never been around before. Of course, sh*t is going to be different. Because I’m a rapper, I’m going to rap, but sometimes a girl wants to have fun. Sometimes I just want to make music that’s c*nt. What’s wrong with that?
Absolutely. And you know what I think is genuinely interesting about you coming around to EDM is that I’ve noticed an industry-wide thing: Black people have come back to EDM. EDM and hip-hop have always been kind of interconnected.
Yeah. ASAP Rocky and Skrillex.
Even before that …here comes old Uncle Aaron. I’m going to tell you there was a group called the Jungle Brothers back in the ’80s. And they were mixing house in with the hip-hop, and they had a song, “I’ll House You.” And people were like, “What is this?” But hip-hop was so new, it wasn’t like, “Oh, you can only do this anymore. You can’t smile, you can’t dance, you can’t have fun.”
I think it’s the energy of it, man. Truly. Black people have been at the forefront of almost every genre. When you look back on electronic music… like, I said that ASAP Rocky song because I remember being on YouTube really heavy. That was the beginning of shit going viral. And I remember it being like two worlds colliding because at that time it was like electronic music but it was called dubstep at that time.
It’s also weird because I hear so much dubstep influence in hyperpop now. There’s a lot of young Black artists that are in hyperpop and I feel like hyperpop is damn near an art version of electronic music.
I do love the way it’s a conversation. It’s like we start something, it changes, but then when we come back to it, it’s like, “Ah, nah, we going to-
Make something new.
Yes, absolutely. With that being said, what was the criteria for the songs that made it onto this EP as opposed to ones that maybe you held onto or just cut entirely?
I feel like they had to sound like I was making dance music and not too much rapping or too wordy with lyrics to where people can’t … It’s not fun to dance to when you’re thinking so hard. I wanted catchy stuff. “Vvgina” is my favorite song on there because I always wanted to make a really, really sad song a happy song, and that’s what that is.
It’s one of those sneaky ones.
The “Pumped Up Kicks.”
Some Rico Nasty lore that we explored the last time we talked was how much we both loved anime growing up, and I had been working on this piece when Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, died. And I wanted to get you on it so bad and I just didn’t have the time to get you on it.
That would’ve been insane.
I’m just going to ask you a question that I asked everybody. If he was here, what would you want to say to him right now?
He’s a bad bitch. The baddest bitch.
So what’s something that you want people to take away from HARDC0RE DR3AMZ when they listen to it? Like the main idea?
I want them to take away that we’ve become f*cking boring. Everything is so f*cking boring, y’all, and I feel like if you’re going to have fun, whether it’s in the car by yourself or you’re going to have fun, I’ve always provided that space for us to have fun. And I feel like somewhere along this road that I’ve taken with my fans, everything just became being angry. We’re so f*cking mad all the time. We’re screaming. We’re doing all this. It’s like, “Why the f*ck? Why do I have to be like that forever?” That’s what I want them to take away from it. Let’s just vibe, man. Just vibe. Let me cook. Period.
HARDC0RE DR3AMZ is out 3/29 via Sugar Trap/Atlantic Records/Big Beat.
Rico Nasty is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Back in early 2020, Rico Nasty teamed up with German music producer Boys Noize to create the pulsating “Girl Crush.” They later reunited on Rico’s 2022 standalone single “Money” with Flo Milli, which sampled “We Want Some Pussy” by 2 Live Crew. The chemistry they developed through those collaborations continues with their new single, “ARINTINTIN.” The loopy, upbeat dance floor stomper is the first single from the duo’s upcoming joint EP, HARDC0RE DR3AMZ, which they announced today with the single’s release.
The eclectic EP will mash up Boys Noize’s throwback Euro-EDM style with Rico’s freewheeling Y2K aesthetics, the perfect combination for today’s nostalgic zeitgeist.
Between Rico and Boys Noize’s last collaboration, the iconoclastic Maryland rapper kept smashing through musical boundaries with releases like her Las Ruinas album, Missy Elliott-sampling single “Freak,” last spring’s Monster Energy Tour, which she headlined, and “Turn It Up.”
Rico took some time off last autumn, but it looks like she’s only come back more energized than ever. In the press release announcing her new project, she said, “Every session was so much fun and I’m sure that energy is felt across all of these tracks. One of my favorite songs on the project is… all of them. That’s why she is so short!! Talk to you later and see you guys soon.”
HARDC0RE DR3AMZ is out 3/29 via Sugar Trap/Atlantic Records/Big Beat.
Rico Nasty is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
