How Ya Like Me Now
As her star energy shines past hip-hop, Sexyy Purple is targeted on blocking out the haters and having fun with the wild experience of fame at her personal velocity.
Interview: Stacy-Ann Ellis
Editor’s Be aware: This story seems within the Summer time 2024 subject of XXL Journal, on stands now.
Sexyy Purple is on the transfer. On the finish of Could, the St. Louis rapper strutted into Orlando’s WWE NXT ring to a crowd chanting her gas-me-up song-of-the-summer contender, “Get It Sexyy.” The lead single from her In Sexyy We Belief mixtape, launched that very same month, scored Sexyy her first high 10 on the Billboard Scorching R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and have become her first high 20 hit on the Billboard Scorching 100 as a solo artist. As she speaks for this interview on Zoom shortly after her wrestling debut, Sexyy is en path to the studio to cook dinner up one other hit along with her “Wealthy Child Daddy” collaborator, Drake, to maintain the momentum going. “I’m outdoors, I assume,” she jokes in response to foregoing bedtimes today.
For the polarizing rap sensation born Janae Wherry, it’s solely going up from right here and quick. Sexyy’s Ghetto Celebrity (2021) and Hood Hottest Princess (2023) initiatives and their breakaway singles (“SkeeYee,” “Pound City,” “Trying For The Hoes (Ain’t My Fault)”) have made their marks. There’s promise of a joint album along with her day-one producer, Tay Keith, however there’s nonetheless her debut album to launch. A photograph on Sexyy Purple’s Instagram story in Could confirmed a studio session with a whiteboard that included songs that includes Cardi B, Latto, Ice Spice, GloRilla, JT and extra. Whereas Sexyy is tight-lipped in regards to the mission, one thing’s brewing.
There’s all the time stuff occurring in Sexyy Purple’s nook. The 26-year-old rhymer is unapologetically herself, and it reveals from social media to her sexually express rhymes. She’s complained that she was turned away from visiting children at a faculty for smelling like weed this previous April, has supported Donald Trump prior to now, and even had a MAGA-hat-inspired prop with the phrases “Make America Sexyy Once more” on stage throughout a efficiency in June and acquired blended reactions. Sexyy insisted on X, previously referred to as Twitter, that very same month that she doesn’t endorse any presidential candidate.
Regardless of weighty expectations, speculations in regards to the causes for her success and naysayers, Sexyy is shifting at her personal tempo, staying true to who she is, and simply having enjoyable with it—all this whereas being a mom of two. From dodging trade mess, to her hidden singing voice, to how her Drake collab “U My The whole lot” morphed from a hood love anthem to the redefinition of “BBL Drizzy,” Sexyy Purple takes inventory of this second in time. Take it or depart it.
XXL: You’re contemporary off making your WWE NXT debut, and also you’ll be internet hosting NXT Battleground in Las Vegas. How did it really feel being within the ring, tag-teaming with wrestlers Je’Von Evans and Trick Williams?
Sexyy Purple: It was enjoyable and thrilling. It introduced me again to back-in-the-day instances, like watching TV, however now I’m standing there in entrance of those individuals actually speaking to them. It’s loopy.
Your complete crowd was screaming your identify, utterly totally different from the faces you would possibly count on at your reveals. There’s even a video of teeny boppers going as much as “Get It Sexyy” at promenade. Would you say your star energy is shifting past hip-hop?
Sure, positively. I assume they like my character, so it opened different lanes for me.
Was reaching all these various pockets of followers a part of the plan?
No, I wasn’t planning on that. It makes me proud. I simply be comfortable seeing individuals just like the stuff I really like and I make.
Earlier this 12 months, you advised The Breakfast Membership that you just don’t really feel like a celeb. Are you beginning to really feel like one now?
Uh-uh. I nonetheless really feel regular. The way in which I reside my life, I nonetheless reside like a standard particular person, however I simply do some stuff. I’m regular and I’ve a rapper life, so I do each.
What does regular seem like?
Once I’m in my rap mode, I’m in all probability gonna experience in a black truck or a pleasant automobile. But when I’m simply being common, I’ll in all probability get in a Monte Carlo or one thing. I’m below the radar. I don’t reside like a rapper. If I don’t gotta go to the studio then I’m simply residing common, for actual.
Is preserving that steadiness vital to you, regardless that you’re clearly turning into this large star?
It made me who I used to be. It may very well be vital to remain like that since you wanna attraction to your supporters, however I’m not even making an attempt to do it for them. I’m doing it for me. So if I evolve, then I evolve, however I’m not making an attempt to do nothing for no person else.
Talking of evolving, it felt such as you branched out together with your sound between Hood Hottest Princess and In Sexyy We Belief. How’d you modify the method?
To me, it’s extra totally different vibes on there. Normally I am going for “hood ratchet,” I assume. This time it was extra singing songs on there. It was all several types of genres.
Is there an album within the works, and with it, will that path change once more?
I simply actually glide, nonetheless I’m feeling. I don’t attempt to be like, “This particular tape’s gonna be about this.” If I really feel like, That’s an excellent music and I feel they’ll prefer it, I’ll sit with my crew, too. They’ll inform me songs they like. I’ll inform them songs I like. We simply put them collectively.
In your Instagram story in Could, there was a dry-erase board with what seemed like a tracklist on it. Was that the album? Will any of these songs be on there?
Is it gonna be on the place?
The subsequent mission, which seemed like an album. There have been 19 songs on the board with options written down.
So that you noticed the board the place it wasn’t scratched off?
Yeah, and it had names like Cardi B, GloRilla, JT, Ice Spice, Latto, Kodak Black…
Nah, I ain’t saying names. I’m saying, so you possibly can see the names on the board, just like the names of the songs?
Yeah.
Oh, as a result of them the songs which can be on the mission that I simply dropped like per week in the past.
OK, so what’s the subsequent mission, then? That board had names and titles on it that weren’t on In Sexyy We Belief. You in all probability have dope stuff with the rap ladies within the chamber.
That didn’t don’t have anything to do with that board. That board was my crew placing collectively some concepts that they had they usually got here and introduced it to me and I gave them my opinion. That’s how that went.
Alright then. So, one of many extra playful songs on In Sexyy We Belief is “U My The whole lot,” with you and Drake rapping over Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” beat. How’d that music come to be?
Did you hear the music?
Yeah, it was enjoyable. You had been getting in your singing bag on the hook.
To me, I wasn’t even singing. I simply was speaking. I used to be rapping. Folks would name it singing, however
I wasn’t making an attempt to sing. I used to be simply taking part in. Identical to an individual just isn’t a singer after which they only get on the music and hum on the music, that’s all I used to be doing. I wasn’t making an attempt to essentially sing.
So, you’re saying you’ve bought an actual hidden singing voice again there.
I do. I feel I do. I feel I understand how to sing, for actual. Like if I actually attempt, I do know I’d have an excellent voice.
What’s stopping you?
I’ve been fascinated about taking singing classes.
For those who may collaborate with somebody on a singing album or music, who’s in your record?
I like Summer time Walker. I did a music with Summer time. I like Drake. I did a music with Brent Faiyaz. I don’t know, I like loads of totally different stuff. However the way in which the [“U My Everything”] music took place was as a result of me and Chief Keef had been speaking and he was saying that I ought to do an R&B music.
As quickly as I went to the studio, I performed a beat and we knew what to say. I recorded the music, I freestyled it within the sales space, despatched it to Sosa and he liked it. He was gonna ship the verse again, however he advised me he was caught. My mission was gonna drop, so I ain’t had no selection however to consider any individual else I may placed on that. Drake was finna get on one other music, however he wasn’t feeling the music he was presupposed to go on both. Then I simply began sending him each music off my tape besides the one I knew me and Chief was finna do.
After Sosa mentioned he couldn’t do “U My The whole lot,” and Drake wanted a distinct music as a result of not one of the songs on the tape was his vibe, “I mentioned, you wanna attempt ‘U My The whole lot’?” He’s like, “Yeah, I’ll try this one.” It was a complete bunch of individuals presupposed to get on the music, however Drake was the one which ended up actually doing it and sending his verse again. We despatched it to loads of hood individuals—folks that was in Chief Keef’s bracket, like 21 Savage—however we ended up going with the true singing model. That made the music a distinct vibe.
It seems like that’s what it was presupposed to be. The proper comfortable accident.
Yeah, I used to be considering that, too. Like, y’all solely heard the completed product. I type of had an perspective as a result of I needed it to be a hood love music, like gangsta. But it surely was a singing music as soon as me and Drake was on there singing. Perhaps it was meant for him to get on that music. The whole lot occurs for a cause.
Did you comply with the meat data going back-and-forth with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross and a few others? Is that one thing you take note of?
I simply do me. I’m not for the drama. I simply do my music and keep out the way in which. I’m not on this highschool sh*t the place I’m beefing with individuals. If a b**ch diss me, I’m not even gonna acknowledge the b**ch on the observe. I’ll act like I ain’t even see the sh*t. I don’t even need all people saying, “Oh, now Sexyy Purple’s beefing with…” No, I’m not even gonna let no person know what’s occurring.
Joe Budden implied on The Joe Budden Podcast in March that Drake makes cash off artist’s offers, and mentioned why else would he be hanging out with Sexyy Purple a lot. You waved it off as “dumb” on X, however what do you actually suppose?
Why would I’ve to pay any individual to hang around with me? That’s mainly what he was saying. He was saying we pay Drake to advertise us and do that, this and that, and hang around with me. To show me up. Me paying any individual to hang around with me is loopy.
Have you learnt why he would possibly’ve made that remark? The place would he even get that from?
He’s simply being a hater. I assume it’s one thing in direction of me, ’trigger they are saying him and Drake cool. Drake and him comply with one another and every part, however I assume it’s me. He don’t suppose no person wanna hang around with me or one thing.
To be clear, is there any enterprise attachment or enterprise curiosity with Drake in any respect?
Hell no. We simply buddies. That’s my wealthy child daddy, for actual. If I name him, I want one thing, he gonna do it. If I name him and ask as a result of I’m operating low on some cash—that ain’t by no means occurred—however I’m simply saying, I do know he would try this for me. That’s an excellent buddy.
Now that you just’re six years into rapping, do you suppose persons are beginning to perceive the foundation of who Sexyy Purple is and why you make the strikes and music you do?
They’re beginning to perceive me a bit of bit, however I actually don’t care in the event that they don’t as a result of when you get it, you get it. For those who don’t, you don’t. Whoever meets me and we click on, meaning they perceive me. They perceive the place I come from. However when you don’t, meaning you’re making an attempt to study or determine it out. However that’ll take you to take a seat again and see, “Why does she act like this? The place does she come from?” I got here from one thing totally different from you, so I’m not gonna act the way in which you act or the way you count on me to behave. The folks that don’t get it, they wasn’t raised like me, so now they gotta determine it out.
Is it that they overlook why you do what you do? Like final 12 months if you went to a highschool to offer boys cash for promenade haircuts and bundles for the ladies. It appeared like a disruption, however there was a real cause why.
Precisely. Y’all frightened in regards to the improper stuff. Y’all frightened about the truth that Sexyy Purple got here to the varsity. They’re not frightened about what I got here to do. They simply suppose it’s loopy. I used to be going to high school, and I used to be the identical means. They act like there ain’t individuals on the college that act identical to me.
Are you able to perceive why they may be hesitant or journey over some appearances? Since at this age and on this period, children could be impressionable.
No, I don’t. I imply, generally. I ain’t gonna lie and act like I don’t be tripping as a result of generally I be tripping. However I’m simply expressing myself.
Typically individuals have a extra inflexible lens of what’s thought-about “performing up.” Like one other highschool that lately turned you away for smelling like weed. Somewhere else, which will really feel like nothing as a result of it’s authorized.
It’s authorized the place we’re from. We was in St. Louis, and in St. Louis, weed is authorized. However she [the administrator] was mendacity on me, anyway. Simply ’trigger I’m in a bunch with individuals, that don’t imply you might simply flip me round since you’re saying my group of individuals smells like weed. I simply had a child. How you understand I’m the one smoking? That was simply on some hating sh*t. You could possibly have turned my crew round, however I got here to do my due, you understand? The youngsters wanna see me.
So, what’s subsequent for you?
I’m on the studio. I’m over right here finna document a Drake document now.
In a 12 months of some fairly noteworthy highs, have there been any challenges you’ve needed to conquer as properly? You’re a famous person, however you’re nonetheless human.
Yeah. I imply, for me, stuff be private. If I’m overcoming some challenges, it’s private stuff. Like, dang my children, or stuff like that. That’s the one stuff I fear about as a result of I wanna be with my children.
Shout-out to you. A mama and a working girl.
Precisely.
Chris Allmeid
Learn Sexyy Purple’s interview within the Freshman subject, on newsstands now. Along with interviews with the 2024 Freshman Class and producer Southside, there are additionally conversations with Mustard, Ski Masks The Hunch God, Rubi Rose, Ken Carson, Ghostface Killah, Lola Brooke and extra, plus, a glance again at what the 2023 XXL Freshman Class has been doing. Additionally, there are tales on the continuing scamming and fraud plaguing hip-hop, and the way podcasters and streamers are taking part in a serious position in rap beef. The difficulty is on sale right here, together with some unique Freshman merch.
See the 2024 XXL Freshman Class Artists and Producer
