There’s no question that 2023 was Sexyy Red’s breakthrough year thanks to her provocative but equally catchy hits like “Pound Town” and “SkeeYee.”
However, the 25-year-old confessed to Billboard that she isn’t sure about her music being put under the “pussy rap” category.
As defined by journalist Robyn Mowatt, “pussy rap” refers to a subgenre of rap “where women embrace their sexual prowess.” Per Mowatt, the subgenre dates back to the '90s thanks to rap trailblazers like Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, and Missy Elliott. In more recent years, artists like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and the City Girls have been ushering in a new era of women with bolder and raunchier singles.
“I don’t agree with that [classification], because why is that the only thing you heard me talking about?” Sexyy Red told Billboard’s Kyle Denis.
“That’s the only thing that you got out of everything I just said? You just heard me say ‘coochie’? I hate when they say that. I just rap about my daily life. Girls that live like me, I just rap about what we go through. I don’t sit and talk about coochie all day.”
Denis notes that Sexyy has a point and cites the lyrics from the track, “Free My N***a.” In the song, she raps, “When I don’t hear from my n***a, I write him / He a bad boy, I don’t care, that’s how I like ‘em / Yeah, free my n***a ‘til it’s backwards / Fuck the police, fuck the pigs, they some bastards.”
Regardless of how Sexyy or anyone classifies her music, the St. Louis rapper’s newfound fame is not lost on her.
“They be calling me Michael Jackson,” said the rapper in a separate video interview with the music magazine. “I just be like ‘Okay, whatever.’ But I guess they saying [that] because the influence I have on people.”
It’s clear that the self-proclaimed Hood Hottest Princess’ charms worked on Drake, who brought her out to open up for a string of shows for his It’s All A Blur Tour last year. Shortly after, Sexyy embarked on her own headlining tour despite becoming pregnant with her second child.
“Touring was stressful at first, because nobody knew I was pregnant, I’d be in the bedroom trying to suck my stomach in or wear clothes to show I wasn’t. It hurt to just be onstage all day holding your stomach. It’s hard to hide it,” said Sexyy.
She continued, “Being pregnant is stressful; it wears your body down. I was tired, but I tried to hide it as much as you possibly could. I like to have a personal life. I’m already famous or whatever, so everything be out there. I be trying to have something to myself that I could keep. Just go home and be with my son and my family. That’s the reason I was hiding.”
Last week, Sexyy gave fans an update about her pregnancy, saying she’s “ready to pop.”
"I cannot wait to have this baby. O-M-G," she said in a video shared on social media. "I'm gettin' so thick in these streets. When I drop, Imma be a whole new Sexyy Red. That bitch from 2023, she was cool. This new Sexyy Red... Super thick, super pretty, get money, you know... Just that."
