Devin Desouza
Audio By Carbonatix
It was back in 2019 when we last saw Rico Nasty in concert.
This was around the time she collaborated with producer Kenny Beats for their collaborative mixtape Anger Management. At the show in New York, she threw feather pillows for fans to pillow fight with during “Rage.”
Six years later, Rico feels like she’s still the same person. People grow up, and so did she. But she realizes some of her new fans aren’t like the mosh pit enthusiasts of before, telling the Observer about how the LETHAL Tour is going.
From a performer’s standpoint, she enjoys seeing how everyone is reacting to her new songs from LETHAL, which came out in May.
“I do feel like there is a sense of something that is missing. I don’t really know what it is,” she explains. “The new fans are terrified. They have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. They’re getting to the shows. They’re freaking out. They’re like, ‘Wait. They’re moshing.’ It’s a little odd to see.”
She loves the looks on their faces when she calls upon her fans to start mosh pitting because they slowly give in. Her reserved fans could be a generational thing, preferring to get their phones out to capture a viral video than to let loose and have fun. They could be going through something personal and come to Rico’s shows to detach from reality for a few hours. “Maybe I’m just getting old, I don’t know,” she says, remembering the days of smaller capacity rooms. “Maybe what’s missing is that it’s not as intimate as it was before, but it is definitely different. Maybe when we get to Dallas, Dallas [is] going to turn me the fuck up and show them how the fuck it’s done.”
Rico Nasty’s LETHAL Tour Setlist
On Oct. 28, Rico Nasty’s Dallas fans are going to rage hard for her first show at The Bomb Factory. We called it a punk show back then, but this mature version of Rico is going to give a balance of both. It’s still going to be more punky than before, she says, but she is incorporating slower songs. However, she’s changing the setlist from time to time to match the mood of each city.
LETHAL is an album that’s showing all sides of Rico: the performer, the mother and the adult. She’ll always be Rico Nasty, one of the pioneers of rage rap in 2018, seeing her contributions overlap through artists like Molly Santana, who are inspired by her in 2025. She needed to evolve in order to make an album like LETHAL, recalling a time when she saw herself in the mirror and didn’t like the way she dressed. “I dressed like a fucking 18-year-old raver at like 26 and it was just getting tired,” she says.
merald Arguelles
More specifically, LETHAL is shedding the former “sugar trap” era that made her a household name and embracing her beauty. “I want to be sexy,” she says, adding that she wants to have more “sexy moments.” “In the process of making the album, I’ve started working out and taking my health more seriously. And acknowledging who I am underneath makeup and without makeup, which is a huge part of womanhood in general. Being in the public eye for so long, you get to a point where you don’t even know what your fucking face looks like. You’ve seen all these bad angles, you’ve seen these images of you with makeup and all this shit, you don’t even know what you look like anymore. I feel like I stripped everything away.”
When you do a hard reset like Rico did, it means she’s changing as an artist. Don’t mistake her for switching up genres completely; she’s still a hip-hop artist. You just can’t box her into one genre. She’s exploring rock more and loves her new label home, Fueled by Ramen, the same record company that birthed Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Paramore and Gym Class Heroes in the 2000s.
Some days, she’ll feel like doing a metal, punk record. Other days, she’s back to rapping. “I just do whatever feels right. I fuck with people who just let me do that,” she says. “My fans let me do all these different genres and try shit, and I’m just very blessed that they let me do that. At my core, I will always be a rapper, and I’ll always be your rock star. I think it’s just an even blend.”
Rico Nasty Confirms LETHAL Deluxe Album
She’s teasing a deluxe version of LETHAL, which will be an additional five to six songs. “Rock is fairly new to me. So I’d rather learn as much as I can than just come out tomorrow with a fucking rock album,” she says. “I want to study the craft the same way that I did hip-hop. And that’s why I’m taking my time. I’ve been learning guitar. I’ve been really learning about instruments and what they do to a song.”
“At the end of the day, that album really helped me to see what I do for music. People are coming for the ‘Son of a Gun.’ It’s not about the ‘On the Low.’ ‘On the Low’ is cool. It’s a great fucking record, but when they’re coming to the shows, what’s the one they want to hear?” she continued. “Immediately after the album came out, something clicked. I don’t know if they’re gonna get that half and half vibe on this deluxe, I think it’s gonna be straight what they want.”
Rico jokes that she’s the “weird, emo cousin in the rap world” who doesn’t get involved in beefs with other women and stays out of the way. In hip-hop’s past, there used to be only one female rapper who dominated at the top. Things are different for Rico’s generation. Her peers are Doja Cat (“Tia Tamera”), Doechii (“Swamp Bitches”) and Megan Thee Stallion (“Scary”), collaborating with each of them. Individually, they could all be called the queen of rap, but they choose to share the spotlight so everybody can wear a crown. “There will never be that again,” she says. “It will never just be one. That’s also important in regards to community and realizing, ‘Oh shit, nobody really cares that much. There will always be more of us. Maybe let’s not be so mad and angry at each other.’ We’re literally rich as fuck. What do we have to be mad about? What is there to be upset about or jealous about?”
Rico’s confidence comes from her new beginnings. There’s a huge weight off her shoulders now that she’s saying yes instead of no or maybe to things. She left her old team, a years-long relationship and her former label. You can tell she’s much happier because of it.
“I’m way more confident. I feel beautiful. I feel smart. I feel like the world is my oyster. I single-handedly thought this shit up in my room and now, I live it,” she says. “I live the life that I created for myself. I couldn’t be prouder of myself.”
Now, isn’t she glad she didn’t have to smack a bitch today?
“Oh, I still have to smack bitches, my God,” she says. “I’ll never have to stop smacking bitches.”
Rico Nasty, with special guest Sadboi, will perform on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m. at The Bomb Factory, 2713 Canton St. All ages. Tickets are available starting at $44.86 on axs.com.
