WAX Features – Rasheeda

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ARTIST Q&A
by Ural Garrett

Atlanta Female MC says that she’s all about empowering women and showing confidence through her rhymes

Atlanta MC Rasheeda has been making huge noise as an independent rapper. While she started as one-third of rap group Da Kaperz, she went solo in 2000 and has released a slew of well received albums including her most recent, Certified Hot Chick.

On Wax: So who is Rasheeda?
Rasheeda: I am an uh…. Do we have enough time? I am an independent; confident black women who is pursuing her dreams and goals. I am strong; a mother; entertainer, hip hop artists/ business woman who goes hard in the paint.

On Wax: You’ve been in the game for a while taking over the Atlanta scene. How did you get your buzz so big in Atlanta?
Rasheeda: You know it’s just me being out there, staying consistent, and putting out music mixtape wise. Keeping myself out there and just really developing a name for myself. It takes a lot of time when you’re trying to build something and not just become the type of artist that has to force something down your throat to make you like them. I’ve really been in the hood and in the trenches and just trying to build a real organic fanbase. So I’ve just been staying consistent so that I can really go hard.

On Wax: Explain your journey throughout your career and how you got into music.
Rasheeda: I had a love for music from the rip but I met some girls a long time ago named Kia and Kiki. They were dancing and had a love for music as well and we became really close friends. We always danced, kicked it and loved listening to music. We loved doing music. We weren’t really sure what we wanted to do and we wanted to entertain. So we all decided to put some songs together and form a rap group because we all loved to rap. So we did that and it just grew. We keep at it and keep at it so by 1998, we were these little teeny bopper running around with these baggy clothes. We were called Da Kaperz and developed a buzz. We went to all the talent shows and dance competitions around Atlanta and started building a name for ourselves.

Finally we met with Frost of D-Lo Entertainment from where I’m signed to myself. He was like when I start this label I want yall to sign with us because I see yall grinding and doing yall thing. So as soon as he got his stuff together he really signed us. We dropped our first independent album in 98 and kinda did our thing for a next year or so then we decided to go our separate ways. We started growing up and deciding what we wanted to do. Some of use wanted to do other things like going to college and stuff. At that point, I decided to go solo and that’s where it all started.

On Wax: You released Certified Hot Chick last year and it’s still a hot record this year. Talk about the album and what should listeners expect?
Rasheeda: Certified Hot Chick was released in August of last year and it was just an album that I put together. It’s something that I feel really good about. It’s like sexy, confident woman music. It’s fully of anthems and empowering music. I go from being in different relationship issues to talking about being a strong black women doing music and going after what she wants. It’s available on Amazon , Itunes and Rhapsody. I finished my the video for “Don’t Let Him Get Away” featuring Cherish. I recently dropped the Boss Bitch Music mixtape and I’m currently working on a new album right now also.

On Wax: So talk about the Boss Bitch Music mixtape and the upcoming album.
Rasheeda: The mixtape is available everywhere. It’s really really in the street heavy and getting crazy response. I did a “Say Something” “I Wanna Rock” and “Bedrock” remix. The new album, I will officially drop a single for it soon.

On Wax: Speaking on the “Bedrock” remix, did you think it was going to get the response that it got?
Rasheeda: I said, “Ok I want to do a different remix.” So I called all of my home-girls up like Diamond, Kandi, Lola and Toya. After we did it and after I saw how it turned out, I said lets make a video to it because I was so happy of how things turned out. The response of course was really good. I wasn’t sure exactly how the response was going to turn out but I felt like I liked it a lot. I loved how we came together as women doing our thing, doing the video, having fun and enjoyed doing everything. I wanted people to see women out here hustling working hard which hadn’t been done like that in a long time.

On Wax: How did Toya get involved with the song and video?
Rasheeda: I was in the studio with Toya when she did her verse. She had wanted to rap a little here and there but she just didn’t pursue it. So I was like “you going to rap on this.” So she did it and knocked it out. She did really well.

On Wax: How did you hook up with Kandi?
Rasheeda: I’ve known Kandi before she was in Xscape. We’ve been friends for a hella long time. I was working on a previous album and we hadn’t worked together in years. She was working with producer Don Vito, who had done a track for me, and Kandi had done a hook on it. I liked it immediately, wrote my verses, went in the studio, recorded it and Kandi came to the session. Our chemistry was so off the chain. We were just vibe-ing so much to where Vito was saying that we should form a group. We did that and ended up recording like 15-20 records. The relationship just got tighter and tighter and we have a project that we will be dropping eventually. The name of the group is called Peach Candy.

On Wax: How is the Peach Candy project coming along?
Rasheeda: We’re constantly doing music together. She’s on my Boss Bitch music mixtape and I’m on her upcoming album but the Peach Candy album, I don’t know yet. It’s us trying to find time to knock it out but with Kandi doing the Housewives show and me running around, we just really have to find the time to make an album. We do plan on dropping something.