BY SOFIA LUCIANO SANTIAGO
New Orleans artist 504ICYGRL stands alone as rap’s finest “504 Princess” from the Westbank of New Orleans.
She describes her music as bouncy; as her voice pierces through the bass of a trap or bounce beat, you get sugar, spice, and everything nice with hardness, cool, and personal storytelling.
504ICYGRL said she tells the story of her lived experiences through her music, recounting both difficult and beautiful moments throughout her entire discography.
“Real-life situations inspire my music. Traveling, doing things that I’m looking forward to,” said 504ICYGRL.
504ICYGRL first started making music when she moved to Los Angeles in 2018 by herself. The move from New Orleans to Los Angeles awakened a different hunger inside of her, leading to the release of her first project “Trap Etiquette” in 2019.
“I was going through a lot and part of my coping skills was music and I started recording,” said 504ICYGRL.
“Trap Etiquette” proved to be one of the most important projects off of 504ICYGRL’s beginnings, as it gave her the opportunity to present herself to the world as an artist in her official debut.
“I made that project before I knew how to structure anything, I was just putting it out there. I was rapping about what I was doing at the time which was selling drugs in California, and all the things that I learned and I just put that into a project and dropped it. But right after I dropped that project I disappeared for a year. It made me learn as an artist to never do that again in life, and ever since then, I've been consistent as hell. I dropped that project when I was at the height of my career, that's when labels were hitting me up. I dropped a project, I disappeared, and it taught me to never do that. Losing that consistency is huge,” said ICYGRL.
After Trap Etiquette, the New Orleans-born artist and entrepreneur released her second project “Zazaland” with hit singles like bounce song “Hello Kitty” featuring CeeFineAss, and bass heavy “Ikky”.
As 504ICYGRL released new projects, the buzz from other labels looking to sign her began flying. But the artist, had another dream, one where she could stay independent and create what she wants, whenever she wants.
“Me and Poppy founded Krewe Da Label together, we really founded it because New Orleans doesn't have many Hip-Hop labels. Poppy was coming as an artist off of Young Money but he wanted to start his own thing, and I’m always down to start a business. So we got together and started it to just sign ourselves and treat this as a business. Then it eventually evolved to us finding other artists like Popstar Slime and vibed with him and he joined the team. I was just building a family,” said 504ICYGRL.
2022 has been an incredible year for the 504 Princess with the release of her EP “Princess Diaries”, her first nationwide tour, The Princess Diaries tour, and her most recent collaboration with Nike.
“Princess Diaries came from the thought of me kind of getting myself together and telling the story of that year, last year, and the beginning of this year. I was speaking on real-life experience in every song and I could tell you what situation made me write that song,” said 504ICYGRL.
Princess Diaries is a project where she focused on highlighting and celebrating female rap and women empowerment, featuring all female rappers throughout the project like in the song “Swipe” featuring Detroit rapper Vae Vanilla.
“Work is my favorite song off Princess Diaries, and it taught me a lot about sampling and all types of shit. But “Work” had to be dropped from the EP. My second favorite would be swipe which I worked on with a Detroit rapper, Vae Vanilla. Working with her was amazing, I was just sad we couldn't do it in person. Hopefully, we meet up and shoot the video. I hit up a lot of women to be a part of that project.” said 504ICYGRL.
Some of her biggest inspirations are celebrated throughout her music.
“My biggest inspirations are La Poppy, Im really into Rico Nasty, a lot of producers really, and business people that I know, that don't even make music but im inspired by them. I liked to tap into Nicki Minaj’s influence growing up,” said 504ICYGRL.
504ICYGRL celebrated a highlight in her career in 2022 with her collaboration with Nike in celebration of New Orleans culture and the 40th anniversary of G Nikes, a staple shoe for the community in Louisiana.
“I feel like it really is a part of my legend story. They had an event and all my people came. I cry about it because it was so special. Y’all im an emotional person so don't mind me,” said 504ICYGRL.
504ICYGRL said she's inspired to continue creating music and other ventures for the future she wants to leave in this world for her family and community in New Orleans.
“Thinking about my little sisters and the kids they're gonna have and the kids im going to have, Just really thinking about the future and to want to leave something,” said 504ICYGRL.
The future for the 504 Princess is as bright as her spirit and smile, in the future, she hopes to release some of the recent singles and projects she has been working on.
From TBD Issue 3: 'AGE OF RESILIENCE', Available Now!
CREATIVE DIRECTION BY LAURYN HINTON
MAKEUP BY ELIZA DELASOUL
STYLING/FASHION DESIGN: DONAKA KATHERINE
STYLING ASSISTANT: LISA
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