The Raging Queen: Rico Nasty
Written by Quenton Redding on January 24, 2019
Maria Kelly is a 21-year-old rapper based out of Brooklyn, New York, better known as the BK. Her ragers know her as Rico Nasty, and her style is something that was missing in hip-hop. With the rise of the punk rock era in hip-hop, she showed the world that women are ragers too. She showed that woman can get down and dirty in the mosh pits and that it’s not a man’s game. 2018 was a promising year in the music industry for women as many made big moves on the charts or in sales, and Rico Nasty took advantage of this by putting out arguably one of the best projects last year with Nasty. Rico steps over the stereotypes for a female artist that the industry sets like being a sex symbol or being vulnerable. Rico is neither of these stereotypes- she’s just herself. She’s more edgy and rough which is a compliment to her style of rap and performances. Robb Bank$ even noticed her presence as he compared her style to his.
If you’ve never seen Rico Nasty perform live, I suggest you do because I promise you it will probably be one of the most entertaining rap performances you’ve ever seen. The title tracks like “Rage” or “Countin’ Up” describe the way the crowd reacts to her energy- pure rage. You can tell she was an Avril Lavigne & Hayley Williams fan growing up. Her outfits, makeup, hair, pretty much everything about her appearance is very eye-catching and hard to ignore. Hopefully, her success in the industry can influence more female artists to come into the industry with their own creative style, taste, and sound. At the same time, they can prove to these record labels that female artists can have their own style and sound besides the typical ones we see and hear in hip-hop today. Labels can sign and back them as they do their male artists!
In 2018, she showed that she is versatile and can dip into different sounds, so 2019 could be a hot year for Rico Nasty to fully hit her full potential. She continues to work with amazing producers & artists like Kenny Beats, Lil Yachty, Aminé, Earl Sweatshirt, Tay Keith and many more. A dream project from her would be a collab project with Kenny Beats as they have undeniable chemistry, or her working with Robb Banks & Lil Uzi Vert. She seems to be working on new material, and hopefully, we will receive it at some point this year. Check out a snippet below.
