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Rico Nasty, born Melissa Marie Benfield, is an Atlanta-based rapper who got her start on Vine. As a teenager, she posted hilarious, often explicit, videos of her and her friends on Vine, which later got her discovered by a local Atlanta rap group, called PWD.
She later went on to be a featured artist on PWD’s single “Came Thru/Easily” and caught the attention of Atlanta based record label, Quality Control.
Rico Nasty then went on to release her debut mixtape, Nasty, which was released in June 2018. On September 21st, Rico released her debut EP, Sugar Trap, which peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
Best Rico Nasty Quotes
“Once I found art, it was a wrap.”― Rico Nasty
“I don’t want to be that stereotypical black girl that’s mad all the time.”― Rico Nasty
“At the end of the day, you have a side of the story that needs to be heard, too.”― Rico Nasty
“I used to play Joan Jett all the time. Then, the movie ‘The Runaways’ came out. It was a wrap from there.”― Rico Nasty
“Why still be pretty and all that when there’s so many girly female rappers already? You can be a rock star instead.”― Rico Nasty
“I met Yachty through Twitter early 2015.”― Rico Nasty
“I want to bring more structure into my shows sometimes but honestly, people have told me they like the randomness and how crazy it gets.”― Rico Nasty
“It’s just amazing being a parent, being a little nervous at first, but then everything falls into place naturally.”― Rico Nasty
“You gotta be very positive. It helps. It really does.”― Rico Nasty
“I’m a little bit scared of everything. It’s kind of funny. Whenever people ask me how I’m feeling, I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I’m scared. I’m nervous.’”― Rico Nasty
“The name Rico Nasty came from Instagram.”― Rico Nasty
“When I first knew that I wanted to rap I was seven years old and I lost the talent show. It was like spoken word or something. My mom made me do it. It was a Langston Hughes poem. The girl that came on after me, she wound up winning. She was a singer.”― Rico Nasty
“The first time my dad ever heard my mixtape it was ‘Summer’s Eve,’ and he was fresh out of jail. And he’d be in jail for like damn near two years.”― Rico Nasty
“I love when people are just naturally happy people.”― Rico Nasty
“Yachty is very wise.”― Rico Nasty
“Earl Sweatshirt is very wise.”― Rico Nasty
“Tierra Whack is very wise.”― Rico Nasty
“Growing up, my mom always knew that I was more on the Black side than the Spanish side, just because I didn’t speak Spanish.”― Rico Nasty
“When I started making music, I figured the name Rico Nasty would give a background of who I am.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like I get a variety of people in my crowd. Because of that, there’s a nice amount of Hispanic people and Latinos that come to my shows. There’s also a really big amount of Black and White people.”― Rico Nasty
“Whenever I’m around Spanish people, I’m kind of like a fly on the wall.”― Rico Nasty
“The scene in the DMV now is very united. I don’t know if it’s for everybody but everybody is showing love, everybody is showing support. Everybody is just trying to make a name for themselves and they are willing to help other people. Everybody is willing to network and do things with people outside of who they know.”― Rico Nasty
“I describe my sound as sugar trap, that’s not really a description that’s really who I am, that’s my swag, that’s how I talk and walk.”― Rico Nasty
“Tales of Tacobella’ showed that I can rap.”― Rico Nasty
“I grew up listening to Bob Marley, Jill Scott, Floetry, Nas, Jay-Z, Beyonce.”― Rico Nasty
“I’m actually a true lyricist.”― Rico Nasty
“I plan to break the barriers that people try to trap female rappers in. This isn’t about ‘Oh she sounds good for a female rapper,’ it’s about ‘Yo, she sounds really good on this and can really rap!’”― Rico Nasty
“I went with Atlantic because I got a lawyer to look at my contract and my contract was fire.”― Rico Nasty
“I stopped making music for other people.”― Rico Nasty
“I’ve never been the type of person to put myself in a box.”― Rico Nasty
“It’s very important when you in the studio to be with a confident creative.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like what motivates me is what would motivate the regular average person.”― Rico Nasty
“Everything’s a battle.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like what I’m bringing to the table that’s different is like not just consistency in the music but consistency in the creativity, consistency in the visuals, in the fashion, participation with the fans and things that I give them and merch and stuff like that. And I’m very active with them.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like being a 2020 XXL Freshman is just, it’s important for me because not too many women can say they’ve… gotten anything like this, not too many people from where I come from can say that they’ve gotten anything like this.”― Rico Nasty
“I got expelled from high school my freshman year.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel very open to trying new things.”― Rico Nasty
“I love Rihanna.”― Rico Nasty
“I love Beyonce. I feel like Beyonce is the final form of a person. Like, you gotta get to your Beyonce stage in life. That’s your final form as a human.”― Rico Nasty
“I thought I’d be famous for being cute.”― Rico Nasty
“I’m like pixie grunge. The perfect blend of sugar and spice.”― Rico Nasty
“I like music where someone is trying to get their power back.”― Rico Nasty
“I didn’t want to do music. I was very doubtful. I was like, ‘Oh my God. No one wants to hear a teen mom rapper.’”― Rico Nasty
“I’ve been imagining spikes in my head since I was 13 years old.”― Rico Nasty
“It’s hard to be dainty and la la la when you’re also supposed to be strong.”― Rico Nasty
“I was like, weird on purpose. I wanted to be an outcast.”― Rico Nasty
“Some women can probably be Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, but some of us can’t.”― Rico Nasty
“When I started rapping, I was like, I’ma change my name before I become famous. And that didn’t happen. I didn’t have time.”― Rico Nasty
“I’ve been Rico since 10th grade.”― Rico Nasty
“Taurus and Sagittarius do not get along.”― Rico Nasty
“I wanted a future outside my hometown.”― Rico Nasty
“People keep trying to say I’m one type of artist and I’m just not.”― Rico Nasty
“When I wanted to become an artist I wanted to be versatile but at the same time, fans never know what to expect.”― Rico Nasty
“I love that my friends understand that I’m not gonna forget about the old me.”― Rico Nasty
“I made ‘iCarly’ when I was 18 years old.”― Rico Nasty
“I really hate when I do a great song with great lyrics but my voice just don’t fit because of the type of beat I picked.”― Rico Nasty
“I don’t look at anything for who I should be.”― Rico Nasty
“I think my sound is very loud. I want other people to describe it as a form of therapy – therapeutic music, a form of release to them.”― Rico Nasty
“I’ve always wanted to dress like this, and I’ve always wanted my music to have the edge, the twist to it.”― Rico Nasty
“Whenever comparisons get too crazy I just think about my goals, and what I want from myself. I don’t look at any references.”― Rico Nasty
“I don’t know, whenever someone was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to the studio,’ I just went with them. And I started recording.”― Rico Nasty
“When I was in high school, I was like the only girl making music.”― Rico Nasty
“It’s a lot of women that was before me, it’s a lot of women that’s gonna come after me!”― Rico Nasty
“I never wanted to stop making music.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like I’m really loud and brash.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like I have a lot of rhythm because I’m from the DMV. Because you got so many different types of music: Baltimore Club music, Go-Go, then you got the DMV rap music scene, then you got the DMV R&B music scene. It’s a lot of music and it’s a lot of taste that caters to most.”― Rico Nasty
“I shot ‘Poppin’ in L.A. because I love L.A. Because when I came out here, I fell in love with it.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like all artists have to come to L.A. at least once because it’s just beautiful. It’s peaceful.”― Rico Nasty
“A lot of times I play my music at shows based on the views and the streams.”― Rico Nasty
“As women, we’re always supposed to be catty, or too cute to dance. And it sucks.”― Rico Nasty
“That aggression came over time from dealing with stuff – ‘Anger Management’ really is what it’s called. That project came out and I felt a weight lifted off my chest. I learned something about myself.”― Rico Nasty
“I don’t want people to expect the hard tracks to continue my whole career. When I started making music, I wasn’t making music like that.”― Rico Nasty
“I’m proud of who I am.”― Rico Nasty
“I think that it is important to mingle with your peers and get to know the people that you coming up with because everything that we’re doing is history.”― Rico Nasty
“Try performing with your period. Like really, and then call me back. I know Beyonce has. I know Nicki has. I know all of the legendary women have had to do that. A man can’t do that.”― Rico Nasty
“Shoutouts to Cardi B. She’s going to be a great mom.”― Rico Nasty
“I don’t wanna be bare minimum. I wanna be successful.”― Rico Nasty
“I wanna be be able to take care of my mom.”― Rico Nasty
“Lil Yachty is opening up that lane of being a black weirdo.”― Rico Nasty
“It is kind of easy for me to speak out. Just because I am very vocal in my music about a lot of different emotions, like anger, and normally stuff that people would hide, I’m okay with as a woman.”― Rico Nasty
“I feel like what made ‘Nasty’ so fire was it was finally something that they couldn’t take from me.”― Rico Nasty
“When I made ‘Tales of Tacobella,’ and I made ‘Sugar Trap,’ it was like people literally trying to say that like, either that they made it, or that they helped make it, and then they continued to try to steal the flow, try to steal the aesthetic of everything I tried to build.”― Rico Nasty
“They’re never gonna not put you in a box. It’s something that they have to do, because nine times out of 10 people don’t understand creativity.”― Rico Nasty
“I don’t want to say I’m that famous, but when you see me, you see me.”― Rico Nasty
“A lot of people tend to get intimidated by looking at a place where they’re from as empty. I look at it like a clean slate.”― Rico Nasty
