Rico Nasty has spent much of her career making volatility sound like freedom. Her music crashes together rap, punk, metal, and trap, and her performances turn confrontation into communion.
As she prepares to turn 30 next year—and looks forward to opening for Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams on “The Hayley Williams Show” tour (Fri/2; Shoreline Amphitheatre)—the Maryland artist is looking back on the energy that first set her apart. She’s not trying to recreate the past but to reclaim it.
That instinct drives RX, her new nine-track album produced by previous collaborator Kenneth Blume. Announced, shelved, and eventually rebuilt, RX returns Rico to the hard-edged sound that helped make her one of rap’s most singular voices.
For Rico, the timing came down to age, independence, and a new willingness to hear what listeners had been asking for.
“I think it has a lot to do with growing up,” she says. “I think it has a lot to do with being independent. I think it has a lot to do with going back to the music that I know and love—the music that I was always good at and the music that got overshadowed when I did it the first time.”
The return is deliberately focused. Unlike her last three albums, RX avoids sad or slow detours. Across songs including “Frenzy,” “Rotation,” “Butthead,” and “Rituals,” Rico wanted momentum without surprise—a concentrated dose of confidence and humor.
“I feel like I talked about everything,” says Rico. “I feel like I got it off my chest, and now it’s just time to have fun.”
Rico treats RX like a prescription: a way to endure disappointment without letting it dictate one’s life. She raps about betrayal and cutting off people who were close to her, but rejects the wounded posture she might once have taken.
“I want listeners to walk away with confidence that things aren’t always going to go as planned,” she says. “But as long as you stand on 10 toes, whatever happens, it doesn’t really matter, as long as you rise and you still can get the fuck up.”
That philosophy does not require pretending pain never happened. “Sometimes you have to go through shit,” says Rico. “It doesn’t matter if you want to go through it, and it doesn’t matter if you feel like you can get through it. Sometimes you gotta go through the worst.”
She is open about how self-assurance doesn’t come naturally to her. Her uncertainty stems from poor past decisions rooted in inherited habits. What matters is learning to absorb a loss, stand behind an imperfect choice, and remain loyal to yourself.
“Just stand beside yourself,” she says. “You know how your best friend is going through something, and you’re going to stand by that bitch no matter what? You are supposed to be your best friend, so you gotta stand by yourself.”
Fans have long drawn empowerment from Rico’s music. There’s always a pressure to say the right thing, but she says her audience has given her room to move among sounds and styles. She imagines her career as organic and still expanding.
“It just feels like I’m a big old tree,” says Rico. “It feels like I’ve subconsciously been standing in one spot this whole time, and really, I was just growing. I see my roots in my fans, and I see the branches in other rap girls who have taken little bits and things I’ve done but made them their own.”
Rico has watched elements of her approach spread through a new generation, while her catalog has become something listeners can revisit. “I will be living forever as long as music is alive,” she says. “I will always be something people go back to.”
Reuniting with Blume—her collaborator on Anger Management and “Smack a Bitch”—helped reconnect Rico with that foundation. Fans had repeatedly urged the two to work together again, and she eventually reached out.
The reunion restored a creative relationship built on mutual provocation. Rico tries to make Blume laugh or exclaim, “What the fuck?” He works for a reaction from an artist who will not even nod along if she dislikes a beat. Their honesty cuts through polite studio talk and keeps them from settling for a merely good song.
“If one of us doesn’t like it, then neither of us likes it,” says Rico. “And it’s really good to have someone who you make a song with, and they say, ‘Yeah, this is good, but we’ll make something even better.’ And you just keep doing that.”
Rico will usher in a new era for the Bay Area while supporting Hayley Williams. She has already played the Great American Music Hall, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Outside Lands, Rolling Loud Oakland, and Portola, and counts the region among her favorite places to perform.
“Outside Lands is still one of my favorite performances that I’ve ever done,” she says. “The crowd engagement is beautiful. The people there are amazing. The food is amazing.”
Portola brought her in front of a somewhat different festival audience, and she remembers the thrill of hearing people already know fresh material. For an artist with no California roots, that embrace carries weight.
“Whenever I’m accepted like that in spaces, I don’t forget it, and I love it,” says Rico. “They’re definitely up there in my top five. I’m not gonna lie: You guys always show the fuck out. And I had boba for the first time there.”
Music is no longer Rico’s only arena. On Apple TV’s “Margot’s Got Money Troubles,” she entered a creative space that initially made her nervous. Now she hopes acting will become a larger part of her career, wants to improve in the show’s second season, and dreams of voice work—preferably in comedy.
Although she once imagined herself in horror films, settling more fully into her personality has changed the kind of role she can see herself inhabiting.
“The more that I settle into who I really am and what role would translate the best, the more I think I’m funny as hell,” she says. “But you’re not funny if you call yourself funny. I need to wait for everyone else to catch on.”
Approaching 30 has also brought gratitude. Rico remembers being 24 and unsure whether her career would survive to this point. Now she can take stock of a life spent traveling the world, seeing places she never imagined, and remaining recognizable to herself.
“It’s one of those things where you just finally feel proud of yourself,” says Rico. “You finally feel like, ‘Damn, I’m still here. And I did it on my own terms.’”
“THE HAYLEY WILLIAMS SHOW” Fri/2. Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View. More info here.
