Music
Dreezy reloaded: The Chicago-born rapper is back & better than ever
Meet the latest Red Bull 60 Second Freestyle artist bringing lyrical heat to the masses.
Dreezy is stepping back into the spotlight, but don’t call it a comeback. The Chicago-born singer, songwriter, rapper and actress earned a Grammy nomination for songwriting on singer H.E.R.’s ‘Back of My Mind’ last year and recently linked up with super-producer Hitboy for a collaborative album aptly titled ‘Hitgirl’.
Dreezy, who is known for giving us rap bars with equal parts wit and energy, sat down to speak with us about what she learned while on her hiatus from music, her beat selection process for Hitgirl and more. She does what she does best in her Red Bull 60 Second Freestyle and it’s clear that Dreezy hasn’t missed a beat, literally or figuratively.
On what she learned while on a brief hiatus from music:
“I think I learned more than anything to be confident in what I'm doing, because even over the years, when I look back in my catalog and stuff I feel like I created a lane for myself that still hasn't been touched, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't think it's another Dreezy out there to this day. And I think that's something that I just gotta keep building on. I think another thing I learned is the importance of consistency. If the fans love it and you love it, just do what makes you happy and stay true to yourself.”
Dreezy
© Dreezy
On collaborating with Future, Coi Leray, INK, and Jeremih on HitGirl:
“Future, I'm a student of the game when I'm in the studio with him. I'm just watching him and his processes, seeing how he put his melodies and his words together, how he and his engineer have chemistry together, how quick he worked.
Me and Coi you know, we’re two females in the game. So we were able to bond and talk about our careers and the stuff that we’re going through behind the scenes and really like just be on the same level with that on top of having fun, making the music and just feeling like, you know, it felt like that was like my partner, like my sister or something. Like I grew up with her or something like, it was real, just cool and natural and organic.
INK, that's my girl. I met her through my boy Slate. He's a dope producer out of Atlanta. And she's always been a crazy writer to me. I worked with her one time just in my crib recording some years ago. So to be able to work with her again, was a full circle moment and we made such an impactful real song it felt good.
Jeremih, that's my brother from Chicago. Anytime we link up on a track, it's legendary. All of our songs are doing like millions of views so shout out to my brother, we just got a good chemistry together.”
On selecting beats with HitBoy for HitGirl:
“It's a little different from my normal process because you know, HitBoy has his sound and I got my sound. So it was some songs that he really loved that I wasn't a big fan of and it was songs that I really loved that he was like, “oh, it's cool. You could go harder.” And eventually if we didn't agree on it on the track list, we just kept making more songs until we agreed on all the songs, so we kinda just put our heads together. We also got other people's opinions.
There were people coming in and out the studio listening. I remember Big Sean was able to hear the project. Kanye was able to see the “They Not Ready” video, The Game we was recording at the same studios so he was able to hear a lot of what we was doing. But yeah it was just our team putting our heads together.”
Dreezy
© Dreezy
On how she prepares for the studio:
“I try to just think about stuff that I'm going through. It’s about what mood I'm in and how I feel about the record. Like if it speaks to me instantly, I'll go right in the booth and start freestyling or doing melodies and then coming up with the words on the spot. But if it's something that like, I wanna get real personal with, I sit and write it because I'm still a poet.”
On who she would like to collaborate with in the future:
“I would love to do a song with Nicki, of course. I'm working on my next album right now, so I'm kind of focusing my features on the vibe that I'm going for on my album. And right now I really want Meg on there. That's my wife. I want Mary J Blige on there. Of course I wanna do songs with J Cole. Wayne, Drake, Kanye. So if I could get any of those on the album, that'll be a dream. That'll be a full circle moment for me.”
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