Any woman who steps into the music industry is guaranteed to face an unusually high amount of criticism compared to their male counterparts. And don’t even get me started on the sexism and hyper-sexualization of women in the rap game. This has become a pattern where even when the women fight back and say no, they are then labeled as “crazy,” “temperamental,” and “hard to work with.” Additionally, with such as niche audience as alternative music, it is still new to the public and going through the transition of finding the right crowd. So when something isn’t automatically your average pop song, it gets labeled as alternative when there are so many overlapping styles of music that make it different. And because this is a genre that is still in its early stages, some fans may take on the role of a critic a little too seriously and harshly judge artists that they may not connect.
A breakout artist, Rico Nasty, takes her craft seriously and perfects her individual sound to separate her from the rest. That is why in the past couple of years, she has made a name for herself and created a following that is mostly women. Her music contains the idea of equalling the playing field between men and women, showing that women are strong, independent and beautiful creatures that demand respect and will not take any less than that. Not only that, she consistently verbally puts up her middle finger to her haters that always have something to say while all she’s doing is making her bag! She could be considered a role model for those who need to hear that they are great and ignore the people in their shadows as they only grow to be more successful.
Sadly it looks like her music has clearly pissed off a couple of people when she opened for Playboy Carti in Portland, Oregon, on his King Vamp Tour this past week on November 13th. She has already been heckled before on this tour by being boo’d on stage the week before in LA, but this was the last straw when someone threw a water bottle at her. And in Rico Nasty fashion, she demanded to know who it was that felt the need to disrespect her to throw trash at her. She then called over security to, in her words to “come and get this n****” before deciding to handle the situation herself and jump into the crowd. Caught on camera and going viral all over Twitter, Rico Nasty was stopped by security. However, the show continued as scheduled, and plans to continue the rest of the tour with Rico Nasty still as the opener.
This is just one occasion that continuously occurs to the young women in the music industry where they have to be subject to massive amounts of hate, harassment and, in some cases, violence. Personally, Rico Nasty did something I would do as well. She handled herself, as she should, without relying on some security to do the job here. She is a professional entertainer that has a job to perform and create an environment where the audience and artist can connect. I understand that an artist may not be a person’s cup of tea, but that still doesn’t mean that she should be subject to having trash thrown out at them. Or have one person’s dumb decision completely throw off the vibe of the night and possibly be thrown out before the headliner even comes out. Other male artists have been known for doing this exact same thing to confront hecklers and were never met with more hate as a result, like Rico.
She and many other black women in alternative music are the pioneers who make this music genre more interesting and likable. They give a sound that has never been heard before and speak on issues that make other people feel uncomfortable because they are the ones that have benefited from these issues in the best. These talented women suffer from so much intersectionality for not only black and women, and now being in the music industry known for already hating these types of artists right off the bat. But instead, they turn the judgment just into another lyric for their next song that ends up in the Hot 100 songs for the week—just showing how incredibly powerful and resilient they are. Rico Nasty stood her ground after facing mass amounts of hate and physically putting a stop to the disrespect and deserves to have gained at least an ounce of more credit for her future performances.