If a story starts with “Alright, so boom,” you know it’s about to be a good one.
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That’s the vibe of our brand-new podcast of the same name, hosted by Nzinga Imani, Rae Holliday and Janeé Bolden. Digging into the origin stories of celebs is kind of our thing, and every week, we’ll go into all the behind-the-scenes details about your faves.
Memphis rapper Gloss Up was the guest on Episode 5 of BOSSIP’s, Alright, So… BOOM! podcast and it was truly a gift to the hosts. We started out our interview by asking the Quality Control rapper about unusual celebrity encounters and discovered she had a very recent run-in with Houston hottie Megan Thee Stallion.
“I just met Megan the stallion the other day,” Gloss Up told the ASB pod. “That’s my favorite rapper. We went to Hottieween I wasn’t gonna go because we were shooting all day and I wanted to get my hair done.l. I was crying really. She was hugging me the whole time. I’ve been loving that girl since she came out.”
Gloss may have lost her cool meeting Meg, but she says she still remains down to earth despite inhabiting the same space as her faves, like Meg, and Lil Baby, whose tour she just finished as an opener.
“I still feel normal,” Gloss said. “I don’t want to feel like no celebrity. I’m being myself and I just don’t got time for that. I’m not no fake person.”
Gloss Up has had a banner year, which also included a much coveted spot performing in the BET hip-hop cyper. She says she enjoyed the experience but revealed it also came with a few challenges.
“It’s so crazy because they gave me Latto’s beat, ‘Put It On The Floor,’” Gloss recalled. “I had a week to write to the beat. I had already did a freestyle to it, but you can’t curse so I knew I couldn’t do my old verse or whatever but I got to LA and the hour before [recording] they changed my beat. I had to change my whole verse and remember it now. I got a lot of respect on it. Everybody knows that’s one of my specialties, that I could freestyle.”
Like friend and fellow Memphis rapper, GloRilla, Gloss Up grabbed the industry’s attention with a little help from producer HitKidd as one of the four rappers featured on Shabooya , but she revealed she’s not new to this as her rap roots go very deep.
“I’ve been rapping since I was a little girl,” Gloss Up told ASB. “Since like 2008. I was always rapping. Me and my best friend, we was doing songs together, me and the girls was doing songs together. We dropped “Set The Tone,” first, that song did good and we were just feeling the energy, we finna blow… We just kept feeling it. I got pregnant back-to-back. I kind of took like a little break or whatever. My baby was like 6 weeks wow and Glo dropped “FNF.” He looked at her and seen all the other girls, so for some reason, he seen me and was like, ‘I want the chubby one.’ He hit me up, HitKidd, hit me up and he was like, ‘You ready for your moment?’ After we found out that Glo got signed, he was like, ‘You ready for your moment?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah what’s up?’ I came down here, met up with him a few times and I knew this was what I wanted to do.”
We asked Gloss Up about her creative process and how she likes to work. She told us that she’s tried a lot of different approaches, including going to the studio under the influence, to see what works best but said ultimately the biggest thing has just been approaching the studio like a job.
‘Really you gotta make me mad for me to just go ham,” Glossiana said. “I write my best songs in my car but I go to the studio every day because I’m trying to keep my momentum going. I try to do two songs every night. Sometimes I can go in and freestyle but lately I’ve been like, ‘Just give me this beat, I’m gonna go sit in my car and I just write in my car and then I go in the studio. When I used to be in Memphis, I’d take my kids to school and I used to be writing in my car and then I’d go to the studio like once a week, but now I go everyday. I don’t care if I go and don’t do nothing, if I go to the studio and go to sleep, at least I’m there. I go get my hair done at studio, long as I’m there. I’ll get my nails done, your hair done. I just gotta make my body be like, ‘Hey this is your job.”
Gloss also revealed plans for a group effort that will feature her “Shabooya” squad, that is tentatively titled Homegirls, as well as her solo upcoming project, which is currently slated for a first quarter release.
“I’m dropping my own project again towards the beginning of the year,” Gloss told Alright, So… BOOM! “I got like a line up of singles. I think I got some some sh*t.”
All in all the young MC and mother is happy at the direction she’s taken and sees a bright future ahead.
“Everything has really been going good, it’s like trying to get like my family on board, like my kids dad and stuff like that,” Gloss Up told ASB. “That’s the only problem I’ve been having. You know people be feeling some type of when you’re going up. I’m trying to learn how to be alone. But my kids growing up is making life easier for me because they could feed themselves, they’re trying to go to the pot now. I can go to the store and they both walk in. I ain’t gotta be carrying them. It’s easier now … I love these things for me because I ain’t never been alone. Really I still ain’t alone, I just like the fact that I’m getting out there talking to new people learning new stuff about myself, learning not to settle.”
Gloss also revealed some great advice she received from her A&R/manager Wayno and J.Cole.
“Do my homework, on like on the older rap, if you keep studying, you’re gonna keep growing,” Gloss revealed. “That was the best advice. Also he told me don’t be so hard on myself, like no matter what I see on the Internet just stay true to myself.”
For all the details, and a pretty wild story about living “FNF” you’ve got to check out the full episode of Alright, So… Boom! HERE or on Apple and Spotify podcasts.
You can also find full episodes of Alright, So… Boom episodes on the BOSSIP YouTube channel.
