Rise & Grind: BRS Kash On The Bow Wow & Drake Influence, Mom's Reaction To "Throat Baby"

Rise & Grind is a new editorial series, meant to introduce and dissect new, buzzing, or underground artists.

BRS Kash is an artist that has been unavoidable thus far in 2021. After hustling for years on the underground circuit, the 27-year-old rapper achieved viral success following the release of his ridiculously raunchy record "Throat Baby (Go Baby)". The song didn't need any features to blow up on TikTok, but when the remix was released with an innuendo-filled music video featuring DaBaby and City Girls, it was a lock for the track to explode to a whole new degree.

The song has officially been certified platinum, marking a tremendous moment in the young career of BRS Kash. In addition to "Throat Baby (Go Baby)", the rising star proved that he has staying power, dropping the hits-laden mixtape Kash Only. The full-length body of work features Mulatto, Toosii, and others, showcasing BRS Kash as a hitmaker for years to come. "Throat Baby (Go Baby)" and "Kash App" were the two highlighted singles from the project, but any of his records, especially "Go", "No Manners", "Feel Better", and "So Freaky", could go off at any moment's notice.

With creativity for days and the wit to string together punchline after punchline, Kash is one of the most exciting artists coming out of Atlanta right now. With his project continuing to perform well, the rapper caught up with us for the latest edition of Rise & Grind, answering ten basic questions before jumping into a more detailed Q&A session, which you can read below.

Stay tuned for a new installment of Rise & Grind every Monday.

Man, Atlanta... I really can’t say how it felt growing up here because I ain’t never grow up nowhere else. What I can say is growing up in Atlanta is the same as probably anywhere that somebody would call their city. But as far as being around the sauce-- you know Atlanta brings the sauce. Being around that helped with my music.

When I was little, I was on Memorial Drive. When I really started moving around in the streets I was in East Atlanta. Eastside.

Zone 6. You got Future, Gucci Mane, all of them are from here.

Taurus. May 15th. Bull.

Some girls be like, “Can't mess with no Taurus.” But they seem to mess with me. So I be like, nah, I really ain’t like the regular Taurus. I guess I’m a different breed. I would say I probably got some Taurus traits though.

I ain't gone lie, Bow Wow made me first start rapping. Growing up, I wanted the braids, the jersey, all that. But I'ma have to go with Lil Wayne definitely, Tupac, Biggie, Drake, and I gotta throw my boy Future in there.

I think Drake seen what I had going on [before he shouted out Bow Wow]. He had to say it like, dang, 'he spoke on Bow Wow so I gotta go ahead and do it too.' [Laughs]

Man... That's kind of a big question because everything that I'm doing is an accomplishment. When you been waiting for it for so long-- I'm trying to think. Really everything is an accomplishment. I'm not even going to lie to you, really everything that I'm doing.

I’m a wine drinker, right? So I gotta have a bottle of wine in there. I might have two or three bottles of wine. Hookah gotta be in the studio... Sometimes, I dont want nobody in the studio before I get in there. I like to just sit in peace and sit by myself for a minute before I allow anyone to even come in and sit in the studio. I like to sit in there and just  reflect on the beat for a minute. And then when I get into it, I start allowing folks to come in. And I got to eat before I record too.

My go-to meal before the studio is chicken fingers and fries from Zaxby's.

I was nervous about the song at first. I know you got folks that like songs like that. Then you got other folks that are like, 'Oh, why he doing that song.' I was worried about when those people would start attacking me. I was nervous when the song started picking up, I'm happy it did but I was still like, whoa. 

When I first went to a show and I seen the whole crowd sing the song, my face lit up. I couldn’t do it, I turned around and my man’s was just like, 'Look.' I just started cheesing, like, this is cool. This pretty cool.

I was on Instagram one day and I seen DaBaby was in the gym listening to it, working out to it. Then the next thing I know, I seen him in the car, playing it. Boom. I reached out to him. We reached out to him and set the play up. Within the next week, we was in the studio. Then we vibed out and started making the remix. And I was like, I need a girl point of view on the song. So JT and Yung Miami would always be playing the song all the time. So I’m like, I might as well reach out to them too. So I reached out to them. We reached out to Coach K. Coach K set the play up, Boom. We got the remix.

Shout out to my boy, Edgar [Esteves] for the video. Edgar put that masterpiece together. So the video, we shot for twelve hours a day. I shot it for two days. Like twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours to shoot that video, two twelve-hour sets, so it was long days. Long.

I wrote for our newspaper. I went to my best friend's house next door. And it was like, “Best Buy is the place to be, you saving all the money and you rollin with me/Plan $10 dollars off, this is the way that it's gon pop off/See my name is Kenny and I love the girls.” I don't know the rest after that. 

That was before I was Kash.

The first song I ever recorded? It was called “I’m On The Run.” I got it on a CD and basically, I had gotten my ass whopped when I was a kid and I was probably like 13. One of my homies in the hood had a studio, and I made a song called “I’m On The Run,” because I was thinking about running away because my momma had beat me so bad. I seen the CD not too long ago.

My first performance was at Tucker Middle School. That’s the middle school I had went to. I did it at the talent show when I first started really taking this music thing seriously. After that talent show, I liked the reaction from the crowd. I'm like, "We finna get ready to rock out." And that's how I started.

I almost won the talent show. I had a whole little group called on deck. But the thing is, we got disqualified. Because one of my homeboys ended up cursing and he dropped the microphone. But the whole school was rocking with us, we had the whole talent show going crazy. But then he messed it up. We still got these little small trophies. I still got the little trophy.

I’m a shy person so [getting on stage for the first time] was scary to me. It’s scary, you talking about palms sweating, mind racing, you just dont know what’s going on. Then you got to look at people's reactions, and you just be looking around. I got through it though. I got through it.

When I leave the studio, I go to sleep. I got to eat before the studio but if I'm hungry after, I might go and cook after the studio when I get to the house. Like, if it's nothing open. I do like cooking after the studio. And I like to f*ck after the studio. When I get to the house, you what's going down because you know what time it is. Stress reliever.

So this what I’m trying to do, right? You know I had the whole pandemic rocking. So I feel like I’m going to give the ladies a little something something. Probably in like a month or two. You know, something for them to step back out to. I might revamp Kash Only. I might add a little extra onto Kash Only. We definitely recorded videos. I’m finna do a little contest for "Kash App" for the ladies. So they can get a chance to win some cash. We just continue working. Right now I’m in Miami working. 

HNHH: What does the BRS stand for in your name?

BRS Kash: BRS stands for BankRoll Society. Me coming up, I didn’t really know about copyright, trademarks, and whatnot about the name. Somebody had the name Kash Kash trademarked already. And I ain’t want to get sued or nothing since someone already had it trademarked. So I just went ahead and branded my entertainment, which is BankRoll Society, so I put BRS in front of Kash and then I just rocked out like that. Basically marketing, I’m branding my label and my name at the same time. At the end of the day, folks are still going to call me Kash Kash. But through the legal rights, what you see is BRS.

What does it feel like to get your first platinum plaque for "Throat Baby (Go Baby)"?

I ain't even got it yet. I'm still waiting on my gold plaque. It’s on the way. Everybody probably got theirs already but I’m going to know what it feels like as I put it in my hands and bust that little bubble wrap off it, and just be able to flex with it. You going to know how it feels because you going to see what’s going on. To be a platinum artist, I dreamed about being a platinum artist.

Why were you nervous to drop the song? Because of how raunchy it is?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always been like a low boy, I’m shy. With that being said, I’m like, I don't know. And growing up in a household full of girls with my momma and my sisters, it's like, what is my momma going to say about this? So that’s really why I was so nervous.

What did your mom say about it?

She always been like, “Oh you nasty.” She done caught me doing certain stuff, so she knows. But she didn't know it was to that extent. That’s when her nose tooted up like, “Ewww.”

Last month, you had a little bit of a back-and-forth with 6ix9ine on Instagram. What happened with that?

When I wrote that, it was basically just a comment. I rock with The Shade Room, so I just commented. He commented back. I had seen him vibing to my song in the club, throwing money to it. So it really wasn’t on no thing like I’m finna go back-and-forth with you. I don't really have time for that kind of attention or none of that. I don't need that type of attention. So I really just let it ride out. I ain't want to keep going back-and-forth. It was nothing.

He called you a one-hit-wonder. How do you respond when people say that about you?

When somebody says a one-hit-wonder, right. They got to think their favorite artist was a one-hit-wonder before they had another hit. When you're new, most people with a lot of hits done been in the game more than a couple of years. It’s not like somebody just came in and whoop, whoop, boom, boom, boom. It takes time. If they want another one, they know there's work behind it. It doesn't just come overnight. So I don't really let that phase me. I got one hit and they trying to get one.

What’s the craziest thing that's happened to you since you blew up? Like a fan interaction that caught you off-guard.

One time, somebody-- she couldn't speak English at all, so I ain't really know what she was saying. But she was like, she’s a big fan and she was finna cry. And I was like, aw man. I ain't know what to do because I ain't know what she was saying. So I just kept smiling. I was trying to figure it out. I definitely was.

Are you more of a writer or do you freestyle in the studio?

I’m a writer for sure, for sure. When I go in, I like to really execute my idea. So I’ll go in there, listen to the beat, and as I’m listening to the beat my mind is trying to dissect the beat, and I’m just trying to pull a certain type of something that's going to stick in your head out of the beat. So with that, that's when I start digging into my melodies. So I wouldn't even tell nobody that I freestyle. I’m going to tell you like, nah, that ain't really my strong point. Writing is my strong point. You got some folks that freestyle really well then you got others that are straight writers. I’m a straight writer. 

Fair enough. Let’s talk about “Thug Cry.” It's one of the most personal songs on the project. It’s a tribute to someone very close to you that passed away. What does that song mean to you?

Man, that song means so much to me. I recorded that song probably a week or two after she died and that was in 2019. To finally get that song out, it means so much because at first, it was another name for the project. That song didn’t fit the criteria for the name. When we was able to switch the name and I was able to put that song on the project, it meant so much. Everybody always thinks I’m talking about like a girlfriend, or something like that. But that was my best friend. That’s why we had to do it like this.

She was getting off work one night. She ended up being out too long because that day, it was like daylight savings time so the time went back. She had to stay up an extra hour because she had two jobs. When she got off, she had ended up falling asleep behind the wheel and she passed away. So “Thug Cry,” that's my dedication piece. “Thug Cry” is a work of art. All my music is a work of art, but “Thug Cry” was real, it hits deep. It cut me deep.

Your comments are always some of the most popular on The Shade Room. How much time do you spend on social media?

I don't really follow too many folks. The Shade Room always be popping up on my timeline and it be some interesting stuff on there. I don't really be on Instagram that much. I’m not really a social media type of person but when I do get on there and I look, I’ll leave a comment and go on about my business.

I be saying what folks really want to say.

There have been some rumors that you might be dating Mulatto. Do you wanna clear those up?

Me and Latto we friends, that’s my dawg. It’s nothing like that going on. We just cool, that’s how we rock. We was friends before the music popped off.

What do you want your legacy to be as an artist?

I just want the music to last forever. When people mention me, I want them to say, “Man he changed the game. He changed the game.” I don't know, that's a hard question, it’s a lot to live up to.

I appreciate you taking the time today, Kash. I'm excited to see where you're headed this year.

Man, I appreciate that. Thank you, have a good day.

READ LAST WEEK’S INTERVIEW WITH RENNI RUCCI HERE.