"Caresha please!" may have been the first words that you ever heard from Saucy Santana's mouth, but in the two years since his hilarious exchange with City Girls' Yung Miami, the Florida-bred rapper has built a legacy far more impactful and long-lasting than a single viral moment.
As this year comes to a close, Saucy Santana has successfully established himself as one of the most visible gay artists in Hip-Hop. Since December 2020, he has pumped out two projects — 2020's It's A Vibe and 2021's Outside EP — and multiple infectious tracks that have gone on to take over TikTok with ease, and although Santana has yet to crack the Billboard Hot 100, that's bound to change in 2022.
Image provided by the artist. Photo credit: Quincy Houston.
Saucy Santana is a game-changer, and as fate would have it, he recently linked up with HNHH to kick off this year's 12 Days Of Christmas interview series. Over roughly an hour-long interview, the rising star gives an in-depth account of his meteoric rise from being the City Girls' makeup artist to having multiple TikTok smashes and gracing the Rolling Loud stage for the first time this summer. As an artist with a loyal cult following and an unshakeable belief in his ability to create undeniable music, Saucy Santana is poised to have another big year ahead of him, so take this opportunity to get familiar with the trailblazing LGBTQ+ rapper.
Watch the interview on YouTube below.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
HNHH: We’ve got Saucy Santana in the house. How are you feeling?
Saucy Santana: What's up y'all? I’m feeling good, feeling good. Gettin’ ready for the day.
This year, you've been more visible than ever, and you've been a pretty visible person for the past few years, but this year felt huge. How has 2021 been treating you?
2021, I’m definitely more visible. I did Rolling Loud loud this year. A lot of things have been going up this year. A lot of my songs have been getting big. “Walk” was December last year, but it still carried into this year. Then we had “Here We Go” this year, the dance went viral. Now, one of my songs from 2019, my label called a week or so ago-- one of my songs from 2019, “Material Girl” started going viral on Tik Tok. I don't even know how. The kids just started doing a challenge, and [my label] called. They’re like, “Did you do something with ‘Material Girl’?” I’m like, “Nah, what happened?” They was like, “Man, the numbers on this song [are] just doubling, tripling by the day.” I don’t know what's going on, but I'm thankful.
We're gonna touch on each of those points that you just mentioned, but let's start with Rolling Loud, because it was your first time around right?
Yeah.
Walk me through what that experience was like.
My Rolling Loud experience was... I'm always nervous because I get booked at clubs a lot, so I'm still used to being in the club, don’t have to rap clean versions, and it’s not really no mic, technical difficulties and stuff like that. And then the club is a different crowd-- it's a smaller crowd-- so that really tests, “Do people really f*ck with you? Does everybody know your music?” I'm like, “Damn, I know ‘Walk’ is popular, and I know people know ‘Walk’, but do they really know motherf*ckin ‘Walk’ when you looking at twenty, thirty thousand people in the crowd?” That always kind of gives me butterflies, and I was the same way when I had did Rap Caviar two years ago with Meg Thee Stallion. That's when “Walk Em Like A Dog” first came out. I was like, “Damn, what if I go out there and these people don't know this song?” As soon as the City Girls started gearing up, and started playing “Walk,” and they seen me come from out the side of the stage, they went motherfucking nuts. So I was just happy like, “Whew! Yeah, they know the song, they fuck with it. Everybody was excited, everybody was ready.” I was just glad it went like that.
Especially when you consider it’s been 2 years after people first started learning who you are as an artist.
Yeah, I have only been rapping for two years. July 4, 2019 is when I released my first official single, and it did a million streams in a week. It’s already been two years, with 2021.
That takes me back to 2019. Before “Walk Em Like A Dog”, I just remember seeing you online in those viral videos with you and Yung Miami. Off the top of your head, what’s one of your favorite viral moments with her?
One of my favorites is when I started “Caresha, please.” Those was just always so funny because us being on Live was kind of like us being on the phone with the world watching. That's really how we just is — our friendship. We play all day. We’re very playful. Real friends, like we serious and talk about serious stuff. Not saying we're always just fucking with each other. It was just so funny when I said “Caresha, please,” and it had started to be a trend, and now that’s the name of her website, so now me and her got shirts that we sell that say “Caresha, please.” The fans just took that and ran with it. They don’t even call her Yung Miami, they like, “Oh, we call you Caresha, it’s Santana’s fault.” I’m like, “It’s not my fault that y’all call her Caresha!” I think that's one of my favorites.
She hasn't given you too much of a hard time about that, huh?
No, she don’t give me no hard time, but it's so funny because when she first started rapping — they was rapping a year before me — I remember her Instagram still had Caresha in it. And I used to be like, “You is a rapper. You’re Yung Miami. Why you still got your real name in your Instagram bio?” Growing up, I seen celebrities [and] we ain’t know their real name unless you had to Google them or something like that, or unless they went to jail or something. You just ain’t know nobody’s name. You gonna call them by their rap name. Nobody gon’ call me by my name. Everybody call me Santana, so I’m good.
I was just about to ask you, what’s your real name?
I don’t know! [laughs]
Well, I saw that before you started rapping, you were doing makeup. Tell me what your plans were before you started making music in 2019.
Before I started making music, I was just a hustler. I did a lot of things. Some legal, some illegal, but I was getting money. I had the idea to do makeup. I used to do makeup for the City Girls. That's how we initially became cool. I had my own boutique, I was selling hair, I was selling clothes. I was boosting, I was selling drugs. [Laughs] I was doing anything. So when I started rapping, I had just started playing around freestyling, and my freestyles started going a little viral. People was f*cking with it. And I was like, “Damn, people really like me rapping.”
"Before I started making music, I was just a hustler. I did a lot of things. Some legal, some illegal, but I was getting money. I had the idea to do makeup. I used to do makeup for the City Girls. That's how we initially became cool. I had my own boutique, I was selling hair, I was selling clothes. I was boosting, I was selling drugs. [Laughs]"
People kept saying, “Hey, you need to see what's up with that.” So initially, when I made “Walk Em Like A Dog”, I was like, “Imma make me a song that I can just get booked to go to the club with.” I wasn't even thinking [about] being a rapper. I was just thinking hustle like, “Bitch, alright, I’m gonna go do a motherf*cking show, $500 or some sh*t like that. I’m gonna go get me some money.” N** wasn't even thinking that they was finna drop a song on July 4th, the sh*t was gonna do a million streams in a week, and labels was going to be calling like, “Aye, wassup?” [Laughs] I was just a hustler before rap, honestly.
That's incredible. And that's a really wild story, talking about how you went about it-- just to get in the clubs.
Yep. I was like, “Bitch, I’m finna make a good song, all the hoes gon’ f*ck with it b*tch, and I’m finna [make] $500, $1000 going to the club and doing that sh*t.” I remember my first show was like $400. $400 and I think a bottle of Hennessy or something. [Laughs]
Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images
At least they threw the Hennessy in there, that’s wassup. Two years later, your hustle’s paid off and you're here with HotNewHipHop, so congratulations, you put in the work. This is our 12 Days of Christmas, so I wanted to ask you some festive questions for a little bit.
Okay.
What is your favorite holiday?
My favorite holiday is… Is your birthday a holiday?
Eh, a personal holiday? Yeah.
Outside of my birthday, that’s my favorite holiday, probably Christmas.
What's the best Christmas gift you’ve ever gotten?
I think my best Christmas was last year, last year 2020 Christmas. Me just being a rapper, I had bought myself a bunch of shit. Just on some rapper sh*t. I was like, “Bitch!” I think I had my first Chanel bag, my first real one. I had just bought a lot of shit. I think my best Christmas was last year, honestly, forreal. I was blessed to be in a position where I was able to splurge on my self. Because even when I first started rapping, I was getting money. We going in the mall, I'm probably spending like five, seven hundred dollars thinking I'm doing sh*t. Versus the next year I’m going to the mall, we leaving out the mall, bitch we just dropped $20,000. I think last year was probably my best Christmas. I was really able to just have fun.
That's beautiful. Another holiday — it's not as festive as Christmas, or perhaps not as wholesome — is Halloween. Did you see a lot of people dressing up as you?
Yeah. I’ve seen it.
What was your reaction to it? Some people may take it in a good way, and some people may take it in a bad way. What was your reaction?
I don’t necessarily like it, but I get it. When I first started rapping, people would dress like me for Halloween every year, ever since I got famous. The first year, I hated it, and I cussed everybody out on the internet. It hurt their feelings, and I didn't mean to hurt their feelings. I just don't necessarily like people imitating me. You not me. I just feel like nobody gon’ look like me, so don't try to dress like me. It’s weird to me. But into being a celebrity now, I get it. I feel like with Halloween, that shows who got the star power. I feel like being a successful celebrity, being a successful rapper, people gotta want to be you. People have to like something about you or be that intrigued by you for you to even be successful, so I look at it now as a form of flattery like “Damn, you really like me that much that you want to dress like me for Halloween?” I think it's cool. Nobody wanna be nobody. If you ain’t poppin’, if you ain’t lit, I don’t want to be your for Halloween. You lame. [Laughs]
It shows that you really do have an iconic look too. A lot of people work their whole career trying to make that iconic look. Some people dress up, wear a costume for a year straight. You’re just being you.
Yeah, I’m just being me. So that was my thing. I was like, “Is my look costumey?” But it's not necessarily about me looking costumey, it's about people fucking with you. People [will be] anybody they think is lit, or a specific moment or era that somebody had that they want to be, so I don’t mind it no more.
Alright, so going back to Christmas, you were talking about how last year was your best Christmas so far. And I think it's ironic because you got a gift that keeps on giving with “Walk”. You dropped that around Christmas time last year in December. Let’s go into “Walk” now. Did you always know that “Walk” was going to be as big as it got?
No. When I did “Walk”, I thought that “Walk” was going to be a TikTok record of course, because it was simple, it was easy. Let me see you walk. But off that project last year, It’s a Vibe, I had a song called “Workin.” It's the second track, and it was the second single that I released. I released “Walk” on December 3. I released “Workin” on December 10, and the album was about to drop December 17. I always thought that “Workin” was going to be my hit. I didn't think that it was gonna be “Walk,” but I knew that “Walk” was gonna be a fire TikTok song. So I was cool with it, but I ain’t know it was gonna blow up like how it did.
It's wild because a lot of songs that go viral on TikTok have all these dances, and with yours, it’s literally just people walking. What was your reaction to that?
I just thought it was cool. “Walk” gave me a model record. “Walk” just make you want to put on your drip and just step. I thought it was good, it was fun, it was easy. It was something that everybody could participate in.
I was watching your story yesterday, and I peeped that you stay on TikTok. Is that one of your favorite apps at the moment?
I've grown to like TikTok. Initially, I didn't like TikTok, but it's helpful. TikTok is the new wave now, so if you don't like it, you better like it. TikTok is helping out everybody. Literally, my song from 2019, “Material Girl”. Some little kid may like the video to it, and it just hit. Lizzo just did a video to it. I don't know what it is about fucking TikTok. TikTok is the new thing. I remember last year, I didn’t like TikTok. My label would always be calling like please [do it], I’d just be like, “Kiss my ass. I'm not getting off no motherfucking TikTok.” But it's cool, it's fun, and it's the new thing. Literally everybody is on TikTok. Everybody be watching TikTok all day, so you might as well get on there and utilize it.
Facts, and we can talk a little bit more about “Material Girl” going up on TikTok. That was from your first project, so when I peeped it, I was just like, “This is insane, how TikTok can bring stuff like that back up.”
Literally. “How To Pimp A N**” by City Girls is going viral on Tik Tok, and that was from their first project. So with TikTok, these kids, they just find something, somebody do something, they click, and everybody start doing it.
Do you have any plans on doing anything else with “Material Girl” to make it fresh for new fans who are just now coming on?
Mm-hmm. Gotta stay tuned. [Laughs]
Outside of the trends that were associated with your songs, what was your favorite TikTok challenge of 2021?
Well, all of my dances go into TikTok songs. All the new TikTok songs that are blowing up got the Saucy Santana dance. I just did some new ones that I like when I was in LA. I don't know the name of the song though. They’re the last ones on my TikTok page. I think those are my new favorites. So you gotta go to my TikTok and watch ‘em.
Arun Nevader/Getty Images
How did the Saucy Santana dance come up? Was it just you, or did you team up with a choreographer? Walk me through that process.
I had to film for Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show. With it being COVID, I had to send it into the camera. It was me and four of my friends. I had them come to the studio with me. I was like, “I gotta film for Savage x Fenty, so y’all just be in the background with me while I'm recording,” so I don't look awkward with me just sitting in the studio recording my songs looking weird. So I had four or five of my friends, they was just dancing, being back up as I was performing. After we did the Rihanna show, “Here We Go” had just came out, and I was like, “Y’all think we should make up a dance or something to ‘Here We Go’?”. They was like, “Yeah,” so we was listening to the song, listening to the song, and started putting together the dance from the words. So it’s like, “Cute face, ass fat, jump in my jeans, jump in my bag.” We literally just listening to the words and started putting moves together.
I was like, “Okay, we got it, we got it. We gonna upload it.” As soon as I uploaded the dance, in a couple of hours, it was on the Shaderoom, it had went crazy on TikTok. I was like, “Okay, they fuck with that.” That’s just how it started. Next thing you know, people started putting Kirk Franklin song on it. I'm like, “What the fuck? That shit was for my song!” That was just so crazy. I used to get so offended. I was very pissed off initially, but I feel like it just comes as a part of being a trendsetter. I'm trendy. I'm catchy. Everything I do sticks like grits. So initially, I was pissed off because I'm like, “That’s fucked up.” Don’t give my sh*t a chance, but everybody else come up with these little dances to they songs and they songs go viral? Why the fuck y’all took my dance and put it to everything else? But still, initially, it made my song blow up, and TikTok, when y'all released those lil influencer charts, and with people who be making up dances to these songs, make sure I'm on that list. I'm on both sides of the spectrum, apparently.
That's a good point. A lot of times, artists will release something, and an actual TikTok user will make up the dance. It's cool that you actually were on the other side of that, and it hit. Back to “Walk” really quickly — a certain podcast host was talking about your song, talking about how it was a diss at Rolling Ray. I know that couldn't have possibly been the first time you heard that rumor, so what was your first reaction to that rumor?
It happened so fast. As soon as I posted the clip on TikTok, they just was like, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. This is about him, this is about him!” And I call my label, I was like, “What the fuck is going on? Everybody keep commenting saying it's about this boy.” I'm like, “My shit is not about this motherfucking boy. I’m finna cuss they ass out!” I was upset because I didn't want that to take away from the moment of my song, and I feel like sometimes, people don't really logically use their minds. People just go with the negative connotation of things, or what seems like drama, or what seems interesting.
Because if you think logically, if I made a song specifically targeting handicapped people or disabled people, it wouldn't have been able to sell. If somebody made a song on somebody who has cancer or chemo or anything, it wouldn't be able to sell. Nobody not finna buy into that shit because you got people fucked up. You can't do that. Think about how many people in the world are disabled. My grandma used to be a CNA and stuff. I got a disabled uncle, a lot of shit. So if people really logically using their mind, that shit can’t sell. As many people that participated in that song — Gabrielle Union, Wesley Snipes, Ellen DeGeneres, like almost every celebrity you can name did the “Walk” challenge. So if it was really on some weirdo sh*t like people were saying, the song would have never went that big.
"I had seen when Joe Budden had said it, but I feel like you just needed something to say on your podcast. Because if you’re thinking logically, I can see if you’re dissing somebody and it’s just a personal attack. I'm saying specific things about you. But that's a whole ‘nother community. It’s a whole disabled world out there. You can't do that to people."
I had seen when Joe Budden had said it, but I feel like you just needed something to say on your podcast. Because if you’re thinking logically, I can see if you’re dissing somebody and it’s just a personal attack. I'm saying specific things about you. But that's a whole ‘nother community. It’s a whole disabled world out there. You can't do that to people, and I'm not even that type of person that would think that's cool to be like, “Aha, fuck you, you’re disabled. Aha, fuck you, you got cancer. Aha, fuck you, you albino.” Like you can't do that shit to people. The world do not play — you can get canceled for anything. I even uploaded the receipts of the song. Around the time the boy had tried to start having beef with me, it was around November. A lot of people that are consumers or speculators, they don't really know how the rap world works. In November, I already knew that my album was coming out in December. I already knew that December 3rd was going to be the “Walk” single, December 10th was going to be the “Workin” single, and December 17th was going to be the date that my album drops. I already knew that in November.
“Walk” was made October 9th, and JT was in the studio with me when I made that song. So after the song came out, people started speculating. I even uploaded it. You know how you go on your phone, your iPhone shows you the date and the time, and that recorded this video in your phone on May 4th or whatever? I even went and uploaded like, “Hey, this is when I initially made the song.” I made the song in October. The boys ain’t start trying to have beef with me ‘till November. My rollout was already planned. I'm a rapper. We don't just link up and say “Hey, we dropping today.” No. You know, so that way you can execute a plan on how to roll out your shit. I just feel like once I spoke about it, I proved the fact that it wasn’t no diss. It was just me creating music, and it was shut down. It was already done. I just let people speculate what they want, just ‘cause people are still like, “Oh, I heard it was a diss record,” and of course he wanted to run with the story. But people that know — if you know, you know.
Like you said, it’s not a diss song. It’s a hit song.
I don’t make diss records, I make hit records! Period!
We're not focusing on no damn diss records. I don't even have enough energy or enough beef with nobody to diss them, ‘cause I just think that's clownery. That's kind of clown shit to me. People don't even make diss songs no more. Nowadays in rap, you might have a song and throw a diss line in there, but nobody ain't just making a whole diss record no more. B*tches ain’t doing that… that shit gives me back in the day. When was the last time you heard a diss record? I think my last diss record was back in high school, around that Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj era. I think that's the last time I heard a diss song, like come on.
Well, you came back with more positivity with “Here We Go.” It’s got this really good energy to it, so talk about that song.
My brother, Tre Trax, he’s my producer. He makes all my beats and stuff. He's not my blood brother, but I've been working with Tre since “Material Girl”. So we in the studio every day with each other, and then we just became friends outside of just music. That's really my peoples. It’s so funny because Tre is from New York, and I'm originally from Bridgeport, Connecticut, but I moved to Florida when I was 10, so I spent most of my life down South. It's a lot of rappers that we have in Florida that never got big, that never got mainstream. You got the Strizzo’s, you got the Tae Bae Bae’s. You got the Jacki-O’s. You just got a lot of people, so I know a lot of Florida music.
For “Here We Go”, I remember it was a song we used to always dance to when I had first came out being gay and started going to the gay club. It was called “Face Down” by Strizzo. Tre is so cold. I was like, “Tre, I love this beat. I remember we used to always dance to this beat in the club when I was like 18, 19.” I was like, “I want something similar to the sound.” That’s something I love about Tre. I could send Tre a song as inspiration, and Tre could just 360 that bitch, to give me that same feel but it’s a whole, brand-new track. Tre had these little sample words when he made the beat. The sample words kept saying, “Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go,” so it just gave me that real back-in-the-day [feel]. Tre knows I love anything back-in-the-day — Uncle Luke, House Party type shit. I love that. So I kept hearing, “Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go,” and I was like, “Bitch that’s it right there! Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go. All the big girls, stank walk with it, stank walk with it, stank walk with it.”
One of my writers that I work with, Dre, he helped me come up with that part: “All the thick girls, stank walk with it.” I wrote the verse and shit too. Once we played it, and that beat dropped? That shit just go crazy. Even when the fans hear it, I want to let you hear this video when I had just did “Here We Go” at Clark University. [shows video of the crowd at a show]. As soon as they hear it, they go crazy! And then the whole crowd, “Cute face! Ass fat!” They was going nuts! It’s just a fun record, and one thing about me, that’s why I always say: I make music that’s undeniable. When you hear it, you’re gonna go, “Yeah, this shit a bop.” You can’t stand on the wall on “Here We Go”, even if you a nigga. Even if you a nigga, you got to tap your foot, or you got to shrug your shoulders, or something. That beat just gonna take over you. Tre is a f*cking beast.
I think that's the perfect way to describe it, ‘cause even from “Walk Em Like A Dog”, to “Walk”, to this, I think undeniable is a good way to sum it up. You put that on Outside, so I just want to know if you have any deluxe versions or extended versions planned before the end of the year?
Outside kind of got fucked up because Outside was supposed to come out in June, and at the time, me and my label was beefing because I don’t think they understood what Outside was supposed to be. Outside was supposed to be a fun, summertime mixtape. It was not an album. The songs weren't album-worthy to me. It was fun music. It was music that makes you drop the top, get a boat, shake yo ass, strip club. Drop the top, bring the titties out. It was supposed to be that kind of mixtape. That’s why when you see Outside, you see the album cover was very Uncle Luke, Freaknik. I brought that Freaknik sht back. Right after Outside, everybody started doing Freaknik again. Hmm!
But the whole album cover was Freaknik, girls in they booty shorts. “It’s summertime and a bitch off work.” So with Outside coming out in August, I was kinda like, “F*ck.” By the time Outside came out, I’m looking on the timeline. Bitches is dressing their kids in school clothes, and bitches be going to work. I’m like, “This is the wrong time for this shit. This shit is not released at the right time.” [Laughs] But one thing about me, I always know what sounds good and what people want to hear. So even out of Outside, I got “Here We Go”, and then I had another song called “Rock Wit It” that had went real big on TikTok. That’s my second or third highest-streaming song on Spotify right now.
I had did “Boom,” which redid [Uncle Luke’s “Hoochie Mama.” I had Tre remix that. That shit went crazy. I still did my due diligence out of that, but it was just supposed to be a quick, summer, fun time mixtape. So I don’t think Outside is gonna have a deluxe, but I’m already working on my next album. My next album is called Keep It Player. [With] Keep It Player, I got some shit! It’s just a whole ‘nother vibe. I feel like I teased y’all with this vibe on my last project It’s a Vibe. I teased y’all with this, but I feel like now, I really tapped into it. It’s crazy. I got some shit. I’m excited.
I peeped that you got the new song with Kidd Kenn, and that collaboration made me want to talk to you just about working with other rappers period. You've worked with a whole bunch of female rappers, and they seem to be really supportive. But Lil Nas X talked earlier this year about how straight male rappers aren't really interested in working with him. I was wondering if you had a similar experience or if yours was different.
I have a song with a straight rapper that's gonna come out on my next project. What people have to understand is, and I think with me really being a street bitch and really was in the streets, really was in the field — these niggas have to warm up to you. Same way with the industry. A lot of people are still homophobic. A lot of people are still like, “Ew,I don't want nobody to think I'm gay if I do a song with him — blah, blah, blah, whatever.” Now in real life, I get so much love and respect from straight niggas. Especially at the studio, niggass just like, “Damn.”
"I have a song with a straight rapper that's gonna come out on my next project. What people have to understand is, and I think with me really being a street bitch and really was in the streets, really was in the field — these niggas have to warm up to you. Same way with the industry. A lot of people are still homophobic."
I just bumped into Yachty. Yachty was like, “Man, you’re killing that shit. You made your own lane, keep going.” Chance the Rapper stopped me in the mall. I was like, “Bitch, you know me?!” He was like, “Yeah!” I was like, “Me?!” He was like, “Yeah, you killing shit!” People just have to get used to you and warm up to you and if your shit is undeniable, a nigga really gonna fuck with it. That’s just kind of how it was in the streets. Back in the day, being on the block, doing what I do and shit like that, I had to gain respect from them niggas. Once niggas started warming up to me, I was like one of the boys for them. [They’d be like,] “That’s Santana, just leave bruh alone. Bruh over there doing his shit.” I kind of relate the streets to the rap game a little bit. People just be trying to feel you out and see what’s what. That’s all.
2020 was the year of women in rap. I was curious if you think that the year of LGBTQ+ hip-hop is coming.
The gays finna take over. Definitely. Definitely. It’s 2021 now, everybody gay. No offense, no shade, but it’s just everybody’s gay. You see gay shit everywhere. Gay shit always on your TV, your favorite influencer is gay, if they girls, they’re bisexual. Everybody’s gay. Your favorite TV shows on TV got gay parts, gay scenes. Empire had gay shit in it. Pose was the real big gay show that got big. Star had gay shit in it. Almost everything you watch, it’s something gay. So gay to me is regular now, and it’s just time that that shit be treated in the same manner. We’ve been going to the BET Awards, it’s going to be “Best New LGBT Artist” and some more shit. It’s time, and it’s coming. I definitely feel like the time is near. You got Lil Nas out there, he’s kissing boys on the BET Awards and shit. Bitch, it’s regular. So yeah, it’s definitely gonna be a time where LGBT is just gonna go ahead and sprout.
It’s interesting to see, especially when you're working with artists like Kidd Kenn. I’ve just slowly been hearing more and more about queer artists, so it's cool to see.
Actually, I told my fans — I just don't want nobody to steal my idea. But I'm going to do something really big for the gays that nobody never did before. We gotta stamp our shit. We got to stand our ground, so when I do this shit, it's gonna be all, “We ain’t never seen that shit before!” Yeah, bitches gon’ have to go ahead and eat it.
Gotcha. I want to pivot over to your music videos. You've been in the ballroom, you've been a BDSM cop, you've been Cleo from Set It Off. Please tell me that you're thinking about becoming an actor.
Initially, I never thought to be an actor, but it comes with the territory. It's so funny because Yung Miami just got an acting role, and I used to help her with her script. I used to read off some of the scripts, and she’d respond with her words and stuff that she memorized. We was looking at each other laughing like, “Bitch, how we know how to act?” [Laughs] I think it’s definitely something that comes in the rap field. Bitches be rappers. When you have a personality and shit like that, it just comes easy, so I definitely see it in the future.
Speaking of acting, you were just hanging out with an actress yesterday. I seen you was hanging out with Lala. What have been the most exciting linkups you've had this year?
Oh, definitely that one was for the books. I met Lala, Lauren London, Nia Long… and her name is not Khadijah. Yes, it is Khadijah! The twins from ATL. I had met all of them yesterday. It was dope. I’m like, “B*tch, Nia Long? I remember Nia Long from fucking that man in the bathroom on Soulfood! Then Lauren London and everybody was just so cool. It was so funny because me and Caresha are so fucking playful. I’m like, “Caresha, we play with everybody for real. Them is grown ass women, we got to be serious.” But they were so cool! It was like I knew them. We kept saying, “We just feel like we know each other.” They didn’t give grown, old lady, stuck-up vibes. They gave grown women, but they gave big sister vibes. It was cool.
"I hadn’t met her in person, but it was cool going on live with Nicki. That was my first time ever having a dialogue with Nicki. She would comment on my stuff on Instagram, or retweeted me, or wrote me on Twitter, but I never had a conversation with her. So that was cool, and I’ve been a Barb since high school."
I hadn’t met her in person, but it was cool going on live with Nicki. That was my first time ever having a dialogue with Nicki. She would comment on my stuff on Instagram, or retweeted me, or wrote me on Twitter, but I never had a conversation with her. So that was cool, and I’ve been a Barb since high school. I feel like I’m lucky. I have met a lot of people. Meeting P. Diddy was big. I be with the big dogs. I kind of grew up like that. Growing up, my dad was a bodyguard for celebrities, so when I was younger — this was around the time 50 Cent was real big with Get Rich or Die Trying — myy dad was doing security for 50 Cent. Us being from up North, 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, Noreaga was big at the time. Amerie was big at the time. I have always remembered meeting celebrities. Even now to this day, when I meet celebrities, I done met almost every fuckin’ body. You just learn to be cool. I’ll still be in my head like, “Ooh, sh*t, that’s what’s her name,” but I just be chilling because I’m a celebrity too. It’s so funny because sometimes, I be thinking that it’s big for me to meet somebody, but they be feeling like that about me. Like yesterday, Lala and them was so excited to fucking see me like, “Oh, we love you! We couldn’t wait to meet you.” I’m like, “Damn, me? Bitch, I couldn’t wait to meet y’all!” It’s cool.
With Nicki, have y'all talked more about this song that y’all hinted at when y’all was on live?
We did. I just DMed Nicki something, a little meme yesterday of me and her. We was laughing about it. Nicki is Nicki. You just gotta let Nicki do what she want to do on her own time. You can’t force nothing on Nicki. She gon’ be like, “Imma do it, and Imma do it when I do it.”
Gotta love the Queen. Some final questions to wrap up — Looking back at 2021 as a whole, what was your favorite moment from this year?
For me, I think Rolling Loud was the highlight of my year. That was the biggest show I think I ever did. That was the highlight of my year: Rolling Loud.
What about your least favorite moment of the year?
Losing my motherfucking Instagram. I lost my Instagram. I had to make a new one. I lost my Instagram the day of Rolling Loud. My Instagram got disabled, and I had to make a new one. But it just really showed me my influence, because I had to make a new Instagram on July 26th. This was a couple of days after Rolling Loud. We in November, so it’s been what, three and a half months? I got 111,000 followers a month within the three and a half months that I’ve been back, so that’s big. Each month, 100,000 people following your page? You somebody. Somebody fuck with you. My Instagram page got deleted, I was at like 1.4 million. It’s like, “Sh*t, you almost at half a million. You got an influence, bitches really fuck with you!” We’ll be there by the end of November.
That’s wild, but it was hard for me to even find your Instagram.
Instagram got some new shit going on. You can’t say “bitch”, you can’t say “hoe”, you can’t twerk, you can’t tie your shoes a certain type of way on Instagram. Instagram is not for every f*cking body. I don’t know what’s going on.
I'm definitely gonna hit the Follow again, help you get back to over a mill.
Make sure it’s the one that's verified, ‘cause I got a whole lot of fake pages.
Bet, we locked in. Have you started working on your New Year's Resolutions for next year?
I don't know what I'm gonna do this year. I don’t even know if I have one yet, I just look at my growth through the year. I feel like this year, I did my New Year's Resolutions on my birthday. I was like, “I'm turning another age, I’m just gonna start moving like this.” I haven’t really thought of no New Year's Resolution forreal forreal yet. I just look at growth as I see it come.
I feel you. Looking at 2022, I know you said we got the album. What else is in store from Saucy Santana for 2022?
My life is so spontaneous, I can't even tell you. I really couldn’t even tell you. The other day, somebody just called me about Mary J. Blige. I'm like, “Huh? Me?!” I’m like, “What the f*ck?” I’ll just wake up and get a wild ass phone call like, “Ellen DeGeneres wants you to come on her show next week.” I’m like, “Huh?” I’m finna perform at the [Atlanta] Hawks game, it be some shit. I really wake up and I'll be like, “Huh, me?” so I can only imagine in 2022, [it’ll be like] “What the f*ck? What's going on?”
Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you want readers to know about you before the year is over?
If you don’t know, now you know, and stay tuned because it's only gonna get bigger and better.