Carti Vampire

[Firman Lamarre]

PlayboiCartiPlayboi CartiAliasesSir CartierRelativesDraculaAffiliationVamps, Nico, Burberry Jerry, Destroy Lonely, Hubert "Ken" Carson, Heroin Phoenix, MitchOccupationVampBiographical informationMarital statusMarried to the gameDate of birth1/1/1809Place of birthSlattville, TransylvaniaDate of death18/22/2344Place of deathAtlantic OceanPhysical descriptionSpeciesVampireGenderVampHeightUnknownWeightUnknownEye colorRedPink (from codein)

Whole Lotta Red was Playboi Carti's third studio album after Die Lit, it was executive produced by Kanye West. This album single-handedly caused the global vampire rate to increase by 38%, it's largest increase since the release of Bram Stoker's Dracula. While Kanye disapproved of the Satanic imagery that was present in the album's marketing, he too was infected with the curse and became part vampire himself, however the part of Kanye that is a God cancelled it out.

SIDNEY MADDEN, HOST: A warning before we begin - this podcast is explicit in every way, and this episode mentions suicidal thoughts.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)TALILLE JARO: I was over at a friend's house, and she was always having kind of, like, house parties. And at one of her house parties, she had music video after music video of Rico Nasty just playing. I know for a fact it - one of the music videos was "Smack A B****." Definitely. Yeah.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SMACK A B****")RICO NASTY: (Rapping) Don't worry about a b**** who never been in your place. Always move in silence. Never question your fate. Always check in on your n*****. Got to make sure they straight. If I'm getting money, then you know we all...MADDEN: The music video opens with Rico alone in a low-lit hallway, chunky black boots, smeared eyeliner and Rico's expression - that smirk of defiance over screaming guitar chords.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SMACK A B****")RICO NASTY: (Rapping) I don't need your opinion. Do what I f***ing want. You such a f***ing...MADDEN: It makes it hard to look away.JARO: And I just sat there in awe.MADDEN: And when was this? Like, how old were you?JARO: Like, 16 or 17.MADDEN: Rodney, we've all had those moments in adolescence - right? - where you hear a song and it just sticks with you forever. It speaks to you.RODNEY CARMICHAEL, HOST: Oh, you're talking about that song that, like, shapes your soul for the rest of your life.MADDEN: Exactly. You know the one. Like, for me, I can definitely recite all the lyrics to Nicki Minaj's "Itty Bitty Piggy" or even her "Monster" verse with the same type of mmm (ph) as if I'm running around campus with my girls.CARMICHAEL: See, I'm thinking "Bonita Applebum," Tribe Called Quest or something like that.MADDEN: Oh, OK. I like it. Well, for Talille Jaro, a recent college grad living in Portland, that song was Rico Nasty's "Smack A B****."JARO: I'd never heard music like this from someone who looked like me. So I was very, like, enthralled in her music from the very first time I saw it.MADDEN: The magic of "Smack A B****" is pretty undeniable. That simultaneous restraint and warning shot in her lyrics - it's low-key Rico's calling card, just as much rap as it is punk.JARO: I felt empowerment. Her voice just in general, like, screaming the song, like, it just awoken something in me to just feel comfortable. And it's OK to be, like, angry. She kind of made me feel more comfortable in myself.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COUNTIN' UP")RICO NASTY: (Rapping) You can't even handle a b**** like me. Make my own money, and I buy my own weed. Touch my wrist and your hand going to freeze. Begging for the kitty on his hands and knees. Who you fronting on? Come on, girl. I know you a rookie.MADDEN: The message and sound of Rico's music resonates so deep, and it's so important for Black girls to hear because in a world that paints you showing any emotion as you being too much, too loud, too difficult, too ratchet, Rico is telling us to lean in to those things. Channel that anger instead of muting it. And Talille wanted to be a part of it in real life.JARO: When I saw that Rico Nasty is going on tour, I was so excited. Like, this is, like, the first time I'm ever going to be able to see her. Like, I was just so pumped. I was like, I have to buy these tickets. Like, I'm going.MADDEN: In 2021, Rico went on tour with Playboi Carti. It was a huge look. It was supposed to be a triumphant moment for her career and her fans - their biggest chance to all rage together. But that moment was taken from them.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)RICO NASTY: So get it off your chest. Come on.UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting) Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off (ph).(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)MADDEN: I'm Sidney Madden.CARMICHAEL: I'm Rodney Carmichael. And from NPR Music, this is LOUDER THAN A RIOT.MADDEN: Where we confront the double standard that's become the standard.CARMICHAEL: On every episode this season, we tackle one unwritten rule of hip-hop that affects the most marginalized among us and holds the entire culture back.MADDEN: And one that a new generation of rap refuses to stand for. When the outlet for your anger gets shut down, how do you get it back? Rico Nasty keeps it real about the tour that went left.RICO NASTY: I don't care if you know how to fight or if you're the toughest b**** in the world. It's about standing up for yourself. It's about remaining powerful throughout the draining.MADDEN: On this episode, Rule No. 8 - what doesn't kill you makes you a strong, Black woman.Hey, y'all. Before we get started, we need to acknowledge something. Since we reported out this story, Playboi Carti was arrested on assault charges related to domestic violence. The case has been dismissed. But because this all happened after we wrapped our reporting, you aren't going to hear us talking about it in this episode. All right. Let's get into it.First, let's start with where we're at right now.RICO NASTY: Right now we are at one of my favorite studios, and I am here with you.MADDEN: This is a really, like, in-the-cut studio. It's at the bottom of a hotel and stuff.RICO NASTY: Yeah. I used to stay at...CARMICHAEL: Sid, I know you spent a lot of time with Rico Nasty over the last year talking about everything that went down on this Playboi Carti tour.MADDEN: Yeah, I did. We linked up a couple times to talk about it. In LA, we met at this moody underground studio in West Hollywood. They had candles burning everywhere and black and purple decor.CARMICHAEL: Very Rico.MADDEN: Mmm-hmm.RICO NASTY: I think I did - my longest session in here was, like, 18 hours or something.MADDEN: Jesus.RICO NASTY: I like long sessions.MADDEN: OK.And every time we talked, she stayed hyping up her fans. She calls them Nasty Mob.RICO NASTY: They get to come to the show, and they get in a mosh pit. And these little girls that normally are hella timid and shy, they get in the mosh pit. And n***** are like, oh s***. This b**** is crazy. It's a power. It's like, we are going to infiltrate the male pit, and we will make these n***** die. Like they're...MADDEN: Yes.RICO NASTY: ...Crazy. Hella powerful, hella powerful. They're not scared.MADDEN: They've dubbed themselves Nasty Mob because they mob out for Rico and for each other, online and in real life. You can see it in the pits. Her fans go hard, and they aren't just there for themselves. They want everyone around them to have a good time.RICO NASTY: I've seen so many mosh pits where it's like a big-ass, six-foot n**** just passed out. And the girls are like, please, gently - don't drop him. Security. They're so sweet to one another.MADDEN: That energy of Rico's shows, it makes them stand out.(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting) Rico, Rico, Rico.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You are my sis. You are my queen. I love you. I love you.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We waiting in this hot, 99-degree sun. But we going to see you. So we...UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Rapping) Diamonds in my ear, so it's hard for me to listen.RICO NASTY: This seems real. It seems like you really do like me.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I do. I really do.RICO NASTY: Let's go.MADDEN: So when Playboi Carti's team was looking to make the show lineup for his tour, Rico was a natural choice.RICO NASTY: He's like, oh, she rock her shows. Don't no b**** rock a show like me, and I will die beside that. Nobody rocks shows like me. And he saw that. Like, he respected me. And it was respecting.MADDEN: Rico was excited to get this look from Carti. She'd always wanted a cross-country tour. Plus, it was a bag. So of course, she said yes. She started off the tour vlogging the whole experience.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)RICO NASTY: There's no b******. It's going to be n*****. So you can't play "Poppin."MADDEN: In her first vlog, she's on stage in Nashville doing soundcheck.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)RICO NASTY: (Rapping) What? You got to be quicker than that, b****.MADDEN: Rico was feeling it. She was having fun, joking around on her very first tour bus and getting to meet a ton of fans across the country.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: It's a dream to meet you.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: I just want to say I'm such a big fan of yours.RICO NASTY: What's your name? Wait, what's your name?TAMELA: Tamela (ph).RICO NASTY: Tamela and Rico Nasty.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Rapping) Smoking so much gas, I forgot to put my mask on.MADDEN: After a year inside, Nasty Mob showing up and showing out for Rico, it was really energizing to her. But each night, looking out at the crowds, it was becoming obvious how different her fans were from Carti's.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)MADDEN: I'm just trying to think of how to square those things. Like, he handpicked you 'cause he knew you're - you rage at your shows, same as him. Theoretically, there would be, like, an overlap, maybe, in the fan base.RICO NASTY: Yeah, but that's the thing, though. Like, I think my fans are too Black (laughter). That was a thing. We was talking about this s*** on tour. Like, yeah, like, Carti fans are - there was a lot of white boys, I'm not going to lie. But they still - there was still Black people. Let's be for real. Rage or not, it's a rap concert. So our whole thing was like, our s*** is for the n***** that's not passing, you know what I mean? Like, for the n*****, like, you Black. You're not getting around this. That's what my fan base is. And they're - his fan base is more like, I get pulled over by the cops, they're not really going to think I'm Black (laughter).MADDEN: So even though Rico peeped it, it wasn't anything serious. I mean, they went from Nashville to Oklahoma City to Phoenix - 15 shows and things were going smooth. But then, a month in, something shifted. They got to LA to play at The Forum in Inglewood. When Rico took the stage for her opening set, the crowd seemed restless, disinterested. People were talking over her, and those convos got louder, then rowdier. Then they started to boo her.So did everything happening feel antagonistic?RICO NASTY: It felt like, yeah, like, she's a Black girl. We don't want her up to here. She's not shaking a**, bro. Straight like that. If she not shaking a**, we do not want to see this s***. But that's what you go to the strip club for, not a rap show. So have some couth.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)MADDEN: Rico felt like she had to respond. So after the show, she started tweeting. We got one of our friends to read out her tweets.(SOUNDBITE OF TWITTER NOTIFICATION WHISTLE)UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: (Reading) Y'all mothers should have swallowed you little pissy (ph) frogs. Yeah, I said it. Not deleting s***. Try me again. I'll fly off the stage and possess you. Anti-Black-a** crowd. Weak-a** little boys with blonde pubes. Get me out of here.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)RICO NASTY: I think what happened was I disrespected his fans, plain and simple.MADDEN: All right. Hold up. We spent a lot of time talking about Rico fans, but we need to talk about Carti fans. And as a hip-hop journalist, I know his music, but his fandom is kind of foreign to me. I'm not the one to tell you about it. But luckily, we have someone on our team who can. What's up, Mano?MANO SUNDARESAN, BYLINE: What's up, Sid?MADDEN: Tell the people who you are.SUNDARESAN: So, I'm Mano Sundaresan. I'm a producer on LOUDER THAN A RIOT, and I run a music blog called "No Bells." We basically cover a bunch of the internet/zoomer rap, artists like Yeat, Ken Carson and, of course, Playboi Carti, the one who kind of started it all.MADDEN: OK. So as our resident expert on all this, if you can, give me it in two sentences. How would you describe a Playboi Carti fan?SUNDARESAN: Two sentences. Wow. Yeah, I feel like - OK, there's a lot to unpack here because I think it starts with a fan base in Atlanta. His fan base back then was just Atlanta rap fans kind of in that alt scene, but it really morphed into something a lot more unwieldy, especially as he sort of reached more of this Hypebeast status. Now the image that just pops in my head is toxic white dude, honestly. But that's another story.MADDEN: No, but tell me that story, though.SUNDARESAN: Carti fans are just - they're just different, honestly.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)SUNDARESAN: And we're not talking about all Carti fans - right? - but, like, there is definitely this contingent of them that really deified him. They really go crazy online and, you know, sometimes even trolling people on the internet.MADDEN: Yeah, but it seems like Carti's fan base compared to other rabid fan bases - their actions take on this very purposefully destructive quality, you know what I mean?SUNDARESAN: Yeah, totally, sometimes even destructive to Carti's own career. Carti fans - and I'm talking about a contingent of them, not all of them - they have leaked Carti's music many, many times. There's a whole album's worth of material that will probably never see the light of day for this reason. And sometimes they can get really destructive with other people online as well.MADDEN: Yeah, and in real life.SUNDARESAN: For sure.MADDEN: Yeah.SUNDARESAN: It can sometimes feel like what Carti represents is counterculture. But when his fan base is so sort of mainstream and so center, it feels a lot more like rebellion for rebellion's sake.MADDEN: OK. OK. Well, thanks, Mano.SUNDARESAN: Thanks, Sid.MADDEN: So that difference that Mano just laid out is what Rico was confronted with on tour. With those tweets, Rico agitated his fans, and some of them started trolling her online hard. Carti let her know how they could be.RICO NASTY: He's like, bro, they're crazy, bro. I'm telling you, don't argue with them. Carti, he's like, literally, don't argue with them. They're f***ing nuts. Like, they, like, invade my privacy all the time. Just don't even pay attention to that s***.MADDEN: Rico tried to take Carti's advice and ignore them, which made Carti's fans go even harder. Three nights later, at the next show in San Diego, they booed her again.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)RICO NASTY: F***ing stand here. Y'all can say whatever the f*** you want. But I don't got to perform nothing.MADDEN: Her DJ kept dropping bombs and her artist tag to offset the Carti chants.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)RICO NASTY: B****, we going to sit in motherf***ing silence. Don't you f***ing play. What the f*** do you think this is, b****? It's not that. It's not that. I love my fans. So get it off your chest. Come on, harder.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: You guys are such f***ing haters.MADDEN: After Rico left the stage, the lights went dark, and Carti came out, bouncing around almost like a little puppet vampire.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)PLAYBOI CARTI: (Rapping, inaudible).MADDEN: He didn't say a word, and the show went on like nothing happened.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)PLAYBOI CARTI: (Rapping, inaudible).MADDEN: A couple of TikToks of Rico getting booed that night went viral. One video got millions of views and tens of thousands of comments. Some media outlets aggregated those social posts, but the coverage didn't go much deeper than that. This tour was not going how Rico had dreamed.RICO NASTY: Doja and Flo Milli were texting me throughout the whole tour every week. You good? You good? You good? You good? You good? You OK? I love you. You need a hug? Sending me funny shit.FLO MILLI: It was very horrible to see. Like, it really broke my heart, you know, because I really do love Rico, and to see somebody you love, like, get mistreated like that, it was just - the disrespect was just on another level.MADDEN: After seeing those videos, Flo Milli knew she would need some support.FLO MILLI: And I just felt the need to reach out to her, like, because I didn't like what I was seeing on the internet. And we had a long talk about it. This is crazy. Like, this is - like, how is this even being allowed to happen right now? I let her know, like, girl, f*** what these people think. You have people out here who actually love you, who you're actually touching every single day.MADDEN: Rico tried to keep in mind that her community had her back, but it was getting hard because even though she knew she had fans out there in the crowd each night, they were getting drowned out by Carti's. And that made the hate feel even louder. Two nights later, the tour bus rolled into Portland.JARO: My little sister - the day of the concert was her birthday, so I was like, yo, I have an idea for your birthday.MADDEN: Talille, that fan from the beginning of the episode, was excited to celebrate their sister's birthday by going to see one of their favorite artists. At the same time, though, they were nervous.JARO: I had seen on, like, social media, especially on TikTok, that there were videos of Playboi Carti fans is what it looked like, like, kind of, like, booing her off stage, just having this animosity for her for no reason. And I kind of thought, like, this is not - I hope that this is not how Portland is going to show up and show out for Rico.MADDEN: But Talille knew how Portland could be.JARO: This city - people call it, like, a liberal safe haven type of vibe, but it is definitely for white individuals to have this - I don't know - like, white savior, like, aspect, like, white women wearing shirts, like protect Black women in Portland. And then they'll come to my job, and they'll yell at me. They have all the face of it. Like, I'm woke. I'm liberal. But when it comes down to actually seeing a Black person in person, they are shocked, afraid. Like, you can tell just by looking at their face, like, they are uncomfortable with you being there.MADDEN: Regardless, they weren't going to let all that noise get in the way of their good time. The night of the show, she got ready with friends.JARO: Before we went to the show. We got our outfits together. We tried to go for something punk. We tried to go for something that Rico would like. We were listening to her songs, and we were dancing in the mirror. And, you know, we were so excited.MADDEN: When they all got to the venue, though, things felt off.JARO: There were, like, large crowds of white boys, probably between the ages of, like, 14 to freshmen in college. And they were all just kind of, like - had this, like, hype mentality. There were so few of us Black women there. There were some, and we did make friends with a few people, too. But the vibe was uncomfortable.MADDEN: The lights went down and Rico's set was about to start.JARO: When the music started and that tension got thicker and thicker, I was like, this is insane.RICO NASTY: I got on stage, and I was just performing. I was performing like regular, bro, just a regular show. People were singing. It was mosh pits. It was fun. It was lit. I was bouncing around. I was jumping up and down. And I had seen, like, in this corner, it was just n*****. And they wasn't dancing, and they wasn't doing nothing. They was just looking at me. And they may be, like, a foot away from the stage. Like, it's three rows of people in front of them. Cool. And they was white, the people that I'm talking about. I keep saying n*****, but they was white.MADDEN: I know. I know what you mean. I know.(LAUGHTER)RICO NASTY: But...JARO: I was up out of my seat. My sister was up out of her seat. All these Black women - and then rows and rows behind us, people are just sitting. All the rows in front of us, people are just sitting. You can tell it's like they're bored. They're kind of like, just get over this kind of energy.MADDEN: As Talille watched from her section, that crowd went from being bored to straight-up disrespectful. Talille pulled out their phone and started recording.JARO: They were chanting Carti. They were saying, get off the stage, trying to cut her set short and then just move on. And they kept doing it. Like, you know, what the f*** is going on? Like, you could hear, like, this rumble. The people who are fans of hers are waiting for the next lyric, next beat. Like, we're all kind of like, what's going on? You could tell something happened. Someone threw something at her. We had no idea what it was from our angle.RICO NASTY: And then a bottle, like, hit me in my arm. And I looked up.JARO: She was looking at the crowd, and she starts pointing.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)RICO NASTY: Who the f*** just threw this? Stand up. Come get this n*****. Who? Who, b****? Who the f*** threw it? Who, b****? Be specific. Don't f***ing play. Who was it?This is going to sound so, like, wild of me. And it was wild of me to think like this. But I just had thought it came from right where I had seen them. So I just said, who the f*** did that? And they start pointing. And as they pointing, the n***** is running.JARO: You could tell she's about to fight this person.RICO NASTY: So I'm - I jumped off the stage.JARO: She just played, like, four songs about fighting somebody. And I don't know why you would throw something at her.RICO NASTY: And I grabbed the first person that I seen, and I hit them. And then they were a fan.MADDEN: Your fan?RICO NASTY: Yeah. And that's when I knew that I can't really do anything.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)JARO: You could see her whole security team, like, surrounding her, like, trying to get her. It was like, you know, men in black uniforms just trying to salvage the situation.RICO NASTY: Security grabbed me. He folded my a** like a chair. You could see it in the video. He folded me. He got my a** quick as hell. And then I just, like, walked off. And I was like, what the f*** did I just do? Like, what the f***? Like, why did I do that? Why the f*** did I just do that? Why the f*** didn't I just say something funny or, like, make light of it? It wasn't even a big bottle. Like, why did I do that? Why did I stop the show? I just was so mad at myself.JARO: My heart, like, broke for her. I was sad. I was hurt. I was upset. I was mad that - why would someone do that?RICO NASTY: Everybody was trying to figure out what happened. And then the internet was, like, blowing that shit crazy. And then everybody was calling me like, what the f*** is going on? And I'm like, oh, nothing, just a crazy show.JARO: It was one of the hardest shows I think I've had to go to because of that energy in the room. It was one of the most hostile shows I think I've ever been to. It's not an energy I want to be in ever again or space I want to be in ever again. The other girls with me are a genuine fan of hers. Like, we want to see her succeed. And we want to see her have a successful concert. But all these people are out here ruining it for us. She's worked hard. She's earned her place, and she deserves a seat at the table. This doesn't make any sense. We were just kind of, like, so, so, so drained.MADDEN: Talille posted a TikTok of what happened that night. Once they got home, all they wanted to do was put their phone to charge and go to bed.(SOUNDBITE OF TWITTER NOTIFICATION WHISTLE)MADDEN: By the time she woke up, her TikTok was part of a much larger conversation, one that was going to clock what went down that night as more than just fleeting controversy.Rico jumping off that stage in Portland ignited a storm online. It spread from TikTok to Instagram to Twitter.(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: Never disrespect the crowd. She has a lot to learn.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: I feel so bad for Rico.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: Rico sucks, though. Not better than...UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #12: Y'all spent a year inside and forgot how to act in public.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: Booing her for what?UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Sick and racist and misogynistic.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #15: Nobody wants to hear that BS.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: F*** y'all, for real.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #17: Bro, you're making Carti look like a fool.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #18: She's a f***ing queen.UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #19: They love to hate on Black women, for real.MADDEN: There was one person watching this go down that knew it went a lot deeper than this internet chatter.MASANI MUSA: I start to see these videos that literally are, like, you know, maybe, like, six or seven or eight hours old.MADDEN: This is Masani Musa, internet commentator and the creator of Culture Unfiltered, a hub for pop culture and music discussions, especially hip-hop.MUSA: I saw, like, all of these bad things happening to Rico Nasty, and it was video after video after video. It was kind of shocking. The crowd was just disrespectful, inconsiderate, immature and just lacking in couth.MADDEN: Seeing all this, Masani was angry for Rico.MUSA: Rico Nasty is an artist who has worked her behind off to be in this space, performing, you know, her art. And it came off as anti-Black woman because it's like, they're not even giving her a chance to perform it. And I just thought that was extremely wrong. I just knew, like, you know, deep down in my soul as a Black woman, like, she did not deserve that treatment. And I think in situations like that, it's important to speak up and speak out about it.MADDEN: So she did.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)MUSA: So over the weekend, Rico Nasty called Playboi Carti fans anti-Black because they were disrespecting her as she was opening for him. I think this situation makes it obvious that, yes, alternative hip-hop realm of music can be very anti-Black and isn't welcoming to Black women. Let me know what y'all think about this.MADDEN: Masani's reaction video circulated all over - TikTok, YouTube and Twitter.MUSA: A lot of the responses that I got were, like, Playboi Carti fans. I call them the Playboi Carti Hive. A lot of those comments I didn't even give energy to because that same audience that was disrespecting her, you know, was the same audience that was showing up in my comment section. And I feel like, for some people, unless you put yourself in a Black woman's shoes, you will never understand, you know, where we're coming from. And I think that audience is dedicated to misunderstanding Black women as a whole. I stood ten toes down on what I said.MADDEN: Trolls weren't the only ones in her comments, though.MUSA: Some people were curious about how a white Playboi Carti fan coming to a Playboi Carti concert and booing Rico Nasty would be deemed anti-Blackness if Playboi Carti is Black himself. That opened the conversation for how you can fetishize a single Black person and still be considered anti-Black and especially anti-Black woman.MADDEN: That's the main reason her video went so viral - because Masani was one of the first people with a platform to call out Rico's experiences, what Carti's fandom was doing to her, as misogynistic.How are these instances of casual sexism? How does it relate to the inherent misogyny of hip-hop?MUSA: I think that has been the thing since the beginning of hip-hop, unfortunately. And hip-hop being an art form, being a culture that everybody has contributed to, in a perfect world, Black women would get celebrated for their contributions just as much as Black men, but they don't.MADDEN: Instead of celebration, it's a fight for the most basic forms of respect. As a woman in the game, Rico knows this too. This pattern pops up all the time, like with JT from City Girls, who was clowned when she got arrested for scamming just as City Girls was on the rise.RICO NASTY: And people thinking that shit is funny.MADDEN: Yeah, yeah. And, like...RICO NASTY: There's nothing funny about that.MADDEN: Same thing with Megan.RICO NASTY: There's nothing funny about that.MADDEN: I mean, what does that say about...RICO NASTY: It say that they don't care. That's why we have to care about ourselves. That's why they're so mad that we pop our p****** and we pop our s***, because who else will? Y'all not going to pop our s***. Y'all not going to tell us that we the baddest b****. Y'all just going to keep breaking us down.Who is going to tell us we are the baddest b****? We have to tell ourselves. We have to. And that's why you get the music that you get - this confident, cocky-a** s*** that the n***** can't stand. They hate it, hate it. It's not for you. It's not for you, bro.MADDEN: Rico's music and attitude specifically not being for the bros - it's what built Nasty Mob up. But it's also what created this clash on tour. Every time Rico got back up on that stage and was defiant, it became like a challenge for the segment of Carti fans to shut her down. The tour rolled through Seattle, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, and each time Rico went up, she felt this pressure building. Even though she was downplaying it, she started to feel unsure of herself, like she didn't know how the crowd was going to react to her.RICO NASTY: I was already trying to, like, make light of what had just happened, so I'm, like, treading lightly as it is.MADDEN: In mid-November, the tour stopped in Morrison, Colo.RICO NASTY: This is at fucking Red Rocks, which is one of the best venues ever.MADDEN: Yeah, Red Rocks is pretty iconic. It looks almost like the stage was dropped right in the middle of