KenTheMan‘s debut tape 4 Da 304s is strictly for the hoes. It’s an exhilarating thrill of sexual excitement and monetary gain at the expense of men from the first listen of its leading track “Try Me” to the raw “Freaky Freestyle.”
It’s the hoe lessons KenTheMan is instructing on the Houston native’s 10 track project that delivers fun and flirty guidance on how to make men pay up. There’s no crying in hoe life, just bags of money and good stories to tell. 4 Da 304s is one of the most sexy rap EPs out.
Uproxx spoke with KenTheMan about the making of 4 Da 304s, womanhood, and how she was finally able to quit Door Dash to rap full time, thanks to her 2019 hit song “He Be Like.”
Congratulations on your new project. 4 Da 304s coming out. Tell me about that title.
Well, I honestly was sitting in the studio and I’m like, bro, I can’t believe I still haven’t it figured out my album name. I said, man, I don’t know because this shit really for the hoes. And then I was like, oh, I should name it 4 Da Hoes. My engineer was like, man but I still got to figure out a way to make it a little more commercial to where it’s not curse words, so it can can get played in certain places that a curse word couldn’t. I could say “4 Da 3-oh-4s.” In high school and middle school and stuff, we used to call hoes, 304s.
On the calculator, right?
Yeah, and you turned it around, and it’d say “hoe.” I was like, damn, I’m going to name it 4 Da 304s because it’s for the hoes.
What can your fans expect on this project?
I feel like they should expect to get off their feet and feel confident and it’s really all turnt. Like it ain’t nothing soft on it. It’s all happy music. Like literally it’s all music that make you feel good.
Was that a conscious decision?
Yeah, because that’s what they into. I always switch it up. I drop different things because I’m a real versatile artist. When I dropped my slow song, they was like, we’re ready to stand on a chair. So I was like, all right, they want to stand on a chair. It’s like quarantine got everybody kind of like down, so I was like, why would I make down music during quarantine? I need to make something to make them at least feel like they outside.
I see you’re mainly working with a producer named Big Cuz and it looks like he produced like majorly all of your projects. Tell me about your relationship with him.
Me and him have been working for probably going on four years, this year. I was very uncomfortable in the studio and when we started working on this project… he makes beats on the spot and I was nervous to rap on the spot. I was very weird about him hearing me and my mistakes. Since I gained a relationship with him it started becoming comfortable for me to rap. He started making these beats that I feel like, he learned me just by having a personal relationship. We just clicked.
He would make the beat around my words. So when you would hear my beat kick up in a certain way, it’ll be because I said something a certain way and he made the beat, like it’s catered to it. So he’s dope.
I know right now women are like really running it in rap. It’s like such a great time to be a woman in rap right now but I know as women we deal with so many insecurities and societal pressures. We are seeing more women being more comfortable with themselves but it’s also making other people uncomfortable. Do you feel like maybe there’s going to be a time where women won’t be judged for anything that they do? You can just do whatever you want without…
I don’t feel like it’ll ever change. I feel like we’ll always be judged because no matter, it can be the classiest woman in the world and somebody’s going to tell her that she’s too fucking classy. It’s kind of like, if you’re doing you of course people are going to have something to say. I also feel like back then it’s been women that’s confident. We grew up on one of the most confident women in Nicki Minaj. I feel like it’s been going on. It’s just more of it now.
Sex been selling, like Trina, Kim, Foxy, like all them, they real grimy with they words and they really sell sex. I just don’t see why it’s such a shocker that people still selling sex. It’s just like now I don’t know if it’s more put in they face or maybe people is just highly opinionated. It ain’t going to stop. I just feel like it’s good that we have like a lot of female confident rappers, because why would we be sitting around acting like we not confident? I just feel like power to us, power to the pussy right now.
For you, when was that moment that you decided I’m going to do me and I know people are going to say whatever they want anyways?
When you try to do anything that you do, somebody’s got something to say about it. It kind of makes you just be like, you know what? I might as well, you know what I’m saying? Why am I trying to do stuff to please other people that are never going to be pleased? People are never pleased, naturally. So it’s kind of like when you start doing stuff for yourself, you notice that more people latch on to literally you doing you.
I do want to talk about your album cover. It looks like you’re teaching a class of some sort and there’s these girls taking notes. What kind of stuff are you teaching on this project?
How to not give a fuck and break these n****s. Again, I want every lady to know out there, that it’s no reason to be crying if you ain’t getting paid for it. I just had that logic. I had that logic like recently because of my ex. One day, it hit me like, wow, I should get some money for this. For every future relationship, I’m not going to let nobody stress me out. If we having a little ups and downs, at least you can pay for it. That’s how I feel. Just get something out of every situation and do you. It’s really a carefree tape. I’m just telling them like, to be your best hoe self girl. Just be you.
You’re basically coming off of a big single “He Be Like,” so how do you plan on following up that to make sure that everybody’s peeping this project out?
I don’t know. I’m just like, me, I’m weird. I never can make something like something. I made “He Be Like” on accident. I was driving — Door Dashing. Didn’t expect it to be a song that was going to literally stop me from having to Door Dash. “He Be Like” will always be my baby. I’ll never forget the song that stopped me from working and got me my bands girl. Got me my bands. I ain’t never forget.
What was the first thing you bought when you got your first big check?
I bought a lot of clothes, because I didn’t get to shop for a minute because I was kind of broke. I just bought a lot of clothes and shoes. Now that I’m a rapper, I got to fit the part girl. I felt really good. I can’t believe that I made a song and it was like, it’s my song. It’s nobody else’s song. It’s mine. I didn’t know it was going to be the song.
You were doing Door Dash, but like, do you remember the moment where you were like, I’m not doing Door Dash today?
I think after “He Be Like,” I was still Door Dashing because I was still broke, girl. You know those checks don’t come right away. Still got to make a living while the song is revving. I was still working and then I started getting booked a lot. I started realizing how much I had.
How have you been able to keep it going during Corona?
I just keep making music. I hate that this whole thing is going on. Of course I’m not happy that we’re experiencing some bullshit like this, but I really got like to pause real quick to get my shit together and I did because I made my tape during it. It gave me time to realize my priorities. When I had my single and money was flowing, I started getting comfortable not thinking like, oh shit, it’s time to get in EP mode. It’s time to get a body of work. I wasn’t thinking like that because it was moving so fast. I was always on a plane. I was here. I was there. It gave me a chance to sit in the house and realize, bitch, what are you going to do after this?
4 Da 304s is out now. Get it here.