One of the more fun aspects of the way streaming and social media have upended the music business is how artists no longer have to rely on traditional releases to get their new material out. Where in the not-so-distant past, everything hung on a label’s release schedule and the need to manufacture the physical products to send to stores, now, rappers like Rico Nasty can simply upload a batch of new tracks to their SoundCloud pages and notify their fans via Instagram and Twitter, with no need to classify the release as a single or an EP or an album.
And that’s exactly what the elusive, genre-agnostic DMV rapper did over the long weekend, posting the cryptic photo below captioned “Secrets on SoundCloud.” A quick perusal of the SoundCloud bears five new discoveries of unknown origin, each reflecting a different sound from the grand Rico Nasty galaxy of sonic experimentation. There’s the puffy sugar trap of “Show Me Your Love,” the JetsonMade-produced banger “How Ya Feel,” the stripped-down “Switch Places,” the spacey “Cotton Candy,” and the surprisingly vulnerable “Grow Up.”
Meanwhile, Rico has more traditionally released another pair of singles, “Buss” and “Magic,” recently, complete with music videos. Whether all this is ramping up to the follow-up to her debut album Nightmare Vacation remains to be seen, but half the fun is not knowing what she’s got planned next.
You can hear Rico’s new songs here.
Rico Nasty is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.