The queen of the Boston hip-hop scene recently dropped the “Big Plays” song and music video (check it out below!). Cakeswagg is no newcomer to the game and knows just how to captivate a multi-million audience. We’ve had the greatest pleasure of chatting with this lady about her latest projects, music, and much more. Read and discover more about Cakeswagg right here!
Let’s talk “Big Plays”! Was there anything in the creation process of this track that posed a challenge, and if so, how did you overcome it?
One of the challenges I faced while creating “Big Plays” was making sure I could make a catchy chorus. Sometimes as a rapper we get caught up in just the lyrics and wanting to rap forgetting to leave catchy hooks for people to catch onto and remember first. So I kept reworking the chorus until I felt like it had lines that people could use as “quotables” for things like social media captions and more.
The music video for “Big Plays” is just superb! Who worked on its conception? Is there a story behind why you chose to go with the 1920’s thematics (which we loved!)?
I worked on the concept with my design team, which consists of 5 people. My set designer Mahogany Expressions, My hair stylist Ashley Pink Beauty, My stylist Shante Golding, Makeup artist Maya Beatz and myself. I decided on the 1920s theme because I felt like that were a time in history when a lot of barriers and rules were broken and a new age of music began and that’s how my year and career are going to be from this year and on and I felt as though that would be the perfect representation of that.
Tell us a bit about your childhood and adolescence years and how you began singing, rapping, performing, and writing music.
I grew up in a musical family. I’ve been in theatre my entire life, I played baby Jesus in The Black Nativity Play by Langston Hughes as a newborn. So literally my entire life, my mom is a singer and all of my siblings sing/ play instruments, and my youngest sister dances. So music was always first nature in my household. As I got older on the way to school we used to freestyle on the school bus as a way to pass the time. I always did it just for fun but my peers always thought I was super talented. After high school, I left to go to theatre college in New York. I didn’t finish because I had to come back home to Boston for family reasons. Around this time a lot of friends and peers were still checking in on me to see if I was still creating music. I wasn’t but it was in the back of my mind. I became a bartender and started a bartending group with some of my friends from school and church. They wanted me to create a theme song for the bartending group. They promised that if I created that one song they’d finally let me off the hook. So I created that record and we dropped the theme song and the bartending group started gaining a small buzz, as the buzz grew so did the demand for more music, thus driving me deep into my current passion.
Who is your number one fan/supporter?
My number one supporter would be my little sister Jalen, she’s always ready to create a cool TikTok dance to one of my songs and she’s always front row at any of my shows she can attend when she’s not on campus for school singing all the words. In her eyes, I’ve already made it and that makes me feel really good.
What is the most exciting collab you’ve had so far? Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?
The most Exciting Collab I’ve had so far would be the mixtape I dropped with my Dj, Dj Whysham. It was one of the first female collaborative efforts for a full-length project we’ve had in my city and just all the love and support we received behind it was encouraging. I would love to collaborate with Chance the Rapper and Tierra Whack in the future, those are two of my favorite artists.
What is it like to represent the Boston hip-hop scene as a woman and a recognized talent?
Representing the Boston hip-hop scene always feels really good especially as a woman, being able to showcase and represent the talent and individuality that we have here. Here at home it always feels good to be loved, appreciated, and respected as an artist supporting and representing this city.
Hip-hop is definitely huge right now. Do you think the trend will continue in the future decade?
I do think that the trend will continue because as it stands we’re one of the longest-running genres of music and hip-hop is so moldable and adaptable. We use so many sounds and instruments that cross genres and the versatility that hip-hop has will allow for continued Longevity.
What is your one piece of advice to someone who is just starting out as a singer-songwriter?
One piece of advice I’d give for anyone starting out is to “do it anyway” sometimes we get caught up in waiting until we have all the right things or pieces before we “start” and I say “do it anyway”. Write the song, and record the video! Even if all you have is a cell phone. That’s more than enough.
