Sophia Michaels
Pap Chanel is ready to shock the world with her latest EP, “Paptivities.” After a nearly two-year gap between 2021’s “Pretty & Paid 2.0” and her new six-track project, released May 12, the rising rapper tells POPSUGAR why she took her time crafting “Paptivities” — and why the EP sounds vastly different from her previous releases. “On this project right here, every song sounds completely different,” Chanel explains. “I have one song where I’m telling my fans all my business. I’m super excited for that one because people don’t really get to hear transparency from artists. This is a record where I got really vulnerable and talked about the good, bad, and the ugly.”
The record in question is the EP’s opener, “Pap Stories,” an introspective track where Chanel raps about everything from wearing “war wounds” to brushing off haters who doubted her. As promised, every other song on “Paptivities” adopts a different style too — from the club-banger “Left Right” to the melodic “Mind Games” and “Summertime” (featuring Fredo Bang) to the trap-inspired “Checkmate.” But one of the most meaningful releases off “Paptivities,” Chanel says, is “Who’s Bad” — a modern update to Trina’s “Da Baddest B*tch,” featuring the Diamond Princess herself.
“I know that’s going to be a legendary moment because she’s sampling her record and she’s on it,” Chanel excitedly shares of Trina’s cameo, adding that it marks her first-ever female feature. The 23-year-old up-and-comer says Trina has always supported her throughout the years and they’ve hung out often enough that when the opportunity arose to ask the hip-hop pioneer to hop on a song, “I just shot for the stars.” For Chanel, it was “amazing” to be stamped by one of her rap inspirations.
Chanel, born Jaida Chanel Roby, hails from her small town of Milledgeville, GA — a little ways away from the South’s hip-hop mecca, Atlanta — but knows she’s destined to become “one of the greats.” By age six, Chanel was already writing poetry. For the past few years, she’s put in work with projects like 2018’s “The Definition of P.A.P.” and her “Pretty and Paid” series, as well as hot singles like “Talk 2 Cheap” and “Gucci Bucket Hat.”
“He saw that I had a love for music so he made sure that I knew about all the things I need to know to be in the music industry.”
Growing up, Chanel listened to legendary rap queens like Foxy Brown, Eve, Missy Elliott, Nicki Minaj, and, of course, Trina, before one of her five brothers turned her on to other influential artists like Tupac, Notorious BIG, Lil Wayne, and T.I. “He saw that I had a love for music so he made sure that I knew about all the things I need to know to be in the music industry,” Chanel shares of her sibling. In turn, her strong hip-hop foundation helped her create the assertive sound that’s propelled both her and her “Pretty and Paid” movement.
The mantra, which inspired the title of “Paptivities” and also stands for half of Chanel’s stage name, was initially spurred by the Southern rhymer’s desire to see more unity amongst women. “I noticed over time that males get together and work together quicker than females. I always said, us [women], if we work together, there is no telling what beautiful things we could get done. So when I created ‘Pretty and Paid,’ it was all about confidence, coming together, getting this money, and just being very prestigious women,” she explains. Because of that, Chanel believes that “creating this movement set up a great foundation” for herself in the industry and gave her fans “something else to fall in love with.”
“I’m just ready for them to say, ‘Oh, you that b*tch. You here to stay.'”
As a “real country girl” and leader of her own movement, Chanel says her story is even more compelling because “it’s so relatable to other people.” “I feel like [‘Pretty and Paid’] puts me at the top of the food chain because I represent something other than being a rapper that’s just talking sh*t,” she continues, adding, “I feel like my movement is what’s really going to help me push this to the next level as well because I’m preaching something in my lyrics uplifting and it’s going to have some longevity.”
With success from her “Pretty and Paid” branding, Chanel hopes her new EP continues to “break the door down” for her growing career. She even offers a word of caution for those who still aren’t paying her attention: “Everybody needs to be scared of me.” But as far as her dedicated listeners go, the rapper hopes “Paptivities” makes clear “for a fact that I’m taking this seriously and can be one of the greats.” “I will be one of the greats,” she declares. “I put a lot of time into this project and I’m ready to hear what they say about it because you can really hear the difference in my music; the growth of my music. I’m just ready for them to say, ‘Oh, you that b*tch. You here to stay.'”
Image Source: Eric Jeffery Jordan II
