First Look Friday: Make Way for Anycia

Okayplayer: Where are you from?

Anycia: I'm from the south side of Atlanta. But I'm really from just Atlanta in general because I lived on the north side, the south side, the east side, the west side, every side of Georgia. I’ve lived in every nook and cranny. So I'm an Atlanta girl.

Who did you grow up listening to?

A little bit of everybody. My mom is from LA, so I listened to Bone Thugs and Harmony, Cherish, Usher, 112. I listen to a little bit of everything, then I still listen to my Luther Vandross and Teena Marie, Fantasia.

How did you get into making music?

Let me tell you, I've been doing it. I had been doing music but I wasn't taking myself or it seriously at all. I feel like people try to do deep shit like, ‘Oh my god, music was just my calling. I felt it in my soul and God came to me.’ No, baby. I was working a motherfucking job at a daycare. I was tired. The kids were bad as fuck, okay? But the damn daycare was too much — working from Monday to Friday. Friday night, I was leaving from there and going to the club from Friday to Sunday — working as a waitress and a bottle girl, waitress and a hostess. I was tired. exhausted. And I was not happy. That was last year.

Then my car started breaking down, oil leaking, it was too much. I had to figure something else out. And I was doing music and this stuff but I was like, ‘Why am I just going for fun? I need to drop some music.’ Then I started dropping music, got good feedback, and I woke up and I was that bitch. I was always that bitch, but now I'm different. I'm on a different level of being that bitch.

How long had you been making music when you made that choice?

Growing up, my dad's side of the family, they all sing and stuff. They wanted me to be a singer. My mom still... she just said that today. I had to hang up on her because today she called me like, "’You should start singing on your hooks.’ I'm like, ‘Mommy, I can sing. You should start being quiet so you can get a Corvette. How about that?’

I used to sing a lot and play the piano. Whenever I would sing I would be doing covers, other people's songs, and then once I got into the studio and tried to do my R&B song, baby, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. Because sliding down the wall about a man and crying and dying, it just ain't never been in me. I'm more of a fuck a nigga type of girl. I was rapping, and then I was doing a little auto-tune and melodic type songs and shit like that. And then one day, I just went up in the studio and made a song and I liked the way it sounded, and I just went from there.

What was your breakthrough song?

The song that gave me kind of my big break was a song called “So What?” But I never dropped it (officially) because I guess it had to get cleared by Ciara's team. So I've been begging, begging, ‘Please, Ciara. Please. I'll watch the babies and everything. I'll watch the kids on date night. Come on. Fuck with me, C.’ I'm all about doing shit the right way because, I'm a fan of Ciara. I want her blessing because that's her shit. And one day, I hope that I can get me a Ciara feature, so I ain't trying to fuck it up.

I had a GoPro. Broke as hell with a GoPro and a crooked weave, okay? I used to take the GoPro with me and my friends. And then my friend Reggie just put a bunch of the clips together for me and I put it on Twitter and it just got a crazy amount of feedback. It was crazy. I got good-ass feedback for a song that wasn't even out. That’s the song that kind of put me on a label tour. During my label tour, I made “BRB” with Internet Money. From there, I dropped the song not really thinking much of it; my manager and stuff was like, ‘That's the song. Everybody going to love that song.’ And everybody loved it.

So, when did you start working on Princess Pop That?

People think that I was locked in the studio and made an album; no. I go to the studio. I work my ass off. So when it came down to like, oh, ‘You got to put an album together,’ a bitch just put an album together. I already had 42,000 songs in a vault. Some of them, of course, I made them, yeah. But for the most part, it was no ‘album mode’ or nothing like that.

Everything you're doing is coming naturally. You care about the music a lot.

I'm able to look at the bigger picture. I know that there's a bigger fucking picture. And on top of that, doing music was my outlet at one point in time, and now it's become my job. But at the same time, I put myself first in everything. People might say I'm a little selfish, and the f*ck I am. And when I started I said, ‘With my music, this is about me.’ Of course, it's about my fans too, but for the most part, this is my shit. Can't nobody take my shit from me? If I don't like something, then I don't like it. If I like it, then I like it. But for the most part, this is my shit, this is my outlet.

I was at your SOB’s show and I was really impressed by your performance, considering New York crowds are unpredictable.

I saw myself as a leader. And I just feel like when you're a leader, you can adapt to any environment. Even if I went out there and everybody was like, not in the right spirits. I feel like as a leader, it's up to me to control the room. I control the energy, I control everything. I'm the ice breaker. I love to break the ice. I walk into a room with motherfuckers looking at me crazy. I bet you, you gon’ leave trying to be my friend.

But with SOB’s, I already knew what I was getting myself into. I felt like, ‘Oh, these motherfuckers think they fixin’ to come up here and act funny with me? I'll whoop everybody's ass.’ It's like, sometimes you just need that tough love. I cussed everybody out, at every show. I cussed somebody at an Atlanta show — I was mad at them because my tickets ain't sell out fast enough. And I was like, ‘Y'all got me fucked up. I'm from Atlanta or not?’

Are there things you want to do outside of music?

Yes. Every damn thing. I'm just trying to get as much money as I can so I can get the fuck on and just get me a house and live and don't do nothing else for the rest of my life, okay? I want to be an actress. I'm trying to act a little — I'll be Catwoman. If they remade Baby Boy or something like that, I would die to be Evette. I just want to be that motherfucking girl all the time in every nook and cranny. I want to collab with different designers. I want to literally be the Rihanna of rap.

What do you have coming up next?

So much stuff. A bitch is tired. I'm going to be on a few tours. Just a lot of money-getting antics. We got songs out the ass. I'm always going to be consistent.