After years of hip-hop stardom, Medford’s BIA returns home as a tour headliner
Over the last decade the multi-platinum Medford-bred rapper and singer BIA has slowly but surely become a significant presence in the worlds of music and fashion. Thanks to her bold and confident attitude, tracks like “WHOLE LOTTA MONEY” with Nicki Minaj and “BEST ON EARTH” with Russ have been streamed hundreds of millions of times. She’s been championed by Rihanna, performed with Busta Rhymes on the BET Awards, and has a major-label deal with Epic. Her “SKATE” became the rare hip-hop track to be part of the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoff soundtrack, and she was one of the voices on the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 walkout anthem.
As her 2 million Instagram followers know, BIA’s unwavering musical swagger is paired with a unique visual vibe that she’s described as fly girl meets high fashion. This month Beauty for Certain, which she cofounded after finding that regular cosmetics didn’t hold up during her intense stage shows, announced a line of lip kits to be sold through Urban Outfitters. The child of an Italian mother and a Latino father, she’s often spoken about growing up with a mixed-race identity.
Her recent successes are fueling a career that started when rapper Fam Lay discovered some tracks BIA had posted on YouTube. Pharrell Williams signed her to his I Am Other/RCA label in 2014, the same year she started a two-season stint on the Oxygen reality series “Sisterhood of Hip Hop.”
One of the few accomplishments BIA hadn’t achieved was her own headlining tour. She’s changing that with the Really Her Tour — named for her new EP — with Lakeyah and Lebra Jolie, which comes to the Paradise Rock Club on Tuesday. On the eve of the tour, BIA spoke on the phone from her current base in Los Angeles about the concert that changed her life, the pride she takes in writing her own rhymes, and the distinctly-Boston thing about her personality.
Q. Did you spend your whole childhood in Medford?
A. I actually spent a lot of time in different places — Medford, Malden, Everett. My mom’s side is a small Italian family from South Medford, first-generation American. I had a strong family upbringing and a lot of friends.
Q. When you were growing up, did you go to any concerts? What radio station were you listening to?
A. My aunt used to always take me to concerts. My first concert I remember that she took me to at the Garden was the TLC “FanMail” tour, and that changed my life because TLC had put so much into their show. I grew up on JAM’N 94.5. My mom played everything from Tupac to country music, but JAM’N was always my go-to station. It’s so surreal to hear my songs on JAM’N now.
Q. Your personality is a big part of your music. Do you think that some of that comes from being from Boston?
A. I think that coming from Boston you have to have a certain wittiness to you, but you’re also kind of tough on the outside — not rude, but assertive. I think that there’s certain traits that just come from growing up in Boston. It’s assertiveness, but also knowing who you are and just not being able to let anybody tell you anything that you don’t feel. As an East Coast girl who appreciates good rap, good bars, and good music, I think that the music culture there is a lot stronger than people give credit for.
Q. Do you think you had to move out of Boston to become a success?
A. Absolutely. Because it’s not that it’s not for any reason other than resources that a lot of artists have to leave their hometown. Mass. is small in terms of resources for the hip-hop community. So I felt like in order for me to get the things that I needed, I had to leave. Also sometimes it takes leaving for people to appreciate you or appreciate your talent.
Q. Let’s talk about your work habits. You’re proud that you write all of your rhymes, right?
A. Yes, I definitely work in a collaborative space. So I work with my engineer or some of my producers and you know, every great artist gets help in the studio, so I won’t say I write 100 percent of everything, but I definitely write most of it — like 97 percent. When I’m in the studio I don’t stop until I’m done, and I never take no for an answer. So I’m constantly working. So it took a while to get this project [the “Really Her” EP] because I wanted it to flow and merge so many different genres together. There were some songs like “OH NO” and “FOUR SEASON” that we took maybe three or four months just to get the transitions right. And now we have the International Deluxe [version]. I really love it because I haven’t been back in the Latin space for a while. So especially “CHICKY TA” is the song that I felt like a lot of my fans needed from me.
Q. Why did you want your first headline tour to be an all-female bill?
A. I love what females are doing in rap right now. I like to be one of those girls who champion the next wave of women that are coming up. And you know I do a lot of collaborations with guys, I’m sure a lot of my homeboys will pop out on the tour as well.
Q. Has it gotten easier to be a female in the music industry?
A. I definitely wouldn’t say easier, I would just say it’s gotten better. You need an equal representation. I think we’re all so different in so many ways, and I think that it should be like this. You know, there’s so many male rappers. Why shouldn’t there be so many female rappers? I think everybody brings something different to the table.
Q. You think we’ve reached the point where there’s no turning back to the days where female artists were not properly represented?
A. Only time will tell, and I think it all comes down to the demand. There have always been women that rap, you know, it’s just that there wasn’t always such a demand for it. Now there is. So I’m glad that we can be here to fill those shoes.
Q. Sometimes people see a celebrity’s name stamped on a brand and they doubt that celebrity really had much to do with the product. How involved are you with Beauty for Certain?
A. I love beauty, makeup, and glam. I was so hands-on, down to the packaging, the swatch color, the color matching, the products, the formula, down to every little detail you could think of with this brand.
‘You know, there’s so many male rappers. Why shouldn’t there be so many female rappers? I think everybody brings something different to the table.’
BIA
Q. Are there any spots you want to hit while you’re back in town for this show?
A. Everybody that knows me knows I love a good Highland Cuisine moment in Somerville. I have yet to find Haitian food in LA. And there’s an amazing chef on Instagram. His name is Prosciutto Papi. I really want him to cook for me.