Allow yourself to fall into a Lisa Frank-esque daydream with all the fixings—the full-spectrum palette, the whimsical creatures, and the cutesy big-eyed characters that lived on the notebook of many a Gen Y and Z girl. Now, “trap” it out. You’ve tapped into the essence of the artist known as 504icygrl. Self-styled sugar trap “CEO” Ariel Riley speaks to the would-be hustler in all of us. To define her as a rapper alone would downplay her body of work. 

 This author had the chance to speak to the artist during one of her monthly jaunts back to the city. Riley is a dual citizen of L.A. and Louisiana. But as her moniker and the iced-out chain on her neck indicate, she’s 504 for life. On this mild July day—Louisiana mild anyway—she’s traded her signature long, dark locks for even longer braids and her pastel pink garb for a more laid-back, athletic look. Her soft, friendly smile radiates in stark contrast to her harder image. Even though she “ain’t even 5’4,” the Aries artist has a presence.

That adage that big things come in small packages rings true here. With her fresh BUKU booking, upcoming sophomore album The Princess Diaries, and her own cannabis brand on the West Coast, the 23-year-old CEO’s reach is far from petite—though her career is on the shorter end. Her debut EP Trap Etiquette dropped only two years ago and her debut album Zazaland last year. While rap is a recent acquaintance for Riley, the rap game is not. Her longtime partner, Poppy (not to be confused with the nu-metal singer), was with Cash Money before they formed their label, 504 Exotics.

 “He was signed to Lil Wayne, and I was always around…in the corner just watching,” recounts Riley. “[I was thinking] like ‘I want to do that, but I’m too scared,’ but it was always something in the back of my head.” It might’ve stayed there had she not been visited by art’s most potent muse: heartbreak. She and Poppy separated for a while in Los Angeles. “[Rapping] became a part of me venting and becoming my own person.”

 Riley points at a little tattoo on her left cheek—her stage name in funky print and haloed. She explains that it’s a memento from her very first performance. “It was at a tattoo party. They didn’t even have a stage…I performed on top of the bar ’cause I’m really small,” Riley recalls. “This was my commitment that this is what I’m doing for the rest of my life.” She “was stamped at that point” literally and figuratively. 

 Though Riley and her partner have severed ties with the Cash Money label, she says that the Young Money crew—Nicki Minaj especially—and others like Rico Nasty wrote her rap primer. With bars where she compares her “good hands” to Allstate’s, she’s evidently inherited the wordplay of her musical foremothers. Far from being derivative, NOLA’s icygrl has carved out a lane of her own that turns gender roles on its head. While weed, women, and guns are the stomping grounds of the average male rapper, she’s taken them, extracted the masculine, and infused them with her unique brand of female empowerment. 

But balancing fans’ expectations and her reality hasn’t been easy.

 “Sometimes people want me to make that traditional female rap music…twerking and raunchiness. That’s really not the type of music I make. I really try to make trap music and shit that I’ve been through, so it’s (expectations) kind of hard for me to navigate,” Riley admits. “I feel like it’s a bunch of pulling from every which way.”

 At the end of the day, she declares, “This is me, period. Take it or leave it.”

 Riley belongs to the rising generation of artists intent on making New Orleans take over for the 2000 (and ’20s). Despite their differences in musical approach, she stresses that the women of New Orleans rap are “out here killing it.” Perhaps this is why October’s Princess Diaries will be a mostly female production, though Riley’s still ironing out the features. The artist knows female producers are few and far between, so she “might be forced to have one or two male producers.” With this release, the icygrl hopes to promote unity and progression within the city’s network of talent.

With the microfest Kruel Summer slated for August 15, and mixers planned for later this year, Riley resolves to do her part in (re)building bridges in the hip hop community. “We’re missing bridges to get to the next level. A lot of people here get so big, and they get stuck because they don’t know where to go to next.” 

To learn more about Princess Diaries and Kruel Summer, visit 504icygrl’s website. Otherwise, stream her on Spotify and Apple Music.

 

Brianna Navarre is an early career journalist and recovering English major from the Northshore. She spends her time writing reviews, music news pieces, and allegedly bad poetry.