While women in hip-hop as a whole are redefining the rap industry, Renni Rucci is boldly taking her stand as the industry’s next great femcee. From South Carolina, Renni Rucci has made waves throughout both the industry and social media with the help of her unmatched and powerful rap voice and presence. The rising rap star, who is signed to Wolf Pack Global Music, recently released her all-new project “QuickTape” and is preparing to deliver her forthcoming project titled “Real Bitch Radio.”

What was supposed to serve as a quick collection of music to hold over fans has easily become a favorite project for supporters of Renni Rucci. “QuickTape” delivers eight all-new tracks to listeners including the records “Bag Talk” and “Play Wit It,” which also have accompanying music videos as well. Interestingly enough, what fans and listeners may not know is that Renni Rucci has already provided a teaser of “Real Bitch Radio” as “QuickTape” features cuts from the upcoming project. Although COVID threw a wrench in Renni’s plans to release her next major project “Real Bitch Radio,” the femcee made the best of the situation by pulling some tracks from it and packaging up her latest project “QuickTape.”

Beyond being a musician, Renni Rucci is a proud mother of two; her 12-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. In addition to being a self-proclaimed “Mother Goose,” Renni can also be described as a very observant and honest person who is not afraid to speak her opinion. On the flip side, Renni is much more outspoken as a rapper, but she remains a very humble artist. In her own words, Renni Rucci is a “confident b*tch” who has come a long way in discovering who she is and what her true purpose in life is. 

During our recent interview, I was able to connect with Renni and discuss her experiences and opinions on the hip-hop industry and motherhood while also touching on her label partnership with Wolfpack and history with Quality Control.  

How do you balance being a hip-hop artist and being a mother?

“I’m still figuring it out. Every time I feel like I got it under control, something changes. Either something with my career changes or my kids change. They grow and change everyday. Once we get in a routine and I think I’ve got the hang of doing things like going to do shows here and record there, they change and it’s all about them for me. It’s something that you take one day at a time because there’s no right or wrong way to parenting. All children are different and all parents are different. I had my kids at a young age so we learned a lot together, but I’m their mother. I don’t do that friend sh*t. I’ve seen girls have kids as young as I did and they didn’t raise them, their moms raised them. I raised my kids and we figured this out together. They have an understanding of where I am in life and certain situations. My kids are so mature for their ages and very understanding. We just have an open line of communication, which I feel is what helps to really juggle the two [hip-hop and motherhood]. If I had kids who didn’t really understand, weren’t self-sufficient, weren’t self-aware and confident then this wouldn’t work. My kids are a reflection of me.”

Do you try to keep your music away from your kids?

“No because between social media and television and going to school, you can try your hardest, but you cannot shelter your kids from this world. My kids have Instagram and they have social lives. They’re in middle school. There are certain things I can’t hide from them so we do have those conversations before anyone else has those conversations with them. I’ll leave the studio and ask them their opinion. It might be some of the most inappropriate stuff, but if I go listen to YoungBoy or Polo G or whoever the kids are listening to at the time, it’s like we’re all saying the same thing so I can’t shelter y’all from what’s going on.“

Have you always had an interest in pursuing music?

“Music has always been in my life in a certain way. I didn’t always know that it was what I wanted to do. I knew I could do it. I knew I was good at it, but I think only up to recently, had I discovered it as a passion. Being a single parent at a young age, I didn’t have time to get to know who I was at first. You know with my kids getting older, I’ve had a lot of time to sit with myself and figure out what it is I really want and what it is that makes me really happy. Music has always been knocking at my door and when I finally did it, I realized I should have taken it seriously before, but if I had taken it serious before, I wouldn’t be who I am now. So I’m happy and I feel like it’s my passion now. Only because I can identify what my passion is because I can identify who I am.”

“When I used to think I knew myself, I didn’t know myself. I knew myself as who I needed to be for my kids and whatever else. I got that confused with who I am. I confused who I’m supposed to be and who I am. Now I know who I am and I’m not supposed to be anybody else.”

When would you say you officially decided to fully become a rap star?

“I got signed six months after taking music seriously. I didn’t have any original content out. I was just jackin beats and putting videos up to them. And I knew I enjoyed making music then because I always enjoyed writing and poetry. I love poetry, but music was always therapeutic. I was in the club too and I had an opportunity to do it before so when it came back around, I was ready to transition from the club. I didn’t even want to be on the pole anymore. My kids was getting older and, back to the topic of social media, you can’t hide stuff like that from them anymore. I want to do something that my kids can talk about on Career Day. Something they can be proud of so when the opportunity presented itself again, I was like, “I’m going to take it serious this time. I have the money to put into myself. I’m going to invest in myself and figure it out.” Even at that time, I felt like I was doing it, but I don’t feel like I had my “Ah-Ha!” moment of being an artist until I was signed for a year and a half. I still had to transition from that lifestyle I was in and that transition was so abrupt. I didn’t prepare for that. The music took off on it’s own organically. It wasn’t a “I’m going to save up this much money and leave the club.” As soon as I started, it went and I had to figure out who I was outside of the life that I left.”

What was your relationship like with Quality Control and how did it come about? 

“I’ve never been with QC. I just knew everybody over there already and nobody really knew that I did music until I started being consistent in jackin the beats and posting the videos. Once Pee saw me posting the videos he called me and was like, “Why didn’t you tell me you did music?!” So he had already signed City Girls and female rap wasn’t big yet so handling a female act is a lot already. And this wasn’t the only label that reached out. I went and met with G.O.O.D. Music. I had people from Roc Nation calling me. This wasn’t the only label that had reached out, but I feel like coming from where I came from, they would understand me a little more. I’m coming from the strip club. I don’t know sh*t about the business. I don’t want to go to one of these big labels because I don’t want to get there and they’re pressuring me as I’m figuring things out and get shelved. Pee was like, “I’m going to put you with my people. You’re going to be in good hands.” And I trusted that because these are people that I already had a rapport with. So a lot of people get it confused. I signed my paperwork at QC because we all family, but I never once said I was signed to QC. On my signed picture, I put “Wolfpack.” I could see how it’s confusing, but we three years in now. I will get on Live and they are still like, “Are you still with QC?””

What has it been like for you to work with Wolfpack?

“I feel like Wolfpack was the only place that was really going to understand me and take time with me. Wolfpack has had so much patience with me in figuring out myself. It’s been a growing process for all of us because again, the only artist Wolfpack had before me was Lil Baby so we are still learning and growing together.”

How did you enjoy the process of rolling out QuickTape?

“I’m going to tell you the backstory on “QuickTape.” A lot of those songs were pulled from my project that’s getting ready to come out “Real Bitch Radio.” That was supposed to be my next project to come out, but COVID hit and it affected the way we wanted to roll out my next project. I didn’t want to do it any other way. I wanted to be hands-on, do pop-ups, touch my fans and really be personable with them. So I’m like, “I don’t want to put that out yet. I want to wait, but I still want to give them music and something to live with while we figuring s*it out.”

I pulled some of the songs from “Real Bitch Radio.” I put them all on “QuickTape.” I had a picture from a show in front of a QuickTrip and I was like, “We are going to take this picture right here, edit it, and call it “QuickTape” because we are just going to throw this b*tch out. I just want to give them this music. We all did this over Zoom calls; Editing the “QuickTape” sign from QuickTrip. It was just a fun, interesting process and it was something that literally just came to me one day like, “I’m just going to give them some songs. I gotta give them something. So that was the process. It was really fun though.””

Do you feel that there’s more pressure on “Real Bitch Radio” now that you’ve pulled some music from the project?

“No because everytime I go record, I create something better. That’s the problem when I’m recording because I feel like every song I record is better than the last one. The music just gets better so the hard part is figuring out when I’m going to be done recording for the day. When I am going to finally say, “go ahead and take those songs” versus saying, “No, let’s switch it for this one that I recorded today because it’s so much better.” That’s my problem.”

Would you say Eve inspired you to be a rap artist or would it be someone else?

“Eve definitely. I would say she played a big part as far as the females because I was more into her and Charli Baltimore. I don’t know how to describe their sound. They just reminded me of the women I grew up around. Really dominant and strong women, which is why I feel I related to them a lot. I listen to a lot of Andre 3000. I love Andre 3000. Between her and him, I love them.”

Would you love a collab with Andre 3000 and Eve one day?

“Hell yeah.”

Who would you say your dream collabs are?

“Everyone wants to work with Drake at least once. As far as anyone else, I go off of how things play out. I believe in organic sh*t happening. Whatever is meant for me is going to come to me when it’s supposed to. A lot of people get the dream collab they want, but it’s either rushed or it wasn’t really done because they wanted to do it so fast that it doesn’t do as well as you think it would. So I would never want that to be the situation with any collab that I do. I believe in letting whatever’s supposed to happen to you happen. There’s nobody I wouldn’t work with. Whoever wants to work with me, I’m flattered that you even think that highly of me to want to work so I’m with it.”

What are your thoughts on the current femcee stereotype that female rappers don’t get along as well as the men do?

“I personally don’t think it’s us firsthand that make it that way, but again, reading into social media and listening to your fans, sometimes the fans can make the issues. They go so hard for you and they don’t mean no harm, but the constant comparisons or the constant “she’s better than her” or “she’s copying her” from the fans could really make you feel like, “Oh, this b*tch really is copying me.” You can’t do that. I don’t think a lot of it is the female rappers first hand wanting to be catty to each other. You just have to have a strong mind being in this industry and an even stronger mind being a woman in this industry.”

With the album, what can fans expect to hear as far as your growth and content?

“More story-telling. I’m going to touch on more personal music. A lot of the music that I’ve put out has been “brag” rap or just talking my s*it. I haven’t really put out a lot of records that are personal or touching. I’m going to show a little more of that side. More structure. Outside of the music, more sequencing. I want it to really feel like it’s supposed to be. I’m more hands-on with everything and I feel like it’s going to show and give the impact that I want. I know we all want to talk about getting money. We all want to talk about Chanel bags and everything, but we all also have to remember the times that we couldn’t afford that. Or the times that it wasn’t “F*ck these n*ggas. Get money.” It was, “Damn, I love him and I don’t know why he did this to me?” Realistic things.”

Feature Image via SoundCloud