 What they gonna do with me now? I'm still a twerk of the town I'm hooking them down Reachin' the smiles in the clouds Y'all it's your girl Brianna Imani and we're here for another episode of twerk of the town interviews and today I have the beautiful Asian A. Clean A. Leader of the mermaid gangie I'm in the building Yes we have Queen A. here in the building So how's your time in New York been so far? I mean it's just like your energy Great! I've been working Like it's amazing Only thing that I don't like is it's so cold The wind is like frosty Yeah I mean girl it's December But surprisingly I mean It's actually nice for December Doesn't normally get dark this early? Yeah I'm like looking outside we in the Uber at 4.30 I'm like it's dark You don't get dark in that little round this town so like maybe 7 Oh yes and we said the day like same as they put melatonin in it because you get tired and it's dark But we gonna jump straight into it because I know that you're busy So tell me about like how you got into music when did this all start? So I actually been doing music for about three years but professionally like two and a half At first it was just a hobby I just got into something because I was going through a situation I'm like okay let me write because usually when I go through stuff I just write I'm a writer so my brother was doing beats he sent me some beats and I was on a voicemail and I was like with a cadence and I'm like shit what's next So I go to the studio six months down the line I'm like this is my calling So I just started putting all the bread I was hustling with into the music and then a year later I got signed so I signed to the one and only BOMG yeah independent label from Atlanta Okay so I know your dad is in the industry as well did his involvement in the industry impact you wanted to pursue a musical career at all or not I wanted to pursue it but I say I know history from him like I kind of know music he didn't really let us grow up with music without no substance so I can say I got that passion for music from him but me coming into the industry was kind of like a thing on my own but shout out to my daddy because he know everybody I know he'd be so crazy like people come up to him like now like hey do you know your daughter or they'll see him meet him and not even know that I'm his daughter people ask me if that's my dad it just be crazy it's great though it's great well I mean it's dope because that means that you're making a name for yourself and you're not in the shadows so that says a lot that definitely says a lot okay so who were your influences growing up in music? I loved R&B I wouldn't say like a specific artist but I loved R&B through trying times R&B was my scapegoat and of course the queen of course of course so are you a barb? I'm a mermaid but I fuck with the barbs okay so what do you think that Nicki Minaj and I mean not only her but like other influential women in rap would think about today's musical climate because I mean women are really excelling right now it's not a time to be a woman as a rapper it's taken off so what do you think their opinions would be on women in rap right now? as long as it's substance I think they're okay with it like I said I've seen something Nicki said before she was just like the music lacks substance and it does you know what I'm saying but I just feel like it's great that women are able to actually speak on what they want to speak on but just make sure the music has substance man you know there's some real music even if I'm talking about a man then go listen to it yeah okay so walk me through your creative process what does that look like? so I typically right at home I still do the voice memo thing I listen to the beats I'm like okay this is how I feel this is the subject I want to speak on think of even that experience I went through want to go through or something I've heard someone go through put it on the beat okay so how do you decide what songs you want to drop verses the ones that you want to keep in the stash like do you put out the songs that you think people want to hear or the ones that you really fuck with so I'm starting to with my label they have a great year for music they kind of know what to drop when to drop so all I gotta do is create and then we all like mine then we come up with the song to drop like as far as the tape we put 17 songs on there we went down probably 150 songs so we have multiple studio sessions like no this is not ready for this like but I'm up three albums right now I mean yeah you do it so I mean we already kind of touched on like substance and music and even if you're speaking sexually you still have that substance in your music but even with that you know there are a lot of people that like to critique women who talk about you know their sexuality and you know doing all of this stuff so what would you have to say to people who feel like you know who criticize women who are doing that uh bing bong fuck your life fuck your life now but for real though I mean you just gotta understand the times is I mean at the end of the day I know 20 years ago it wasn't okay for women to really talk about it and really live in it you know what I'm saying I'ma speak my truth and on top of that I'm sexually in tune so you know I'm cool with it I'm cool with speaking on it so other women may not be but it's okay so you really like that that's what you're saying okay okay so have you have you always been like so confident in your femininity like have you always been even before you started rapping were you always like open about talking about this stuff or did it come to you as you became like bigger stream so it's crazy like you know I'm very spiritual I believe in God he break you down before he builds you up like I always been like confident in myself but I went through a situation a real bad car accident I struggled for a minute with depression like I had scars on my face I couldn't walk I had to go to therapy so that kind of like built me but I had to build myself on ground zero and the woman that I built myself to be is confident like really don't unapologetic and just living my life everything I say I'm going to do is standing on it I mean you know God does give his toughest battles his strongest soldiers and he really built you up because you are really doing a damn thing so who who do you make your music for women especially okay like you pretty women but you know I'm making for everybody the world because I got different vibes like if you listen to the tape I got R&B on there got some motivational music on there I got some trap stuff on there some club vibes like I'm verses yeah it's very yeah I was about to say it's very versatile okay so what has the reception so of course you have the chosen one and we we mentioned it a little bit yes you have the chosen one so what has the reception been so far of that album they love it you see the stars on every music baby eight yeah I mean there's a few of them things on there there's definitely a few and I mean you have T.I. on there you have Flo Millie cash so what was it like working with them on this album so T.I. I'm going to start with T.I. I can see the king of the south so shout out to T.I. one of the realest in it so T.I. actually DM me I did the Be Easy song a few months back maybe like the top of the year I DMed him I'm like oh gee I really like if you you know check it out so he wrote back he said yeah he fucked with it coming down the line he hit me right before I about to submit my tape to the label he like we still older world one right I'm like hell yeah so I respond I say my tape drop November 19 I got something for you he said send it I sent it he called me like listen to this I listen to what I said right he lost his mind and it's a bop y'all it's a bop yeah but it's a bop and he I reposted him he repost anything I post in sacrament he wrote me he was like I'm genuinely happy to be along the ride with you so shout out to T.I. man one of the realest in it no cap him and his wife I met his wife too shout out to Tiny2 here okay so I know you had the jump challenge and on hate and hoes you had the two winners jump on that with you which is dope because I mean you already know how we do a talk in the town so yes I thought that was dope because you know some people they have like challenges where it's like oh you know wrap over my beat and you get X amount of money or I'll share your video or something but you put them on the album so that's really dope so what made you like want to do that as opposed to any other like incentives so it wasn't just my decision it was a label decision but my outlook was she when I was a little bit lower than I am now people didn't want to help me and I don't mind shining light on another woman it ain't gonna never did mine so it was like on top of that you gotta be hard to be on this tape yeah right because it's like that I mean and it was hard so you gotta be hard but you can really match that energy then come here so I picked Taylor Mayne she's actually from the south side too shout out to her and then Judy she from Texas so I had one more girl on there she because I said three girls and I kept my work but she's in her first sentence okay so I mean snooze you lose if you like that but shut up you too everybody went crazy for real it was a very hard decision because even a girl got on there singing to the beat I didn't see that one yeah it was dope and I did only women could submit yeah shout out to the guys though but I just had to do it for the women you know okay so I mean so you also of course have dingo and that video went crazy like that I fuck with it I played a little yoga ball it was giving me anaconda vibes it was I mean what don't do that I mean you are there and you had that mermaid tail and you made sure you rep for mermaid gang in there so tell me like how did mermaid gang even like come about what is what does this signify okay I got the mermaid with the steam ass y'all yeah it's a friend let me so tell us like how did that come about so the mermaid gang so first my sister came up with the mermaid but I ran with it my older sister so not only did I run with it I did my research so if you google it or if you dig a little bit you'll see that it's a european like folklore meaning they didn't pass down generation to generation seeing that they were called sirens seeing those beautiful creatures magical or music like to sing though and then outside of that I added my own twist like when you see a mermaid she hard to catch when you see her she's swimming so through anything in life you gotta just keep swimming so it is leader of the mermaid gang and I'm advocating it for anybody women, men, don't matter that's lit okay I mean sure I saw the merge I'm a certified member at this point yeah so we initiated you you heard it here first okay so yeah so we talked about the mermaid gang and with dingo I mean the lyrics go crazy like I said before we already know how you come in when you hop on the beat you be talking that shit but of course I want to know how does that translate into like your dating life like how do you separate like what you talk about in your music versus how you are with your partner so for everybody watching because if anybody confused I could be raving about experiences like with the BDE it stands for something way bigger than doing one of the man dingo it really stands for BDE big man energy you know I ain't gonna but if you grown enough you know exactly what I'm talking about but it ain't really talking about your size in your pants on your pockets it's your mentality okay like are you respectful like how you carry yourself is you cocky are you arrogant like just a respectful grown man like that's BDE to me you know what I'm saying because if you got all that it's just gonna come full circle go get that dingo out on all digital streaming platforms you heard so I mean but just following up on that question how do you set the expectation for like people who you're dating you know because it's hard it's tough and I know like I hear a lot of times like with women in music especially ones who rap like about sexually explicit content it's always like some sort of like they're seen as a sex symbol or they're seen like a certain type of way so how do you separate Asian aid rapper from Asian aid the lover so like if I deal with a man he know what I'm coming on you know what I'm saying I just might rap like that but he know I ain't spreading myself then on top of that shit he should be happy if he know I could perform like that so that's that on me isn't on that because I ain't talking about a group of guys you know I'm talking about my man that's gonna talk about my man my man my man my man so yeah so we know that you are from G so what made you sign to that label as opposed to any other one that's out here so what's so crazy just to give a little backstory I met them January 2020 like I said and we just got a vibe like it was just a whole team it felt like home they like helped me grow helped me like give me an artist development not only that it was just genuine from the start like everything just seemed like it made sense and I prayed on it almost two years later like we were yet so so you're happy with the decision yeah I'm happy yeah well that's dope that's dope okay so tell me like what do you have coming next what can we look out for from Agin A oh hold on cause you get me excited I got the little dance and everything what's happening so for when we about to drop another visual only fans it's so visual yeah all the videos I'm doing nowadays we only shooting straight movies so only fans visual dropping very soon and then I'm gonna drop the chosen one deluxe at the top of the year next year I ain't gonna say them well let me just say we got some bonus tracks we're gonna make chosen one deluxe come true okay that sounds good that sounds good and as a female artist what words of advice would you give to other upcoming artists who are trying to do their thing and start their career in music just keep swimming never give up and no don't mean no no means keep going like stay consistent stay grounded grounded and grounded yeah both of them keep going anybody can do this if this really your passion you're gonna put the work in to get to where you need to go okay okay so to wrap up we almost at the end of December the year new year is coming up don't look so down it didn't damn it's February it definitely is December I mean but you and Atlanta I mean at least in New York we felt that shit y'all was outside I didn't think about it we felt that shit but it's still we ain't closed at all I know I know so going into the new year what are your expectations what are your goals for 2022 I'm trying to go on tour man I'm trying to go on a road that's what I'm trying to do that's it I'm manifesting that like before May I'm gonna be on tour period like I wanna perform every day I love performing that's one of the best things about this really getting my element really getting my vibes and connect with my fans my supporters so tour tour name yes so alright and before we wrap up let's say hypothetically speaking you're going on tour who's the five people that you want to perform what you want to tour five I'ma say an upcoming artist I like Laquille five this is hard alright alright alright alright okay I'ma give you three ace Apollo of course my label made crazy and one more little female you put me under pressure to see everything I am I am I am oh Tussie it's a perfect combination me, ace Apollo and Tussie and I'ma do one more and Laquille okay there we go okay that's good are we grabbing it T-A-G-N-A on tour alright so I know you gotta go so let's shout out your handles Instagram what's up gang it's your girl A-G-N-A queen they lead on the mermaid gang I'm on all social platforms at the A-G-N-A-T-H-E-A-S-I-A-N-A-E follow me on tiktok I'm very hilarious on there A-G-N-A back chose one out now my first project go get it and write me I might write you back it's the mic for me I'm just bullshitting they know I write back for real well I really appreciate you for coming thank you so much I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in New York and that's it for our interview bye y'all