Ladies First: Big Jade Talks Texas Come Up From Hairstylist To Rapper

When we think of rappers out of Texas looking to shine in a sea of artists hoping to be next, not many people think about Beaumont. The Lone Star State's contributions to Hip Hop history have been etched in stone and within this new generation of artists, more women are emerging from Texas with a vengeance. Megan Thee Stallion, Erica Banks, Lizzo, KenTheMan, and Asian Doll are just a handful of women in Rap making waves in the industry, and Beaumont's very own Big Jade has also been commanding attention, bar-for-bar.

It has been argued that the current state of Rap is oversaturated with artists who have sprung from all corners of the world aiming to become the next global superstar, but not all of them have the same determination as Big Jade. Like millions of others, Jade's launch began on social media as she uploaded videos of herself showing off her skills, and with the help of BeatKing, her reach expanded. Jade's presence is palpable as she brings fierce energy with a focus on lyricism, and although she told us that she was once insecure about being a hairstylist with a rap dream, that eventually became the avenue that captured the attention of label executives.

"I was a 'Kitchen ‘Tician' in my city. People started really just f*cking with me and when I seen like, oh sh*t, people [were] like, oh you grinding," Jade told us. After receiving advice from fellow Beaumont artist Teezo Touchdown, Jade put out a music video for "RPM" where she was seen rapping while styling someone's hair. "They start giving me big ups like, Lil Baby hit me up and reached out, Kaash Paige, a lotta people. Offset. A lot of people hit me up and was like, 'Good sh*t.' On some sh*t that I was embarrassed of even letting people know. So, for me, that’s the best piece of advice that I always held onto: be myself no matter what it is. If I’m struggling right now, if I don’t got no money, whatever it is... Be proud of who I am no matter what version of myself it is."

Big Jade is in the early stages of her career and blessed our latest edition of Ladies First where she spoke candidly about what she has endured, as well as what she has planned for the future. In talking with Jade, the power behind the way she communicates can often be mistaken as aggression, something she is keenly aware of, but at its root is a passionate creative. The self-described sensitive soul is a single mother taking a shot at the big leagues, and she's not stopping until her goals aren't only reached, but exceeded.

Read our interview with the Alamo Records emcee below where she speaks about having a hardworking team by her side, why she doesn't pay attention to the negativity thrown her way, how DeJ Loaf inspired her to speak her truth, and what questions she would ask Nicki Minaj and Eve if she ever sat down with them. 

The interview has been slightly edited for clarity.

HNHH: Thank you so much for sitting down with us today. We wanted to pick your brain about you being a woman in the Hip Hop industry to shed light on what women are experiencing. We really wanted to show that you ladies have more in common than one would think, and you can help out the next chick trying to get on—and the female rappers that came before you can learn from the experiences that you’re going through that they didn’t experience. So, just straight off the bat, before we get into all of that, I just want to see where you are, what you have coming up, what you’ve been working on. Tell us all about that.

Big Jade: Okay, so right now, I’m actually working on a project. This is a real personal project for me because I feel like my label is actually kind of giving me more creative control. You know what I’m saying? I’ve always had it but I’m just taking more control of my situation. We’ve got singles that we’re rolling out. We got features that we’re currently waiting on right now. So, my project is really wrapped up, it’s just a couple more tweaks that I gotta deal with, and we in the mix with it. We in the mix with rolling these singles out and then boom, a project on y’all heads.

In talking about taking control...when I recently interviewed two Hip Hop icons, women, I had asked them what advice they had for the younger generation of women that are coming up in the industry. They said women need to take control of their business, they need to know the industry, they need to know who they have working for them, they need to know their contracts just as much as their lawyers do. Do you agree with that and see that you’re implementing that sort of business structure with your career as well?

Yeah, I feel like you really definitely have to know what’s going on because especially for me, I’m a real outspoken person. I’m the type of person that just start saying something and then it's like, girl that’s not even what’s going on. You know? So, you really gotta learn what’s going on because I really get to chopping down the wrong person. You gotta really, literally know your business and knowing what’s going on. I will literally be on the phone going off on somebody that’s on digital for something that’s not even digital. They’re like, "Dude we have nothing to do with this." You know what I’m saying? It’s really good to like know what’s going on, gain control of your situation, and learn like learn what everybody doing and knowing.

I know that everybody on my team is here to help me. And I know like if it’s an argument about what I should wear or what I should drop, it makes me feel like y’all care. If y’all just let me do whatever, and we just doing whatever, then you know, I feel like y’all don’t really care. But you really gotta know what’s going on because it’s been a lot of times where it’s like, “What are you talking about?” If you don’t know what’s going on then what’s your argument? What’s your point? Like, wrap your point up.

I feel like to even have a voice, we need to know what’s going on. Like how you gon’ have a voice, how you gon’ stand up for yourself, how you gon’ take more control of your situation if you don’t even know? You not even educated on what’s going on or what’s the proper way of doing stuff.

Do you think it’s important to keep women on your team? Because some artists operate with all-male teams, but I just spoke with a singer and she’s said her entire team—from her lawyer to her manager, publicist—are all women. Do you think there’s a need for more women to jump on the teams of female rappers that are out there? Or is it just like, it is what it is, doesn’t really matter?

I feel like for me, it’s not more so about what sex you are or what race, anything like that, it’s just about people willing to go hard for you. So if my team is all women, it’s nothing but all women that’s gonna go hard for me, then that’s what I want. But if a team of all men is gonna go harder for me, then that’s what I want. I want whoever has Jade’s best interest at heart.

Some people be getting confused like, “Oh I want all women, I want all men, I want all this.” No. I want a group of people that is down for Jade. So, whether it’s women or men,—‘cause I grew up where I have a lot of brothers, so I’m really comfortable with a lot of men, but at the same time, since I’ve been signed there’s been a lot of women in my corner that’s been making things happen. So, it’s like for me, it’s all about whoever is down for me. Whoever’s down for this ride. Whoever’s down for, “Okay if that don’t work, we finna try something else, and if that don’t work, then we just gon’ try something else.” You know, whoever down for Jade. We could all be mixed up together, whoever going hard for me. Whatever that leave us with, that’s what we with.

Which female artist, or more than one, has shown you the most love in the industry? Or has been the most supportive to you in your career if any.

Like, rappers?

Well, anybody. It could be rappers, but it could be an entertainer, if there’s just a woman who's been in your corner throughout your career just giving you advice.

Well, I feel like I get advice from here, I get advice from there, and I feel like I’m the type of person who, I’ma just keep it real about myself, like my emotions go here and my emotions go there, so I kind of like would go off on you. So, I feel like, it’s sad to say, but it’s really not sad to say, my person is a male. It’s [my manager] Heavy. Heavy been in the game longer than anybody that I personally know. And that’s somebody that never steers me wrong, that’s somebody that cares about me. I got money in my pocket or I’m doing good, whatever it is. That’s a man to me. A father figure, I feel like that's Heavy.

But as far as a woman goes, I’ll say my mama but we argue every other day but it ain't nobody that’ll hold me down like she holds me down. It’s not nobody that want me to win more than her. Ain’t nobody sit up there and gave me more advice from her, my mama. "You don’t wanna sound friendly, what the f*ck." I text somebody, do this, do that. Video concept, that is my mama. Now, we can’t get along more than three or four days [chuckles]. But I will have to say my mama if we talking bout women. As for as my person in the industry that has been my biggest help, my biggest inspiration, the person that keeps me calm, keeps Jade running, that would have to be Heavy and that’s a man.

Hey, that’s all good. I mean, it’s whatever works for you and your career, how you’re pushing forward, and what matches with you.

Oh, and my daughter! My daughter gives the best advice. My daughter says, “Mama calm down, mama don’t do this. Mama that’s cute, mama that look good.” So, I would have to say my daughter, too. My daughter don’t play about me.

Speaking of advice, what advice have you received from anybody that has helped you stay inspired and motivated as you pursue your career. Any piece of advice that you’ve held onto that you would be able to bestow upon somebody else.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the artist but his name is Teezo. Teezo Touchdown. He's from Beaumont. He kinda like a rockstar kid but we from the same city and for me, when I started off, I was a hairstylist. I was somebody that did hair. I’m a mom, I did hair. I did hair 24/7. Everybody in my city knew me as that. I didn’t wanna be known as the hairstylist no more. I wanted to be known as a rapper. I’m rapping now. Like, stop playin' on my top. So, I used to be embarrassed that I still had to do hair. Like, if I’m such this lit rapper, then why the f*ck do I still have to do hair? I was always embarrassed by that. I never wanted to post that I was doing hair. I was just really embarrassed like damn, I must not be getting Rap money doing it. And Teezo told me like literally, always be yourself. At the end of the day, it’s thousands of people that’s just like you. If that’s what you doing, that’s how you gotta do it, don’t never be ashamed of that. Live that. Let people see that.

I got on video and I did hair in the kitchen and was rapping like what I do. I feel like that’s what drew my label to me, but that was something that I was embarrassed of. I was embarrassed I was doing hair in the kitchen but this how I’m making a living for me and my daughter. Yeah, I was embarrassed, I didn’t want to be known as the hairstylist, but my friend Teezo told me, “What the f*ck, that’s how you doing it? What don’t you rap? Rap while you slayin’ a hoe hair. Actually, lay a b*tch frontal down while you rappin’. Let people know who the f*ck you really are. You not doing hair in the shop, so don’t try to go to the shop to do it. Do it in the kitchen where you doing it.”

I was a “Kitchen ‘Tician” in my city. People started really just f*cking with me when I seen like, oh sh*t, people like, oh you grinding. You doing this, you doing that. They start giving me big ups like, Lil Baby hit me up and reached out, Kaash Paige, a lotta people. Offset. A lot of people hit me up and was like, “Good sh*t.” On some sh*t that I was embarrassed of even letting people know. So, for me, that’s the best piece of advice that I always held onto: be myself no matter what it is. If I’m struggling right now, if I don’t got no money, whatever it is. Be myself and be honest about that. Be proud of who I am no matter what version of myself it is.

What kind of impact and legacy are you hoping to have in the industry? It seems like everybody has their own niche, but one thing I really love and admire about you as an artist is that you do not play when it comes to the pen game and you are a beast on the mic, but what is the impact you want to leave behind? What legacy are you wanting in this industry and what do you want to be known for?

I feel like I want to be known for, basically, I literally came from nothing—which I know a lot of people say that they came from nothing, but for me too, my age. I’m 28. I’m finna be 29. I want people to know like, I want people to look at me and say, “Hey, she had a late start. She didn’t start at sixteen, seventeen. She a single mother. She started out in her late twenties after she already had a kid. She’s already a mother.” I want people to know it’s not too late. A lot of people give up on their dreams, or feel like, “Oh, they’re looking for more younger people, or they’re looking for this, they looking for that. I want younger people to know whatever age you want to start chasing your dream, it’s literally not too late. You can literally make that happen. I want people to see that. I actually want people to see that and know that like you can literally start wherever, however, wherever.

And for me, I’m still finding myself as a woman. I’m still growing into the person I want to be every day. I know that as I change, the type of legacy that I want to leave is gonna change, as well. So, right now, for me it’s important for people to know that I did get a late start, I did go to jail for seven months, I did get back out, I did have a kid already, I did go through all these things that was supposed to have me staying still, staying in the same place or be discouraged.

It’s a lot of girls that come out this young, no kids, no stretch marks. So, I want women to understand you can still achieve what you want to achieve. I want to be the example of that, a grown-ass woman. You still can get out here and do what needs to be done.

Speaking of that personal growth and being an artist under a microscope, how are you able to balance that while people are also dissecting all parts of you? Whether it’s personal or career or what you post or how you perform, with all of those criticisms, how do you handle that? Because I know that women in the industry get that criticism often, especially regarding their bodies, and their looks are picked apart a bit more. So, in maintaining that growth, how are you also able to handle that level of constant criticism and critique?

It’s got a lot to do with the type of woman that I was raised by. My mama gon’ chop your ass down. My mama the type of person, you can’t lose three pounds. “Girl, uh-uh you need to eat. Why you small? I don’t like you small. I don’t like you this.” Like, my mama is very hard. So, for me, when it comes to people, I’m more so affected by the opinions of my team and sh*t like that. Like, yeah I do take into consideration a lot that people say, but when I look at what people say, it really don’t offend me. When I dropped my album, I seen Pitchfork did an interview and they was saying from my album you could kind of see that I haven’t found myself as an artist. A lot of people be mad at that, but they not lying. I’m still growing as a woman. I don’t even know who I’m gonna be tomorrow. And if you can identify that in my music, I’m really not mad.

I am still finding who I am as an artist. I am still finding myself. I always kind of try to take something in, look at it in a positive way because I go through so much sh*t that literally, criticism from the industry, literally does nothing to me. I’m a real person, I got baby daddy drama and other sh*t. So, what people saying and this and that, I look at it and take it into consideration like, maybe, I should try to [do this and] maybe I should try to [do that], but at the same time, that sh*t don’t really do nothing for me. When I see if I post a picture of my body, when I see my people cheer me on, like, “Oh natural this, stretch marks this, natural t*tties, natural this.” That’s what I wanna push because that’s something that I battle with. I battle with, “Should I get my t*tties done? Should I get that done? Should I get this done?” But then when I post something, it’s so many people cheering me on. “It’s the natural t*tties for me, it’s this for me, this look good, that look good.” So for me, whether it's negative or it’s bad, I really appreciate it all, because it really helps mold who you are as an artist.

So, that’s not something to affect me, like I said, I’m the type of person that got real sh*t going on. So, that sh*t right there, I like to see that. Whether it’s negative or bad, I like to see it, I want to see how people feeling. What they thinking. What I should do. Even if it’s negative, I’m always taking constructive criticism, whether I get mad or not, still, that was their personal opinion, that’s what they’re entitled to. I don’t let that shake my world or change who I am.

If you could sit down and interview any woman, female rapper, in the industry, who would it be and what would the core of that conversation be?

Nicki Minaj [laughs]! I would interview Nicki.

What would you say? What would you ask?

For one, I look at how she shoots her videos, so I want to know if there was ever a point in her life where she wasn’t confident. I went all the way back in her sh*t and I just haven’t seen it. I just feel like she’s always been like…she’s just that b*tch. I would want to ask her, what helped her gain her confidence? I would want to know like, coming up. I would want to know just a lot of sh*t about her that I don’t know right now, like her creative process on making albums, on making songs. I want to ask her how she even found different tones of voices that she uses. What she did to motivate her, what gets her into writing? I really would have a bunch of questions for her. I f*ck with her. I like her delivery, I love her delivery. I just love everything about her. So, yeah. And I really feel like she can rap, she literally can go. It’s nobody f*cking with her. I probably would be all in her business [laughs].

So, it's safe to say if you had a dream collaboration, it would be Nicki Minaj, and—

And that’s so cliche! ‘Cause all the girls say Nicki and I hate it [laughs]! Like, get off of Nicki. That’s my girl. But, that’s what it is to me. Like for me, my motivation. Nicki is not why I started rapping or why I started taking it seriously, but she is somebody that I looked at, her and Eve. Eve, perfect person. I would f*cking want to interview her, too. But, Nicki is a person who I looked at her and said, I like everything she’s doing, I love how she doing it, I like her presence, I like her confidence, I like everything about her.

Now, DeJ Loaf! DeJ Loaf is a motherf*cking person who made me feel like I could be me. When I first started rapping, everybody said I was too rough. Like, I’m too hood, I rap too much like a n*gga. Like, all the n*ggas wanted me to talk nasty and when DeJ Loaf came out with, “Let a n*gga try me, try me,” I was like, exactly, let a mothaf*ckin’ n*gga try me and I’m finna hop on these mothaf*cking beats. ‘Cause y’all not gonna tell me that no female can’t rap about no real sh*t.

I know you touched on you going through real stuff and just being a real person with real-life issues. What is something about Big Jade that, because of the veil of the industry, people don’t often get to see? Something about you as a person, because there are always these expectations of, "Oh, she’s a rapper," "Oh, she’s this," "Oh, she’s a celebrity," "Oh, she’s famous," or "She’s got this many followers." People have this view of who you are, but what part of you do you think that people don’t get to see because they have these assumptions?

I feel like everybody thinks that I’m so hard, people don’t understand that I have feelings. I have a heart and I’m really a sensitive ass person and the way that I express that may come off as raw or as a person that’s really hard, but I’m really soft as f*ck. A lot of sh*t makes me cry. I’m crying all the time. I cry all the time.

Because I’m so hard, I rap so hard, and my personality is very strong and very demanding, it would come across as like I’m mean, or like I don’t have feelings, when I’m a really sensitive person. My feelings get hurt really easy. I just don’t express that. But I’m a very sensitive person, I just express it with aggression. But most of the time when I’m aggressive, it’s because somebody hurt my feelings, not because they make me mad.

I’m a mother, so obviously I’m a more nurturing type of person. Give the shirt off my back. Take care of anybody. I wasn’t always like that, but as far as me being hard, and people [being] like, “You hard,” and this and that, and people really feel like I don’t have feelings and sh*t like that, I do. I actually get hurt a lot. I’m a real emotional person, a lot of people may not know that.

What’s your sign?

I’m a Capricorn.

Ohhh okay.

Not “Ohhhh okay”![laughs]

Nooo! [laughs] Because you said you were super sensitive and emotional, so, I was like, “Well, is she maybe a water sign? Nah, she’s not a water sign.”

No, I'm aggressive. Like, that’s what I said. A lot of people may think, oh I’m aggressive, I’m aggressive, but when you cut down to the middle of sh*t like what Heavy do when we get on the phone, I’m really emotional. So, I’m the type of person who makes decisions off of emotions. I be having to sit back, fall back, catch an attitude and cry with Heavy and just press the restart button. Because I be all over the place with my emotions and I feel like a lot of people don’t know that or don’t think that.

If you f*ck with me personally, yeah you know that, but on the outside looking in, like super, super, super, super sensitive. Like, super always in my feelings about something for real. On some crying sh*t for real. I could just cry right now I don’t know why.

[Laughs] No I get it, I’m a crier. I’m definitely a crier. That’s all I have for you today. I appreciate it, just taking the time out to talk a little bit about your career with me for Ladies First.

Thank you so much.