We Talked to Sasha Go Hard About Haters, Seahorses and Rick Ross's Cologne

As an undergrad involved in live music booking at Sarah Lawrence College, a small liberal arts institution in Westchester, NY, I often find myself in conflict with the school's Kafka-esque administration. I'd flown out Sasha Go Hard, the 21-year-old phenomenon from Chicago's vital South Side rap scene, a tricky proposition on a small campus where live music without an acoustic strum terrifies administrative imaginations with the prospect of crowd-surfing and noise complaints, so I knew from the outset that last Saturday's show would be trouble. At the last minute school officials moved Sasha's set to mid-afternoon, bizarrely tacking her onto the end of a folk festival. Nevertheless the crowd and I were captivated when Sasha sauntered on stage, her small frame and misleadingly soft-spoken demeanor flourescent with potential energy. She unleashed magnetic bars over fatalistically triumphant production, driving the crowd to 'bow-throwing ferocity with shouts of "Turn up!" At least, she did for 15 minutes, at which point I found myself face-to face with an apoplectic administrator demanding the show's immediate end in order to fill the venue with 800 chairs for an event the next day. Stuck between his fuming jowls and the confused chants of the crowd I felt kinship with K, the doomed protagonist of The Trial, stifled at every turn by the irrational machinations of a vast bureacracy. C'est la vie. With an hour to kill, Sasha and I (with her DJ Tony Roche of production duo Odd Couple) hit the dining hall and chopped it up over chicken tenders, our conversation ranging from Chicago street politics and the miracle of the seahorse to the sublime physical presence of Ricky Rozay.

Noisey: When did you start rapping?
Sasha Go Hard: I was 12 or 11 and I just started rhyming.

What would you rap about when you were 12?
Simple stuff, like red and blue. As I grew up my words started getting better and I started getting serious.

When was the first time you recorded a track?
All my friends told me to get in the studio and do some of my own work, because they rock with everything I do. That's when I hit [Chief] Keef up on Facebook and asked him where he recorded, because I saw him posting his stuff.

Was he already big in Chicago at that time?
Not like with the rapping stuff. He been rapping for a long time, but everybody knew him. He was cool with everybody, all the hoods and stuff, so that's when he introduced me to DJ Kenn. I went to DJ Kenn studio and recorded my first song, and everybody in the studio was telling me, "Man, that's raw and you go hard," so I'm like, "Okay man, I gotta get serious, everybody rocking with me."

Is that when you settled on the name Sasha Go Hard?
Yeah, thats when I made it official, Sasha Go Hard, like, let me get serious. I didn't want to use my real name as a rapper so I'm like forget it, I'm just gonna make it Sasha Go Hard. My uncle was already calling me Sasha. He said I reminded him of Sasha Fierce for some reason.

Beyonce's alter ego?
Yeah. [laughs] I don't know, after that I just ran with it and made it official.

How long have you been friends with Katie Got Bandz?
Me and Katie, we been on each other before the music, we been on each other for a while, not since we were little girls but six or seven years, just around the way.

How has the Chicago scene changed since money and hype came?
It changed because a lot of people are taking the opportunity, because everybody ass on Chicago, especially the music scene. A lot of people putting theyself in they own lane and crossing everybody out. A lot of people don't work together in Chicago. I don't feel like something wrong with that.

But it used to be different?
Yeah, it used to be different. Everybody used to collab and hop on songs with each other, but now you see what you worth and what you can do and you just put a price out there. Other people don't want to pay it, but I know this my job.

How do street politics in Chicago affect the scene?
A lot of people that don't know a lot about Chicago want to make it seem like the music is why the violence is there, but it's not true. Chicago streets been had violence way before the music scene came, and [journalists] are just making the people who serious about rapping look bad. Like, "Okay, they from Chicago, we gonna overlook them or not pay them any attention." It's just not fair.

So you think there are people trying to sensationalize the situation and blame rappers?
Definitely, cause it's not really true. They gon' say what they say, but I feel like they should figure it out before they put something out saying the music is causing deaths and beef.

That would be going on regardless?
Yeah, it would, it's been going on regardless.

When did you meet Rick Ross?
At Rockie Fresh's mixtape party. I'm on his mixtape so he invited me to come to New York to perform with him, and then when we finished performing our song, some guy had come up to me like, "Come with me, I want you to meet somebody." In my heart I knew it was going to be Rick Ross.

You had a feeling?
I had a feeling, definitely. I was like, "Oh my god, this can't be true," then he took me over there and it was Rick Ross, and I'm so happy like "Omg," and I gave him a hug. I told him, "I love you, I honor you, I got respect for you no matter what people say about you," and I told him I talk about him in all my interviews. And in my "No Time" track… [rapping] "Get up out my way, tryna meet Rozay." Its crazy, cause now I listen to "No Time" and I think, "Damn, I actually met him."

What does Rick Ross smell like in person?
He smelled good, like he had some good-ass, expensive-ass cologne. I love him!

Does he give good hugs?
Yeah, you could tell that the hug wasn't fake. It wasn't no "tryna be up on the female" type of hug. It was definitely like, respect.

As far as your writing process, how does that work? Do you write to a beat?
My writing process recently changed because people would send me beats and I'd just start writing to them, but now I work with Tony Roche. Most of the time he'll be working on the beat and I be with him and we just come up with a hit together. That's how I been working lately.

Tony Roche: We just vibe out.

I like how I do it now, it's easier, and it's just fun.

TR: I fuck with it too, because you get to make a more personal track when you're actually there with the producer, like, "This works, this doesn't, for the intro I want you to add those 808s."

Do you like where the drill sound is at right now?
I ain't gon' lie, I had slowed down from the drill scene once all the killings and the beef was going on because I didn't want to be looked at as a drill female rapper. It's just not cute to me. I love the drill sound though, especially me being from Chicago. Right now, I kinda came back on drill beats and drill music. I love it, that's one of the reasons why people rocking with Chicago, cause we got that type of sound.

Who were your favorite rappers when you were growing up?
Biggie, he was just so lyrical and real with his music. I feel everything he say. To be honest some of the stuff that he said taught and is still teaching me about the music industry, especially how it'll turn your friends into your worst enemies.

Has that happened to you?
Yes, definitely. I lost a lot of my friends to this music stuff, but it's cool. I gotta shout out Rick Ross also, "Push It," "Hustlin," he's always been dope to me.

When you first started were you one of the first female rappers in the scene?
I definitely was, I don't care what nobody say. I don't remember no other female around the time when I made "What We Do." The scene wasn't there for Chicago except me, Fredo, Chief Keef, Durk, Lil Reese. I definitely don't recall any other females that was rapping.

What are your tattoos about? People always ask about tattoos in interviews, I feel like I ought to.
My tattoos, they just…I don't know why I keep getting them, the pain is just horrible. For real, everybody asks me, "You got all these tattoos, they still hurt?" Like, yeah, the pain don't change.

TR: You gonna get one of those lip ones?

I should, shouldn't I…

What would you get on your lip?
YOLO [laughs]. But some of my tattoos have meaning. Like, I have a seahorse on the back of my hand. When I was young I fell in love with them, it just amazed me, like, a horse in some water, its just so pretty to me. I love them!

Did you know that male seahorses give birth?
[laughs] For real?

Yeah, the females somehow put the eggs in the male and they give birth.
TR: Respect to seahorses.

Tattoos are pretty, but the pain is ugly. Everytime I get one I say I ain't gon' get one no more.

When did you first start touring outside of Chicago?
The first time was in New York when I performed at Santos. It was the best experience I ever had before that because I never went outside of Chicago to perform, and when I did go out there I just saw all these people. The club was packed, everybody was screaming my name and showing so much love, dancing to my music, knowing the words.

What are the shows like in Chicago?
To be honest I've only performed there like six times. They cool, but the crowd just don't show a Iot of love, I don't know why. You came to the club, why you not showing love? It's just a lot of hate in Chicago. When I have to, I do my thing, perform, but when I go outside of Chicago I hug my fans, they wanna kick it sometimes or just talk to me a little bit after the show. In Chicago they don't show a lot of love at the shows, it be a lot of thirst and hate. They hate for the wrong reason, though.

What reason is that?
I look at it like, I started at the bottom and I just work my way up, you can't just hate on me because I'm doing something. Like, my buzz bigger than yours and I'm just getting more stuff but that's not my fault. I don't pay 'em no attention, I just stay humble.

Do you have a message for your haters?
Everybody should know this, [rapping] "I understand why they mad." [laughs] And when I say I understand why they mad, shit, it's just showing 'em that I know why they mad, and I see why they mad, and I hear why they mad. Like, its me, so why wouldn't you be mad?

Do you like getting interviewed? Do you get interviewed a lot?
I haven't been getting interviewed recently, but a couple of months ago I had interviews after interviews and at first it was cool. Then it's like, okay, that's the same questions they just asked me so how about you guys just exchange answers [laughs] It kinda gets frustrating to keep answering the same questions.

What do people always ask you about?
They always ask about the drill scene, how do I feel about other female rappers…

Guilty…
TR: You're definitely the first one to ask about how Rick Ross smells.

[laughs] You think he stank?

It could go either way, he either smells terrible or amazing.
TR: He seems like a dude who really cares about his smell. Sasha you said his beard was nice?

[laughs] Yeah, real nice. It's real nice.

I mean, he's not necessarily conventionally attractive, is why I think he'd come with the smell. He has enough money to smell as nice as a man can possibly smell. That's his lane.
TR: It's a nice lane to have.

[laughs] Y'all crazy.

What about you, Sasha? What's your smell game like?
I fell in love with Victoria's Secret perfume.

TR: Shoutout to the TSA for not stealing your Victoria's Secret.

[laughs] Oh hell, security. Nah, it's funny cause last time I had a brand new, never used perfume. It was from Victoria's Secret and I had it in my bag and then he threw it in the garbage. I was so hurt, like, "Oh my god, I never used it." They didn't catch me this time, so, deuces…

Did you sneak it on?
Shit, now I do. Tony taught me the trick.

Ezra Marcus is widely credited as being the inventor of the Tanicure. He's on Twitter - @tryna_functi0n