BIA’s Been on Go

It was arguably the sportiest, most spirited summer we’ve seen in a while, and BIA set the soundtrack for it.

The day I am to speak with the 35-year-old, Boston-bred rapper, I have all versions of her track, We on Go, racing through my head, having spent hours willingly consumed by the tornado of TikTok thirst traps, transitions, and sports edits cut expertly to the song. I’ve memorized exactly where the beat drops, when Da Honorable C.N.O.T.E.’s producer tag kicks in, and when BIA’s breathy “ah-huh, ah-huh” signature ad-libs come in. I’ve injected the beat into my veins and convinced myself to join a run club again.

It is not hard to ascertain why BIA’s been on go, why she’s finally ready to let ’em know. She’s coming off the high of the release of her debut studio album, Bianca (her legal first name), after years of hustling to define her brand of narratively rich, rhythmically emphatic, melodic rap. Signed by Epic Records in 2020, BIA’s music career has given us a mix of sleepers and smash hits. Her 2021 collaboration with Nicki Minaj, “Whole Lotta Money,” earned BIA her first Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 and a multi-platinum hit. She’s been a mainstay on the U.S. R&B/Hip Hop charts since, stacking up placements on collaborations with G Herbo, J. Cole, and Timbaland. Over her decade-long career, BIA’s bars — the rapper makes sure to assert that she writes them herself — have delivered plenty of memorable lines. Remember: “I put on my jewellry just to go to the bodega”?

Yet she often goes under the radar when it comes to recognition. Her come-up as an artist in her own right has been clouded by industry controversy and the rap beef she became entangled in with Cardi B. The feud between the two rappers dates back to 2023 and has taken different forms, from tweet-and-delete wars and shady comments made on Instagram Live to diss tracks exchanged back and forth. On her 2025 album Am I the Drama?, Cardi B name-dropped BIA in the song “Pretty & Petty,” taking a dig at the artist’s career with the line, “Name five BIA songs, gun pointin' to your head (head) / Baow, I'm dead (grr),” which the internet caught onto, subsequently dropping the lyrics into BIA’s comment sections, shading her.

Having said her piece in the exchange, BIA remains largely unbothered. It is the Leo in her, she claims. “You don't have to live in it and dwell in it and sit in it. It is what Hip Hop and rap is. Say what you got to say and keep it pushing,” she tells PAPER. With the release of her debut album, the deluxe version of which came out in June 2026, BIA’s ready to shed the associations with a rap beef that have tinged mentions of her name and level up in her artistry.

As a young girl from Massachusetts who began her rap career as a teenager participating in online rap battles, gained her first major exposure as a cast member on the reality series Sisterhood of Hip Hop in 2014, and caught the attention of Pharrell Williams, signing to his i am OTHER label that same year, BIA’s been manifesting her wins for years.

We caught up with her as she prepared to close out the summer with a remix of “Rollin,” featuring Stunna Sandy and Bay Swagg alongside original collaborator DJ Snake. It’s been a busy year for BIA and she’s gearing up for more to come. The rapper tells PAPER about the vulnerability of her debut album Bianca, about not being an “industry girl,” who BIA is beyond a rap beef, and her upcoming lover girl, R&BIA era.

Read on for PAPER’s exclusive cover interview with BIA

You’ve been on the go recently. How do you feel, BIA?

I feel great. I'm in such a good place, musically, spiritually. I've been feeling really fulfilled. Bianca was my first album, and I got to do many things that I wanted to on this album artistically. It was like so much music had been waiting to come out for so long. I wanted people to see a different side of me. It’s been fun performing the songs and seeing what songs find homes in what spaces. It’s opened me up to new genres and collabing with different people, so I’m glad I got to do that.

You named your album Bianca, your legal first name. Who is BIA and who is Bianca, and which one are you feeling more like these days?

BIA is my nickname turned into my artist name. But some of my close friends, my loved ones, they call me Bianca. They always have, you know? I don't think it's who I am feeling more like; I think it's a juxtaposition between those two people I am. You get a different side of me with Bianca, almost like an alter ego. BIA is a little bit more aggressive in the rap sense or just more flashy. And Bianca is probably me on a more personal level. I'm very deep, I have layers.

How does Bianca come out in this album?

There's power in your real name and in who you are as a person, and not finding validation in anything outside of that. That's kind of where it came from for me, standing in my truest self and knowing that this is when I feel most confident. Your first album is kind of like your life in a way. It contains all the things that you've done, that you want to put into that project. You want to make sure that you highlight the best parts of you and the worst parts of you. For this album, I tried to take pieces of me or things that inspired me and my artistry throughout the world, throughout my journey, and shine a light on them.

You’re very vulnerable on the album. What song did you most enjoy working on?

I think that there's different songs that speak to me at different times, but "Sad Party" is one of my favorite sleepers on the album. It’s one of those songs where I can sing on it, I can rap on it, and I can dance on it. I love the drums. I love everything about it. All the songs are super special, especially the Deluxe edition. Songs like Twin and Rollin, I wanted to put on the original but I just didn't have enough space. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to let these come out during the summer because it’s such a summer vibe.

You performed "Rollin" at Coachella this year at your first solo Coachella set. How did that feel?

So amazing! To have my friends and everybody come out, I felt so supported. LA is like a second home to me. I've been going to Coachella for years, so to have my own set there was one of those milestones in your career that you'll never forget. I got to perform so many new songs. My outfit was from CHRIS HABANA; I really loved my fit. I wanted to pay tribute to my culture and the music that influenced me. I'm half Puerto Rican, so that was fire.

We love that. You’ve said in the past that you like to make music for Black and brown women, and represent the cultures that you've grown up with.

Well, to clarify, I make music for everyone. I'm for everyone for sure, but I think I'm a representation of Black and brown women when it comes to how I want people to perceive us, respect us, and value us. As an artist, I like to let my morals, integrity, and my character shine through the music as well. I'm a representation of all of us. Thinking of the next phase of my artistry, I'm always thinking, what am I doing for us as women, and what am I doing for humanity?

Speaking of making music for everyone, "We On Go" has been blowing up on TikTok. I scroll on my FYP and it’s multiple edits using the song one after the other. Did you anticipate it blowing up the way it did?

When I first heard the beat, it's so electric that you already know, oh yeah, this is one of those songs. I wanted a song that was high energy like that, that could live in so many different worlds, especially the sports worlds, and just high-energy places. I like songs like that for performance because you can really turn up in those moments. I knew it was going to be special, but I had no idea it would take the legs that it's taken, which I'm so grateful for.

We put out so many different versions of the song because we really listened to the fans and what they wanted. When I first previewed it on TikTok, everybody was like, I want to hear Denzel Curry and A$AP Ferg on this. So we went and got Denzel Curry and A$AP Ferg, who are great friends of mine, shout out to them. And they killed it. And Tia [TiaCorine] too, you know, she's a homegirl. She came through and killed it. Every version has just had a mind of its own.

I’ve seen those comments calling for you to bring different musicians onto the track. And you did. You’re a people’s artist.

Yeah, I definitely try to listen to my people a little bit. If they want to hear something, I'm like, you know what? That's not a bad idea. Especially if I can and if I have a friendship with that person and I'm able to make it happen. It's so fulfilling.

And the Rage Mix version was such a different sound from the ones we usually hear from you.

Rook is a good friend of ours, me and my team. He's so talented. And he came together on the song with me, and we shot the video in his garage. Even Machine Gun Kelly pulled up; it was such a cool day. They really brought me into their world.

With We On Go blowing up like it has, have you noticed people coming into comment sections and being shady, saying things like, oh, I know one BIA song at least?

I look at it like it's all a good thing, right? I don't expect eight billion people in the world to know who I am. When people hear about me and then they go and do the due diligence to look me up and listen to my music and they happen to like it, that's only helping me. You're not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but that's fine because you don't have to be. Some people focus too much on the people that don't like them and not enough on the people that do. And it's like, why would I focus on the people that don't like me when there are so many people that do? I'm the coolest bitch in the world. I wouldn't be doing something right if I didn't have people that didn't like me. If everyone in the world likes you, something's wrong with you.

Now, if you had to name your top BIA songs…

You could ask someone more mainstream and they might say, oh yeah, I like her song "Whole Lotta Money." Or I like her song "Best on Earth," or I like her song "GEEKALEEK" with OHGEESY. Somebody might know some of the bigger songs, but then you might ask somebody who is more in tune, like you, and they might say, I like "October." So I never really know. It's always interesting for me to see what songs people do like because my genre can go anywhere. Sometimes people come to me and they're like, you know, my favorite song from you is so and so, and I'm like, what? And it's never a song that I expect them to say. People will come to me and bring up songs that I have completely forgotten about. It's always the work that you put out and forget about that’s like scraped across the internet and you're like, oh my God, how did you find that? How do you know that exists? And it’s on someone’s hard drive.

That’s because we’ve watched you evolve so much from your days of making music as a teenager on the internet to the artist you are today.

To think back, I was just a girl from Massachusetts who really loved music. I started doing music and then it took me to Miami and then it took me to LA, and I've had this really fruitful career and have been able to travel the world. I really feel like there's so many parts of me that are still the same girl from Boston. And because of the people that I'm around and because I have such good friends, I've had a lot of the same friends since day one, I'm still grounded in being that person. People that still come in contact with me that knew me from before will be like, oh wow, you're still kind of the same. I'm very down to earth and people sometimes don't expect me to be that way.

Have you found that level of solidarity with people, and especially with female friendships, within the industry?

Well, one thing about me, I'm not industry. That is like the least of my concerns. I’m not an industry girl, so I don't care to be fake. I'm not everybody's friend and that's fine. I don't want everybody to be my friend. I have real friends in real life. I don't do a lot of industry friendships. I don't do fake friendships, but I do have homegirls in the industry, that I'm in the music world with, that I am genuine friends with. I talk to girls that will come out on my show or do songs with me. When it comes to my internal team, people I pray over and they pray over me, guys and girls, those are friends that I've had for 10-plus years. And those are just people that I think help keep you grounded. Like when you're an artist, you need real people to tell you like, oh no, that's not cool, 'cause you can get used to a lot of people telling you yes.

You talk about people you pray over and they pray over you. Is faith integral to you as an artist?

Oh, yeah, I feel like I wouldn't be here if I didn't have faith in God because there were days where I couldn't see the vision, and God's plan is really far greater than our plan. Every time I plan, plan, plan and overplan things for myself, there's always a higher power that's making sure that not only do I have what I need, but beyond that, far beyond that. And if you, if you don't believe in anything, you have to believe in that. Whether for some people it might be spirits, their ancestors, or it might be their own God, everybody might serve something different. But I love the Bible, I love the Word, and I'm always going to talk about that because I think it's a big part of who I am. My friend group, we pray together, we pray over each other, we pray before shows. That's really who we are.

But outside of your people, you also see a lot of fake friendships happening in the industry?

It’s life, you always see that. You don't have to take part in it. I don't want to be in that mix. There's genuine girls in the industry and I feel like there's genuine friends I do have. I'm not saying everyone's like that, but I don't care to have fake relationships just because we both rap.

How about a very common occurrence in the industry, like a rap beef? I know you’re not an industry girl, but is it just something you get entangled in invariably in a rap career?

It's inevitable, you're not going to get along with everybody. That's what Hip Hop and that's what rap is. You should be able to say your piece and be like, okay, I got this off, let me go about my business. You don't have to live in it and dwell in it and sit in it. Say what you got to say and keep it pushing. Like for me, I'm not performative or I'm not into drama. Your career is so much more than just one moment.

I love your songs with Fred again.. on the USB album earlier this year. It’s such a moment.

I love Fred again.. I'm a fan of his work. When he reached out to me to do these songs, ICEY.. and ..FEISTY, I went to the studio with him and it was such a vibe. It was almost freestyle. Like we just put the beat on and the first thing that came to mind, we cut it. He chopped it up and made it sound so cool. And it just took on a life of its own, especially in the dance community. I love the dance community.

And then getting that cosign from J. Cole for "London" was so major.

Yes! Aside from him being one of the most incredible lyricists of our generation, he's an incredibly good person and just really, really, really hardworking. I learned a lot from J. Cole. I'm really grateful that he did that because he's one of those people that doesn't have to do anybody's features, you know? He's such a legend. To get on a song with him, I was so grateful. We came together and we made a bop. It was a song that different people can come and have fun with. We just brought everybody into that world of London because we are both fans of London.

What’s next? What big BIA moments are coming up that we should look out for?

R&BIA for sure. I’m working on lover girl music a little bit here and there. I’m in such a good mood and a girly, womanly era. Think like just some really good R&B love songs.

You’re in your lover girl era! I saw your Instagram post that you've captioned “My man picked these.” He did good, you look amazing.

Thank you! You see, I'm a woman, I love love. But you know, I'm very private also. And I think there are some things that you have to keep to yourself. But if you know me, I write my music, girl. So there's always some tea in there.

Can we get some tea?

There'll be lots of vulnerable moments on things to come. But I think even right now, if you go listen to my most recent album, songs like Sad Party, songs like October, those are songs about love and heartbreak. You're in the club and you're like, what even is going on? The girls are all there.

Photography by Kaio Cesar
Story by Meghna Yesudas

Styling: Marisa Ellison
MUA: Lizeth Ayala
Hair Styling: Del Jones
Nail Artist: Sin

Producer: Ricardo Diaz
Photo Assistant: Lucas Francisco
Styling Assistants: Siena Skye Bogatin
Production Assistant: Randy Ramirez