Nearly 10 years ago Drake introduced the world to Blac Chyna when he gave her an extravagant shout out on his Thank Me Later hit “Miss Me,” in which he pleads for her presence at Miami strip club King Of Diamonds.
Now, these days, she’s been more into rapping herself. It’s her new passion. Her latest single is aptly titled “Cash Only” and it features Billboard hitmaker Trippie Redd, with more to come. “Carpe diem” has to be her mantra because the serial entrepreneur has seized every moment for the ripe taking. At this point, it’s easy to say she has become a bonafide household name.
Sharing a seven-year-old son with Grammy award-nominated rapper Tyga and a three-year-old daughter with Robert Kardashian, Chyna has her hands full with being a mother and an astute businesswoman who sometimes prefers to go by her real name, Angela White. Uproxx caught up with Blac Chyna and spoke to her about her decision to start rapping, what she enjoys about making music, Drake‘s shout out from 2010, and her most iconic moments.
Have you always wanted to rap?
I’ve never thought about it before because I was so focused on other things and whatnot, modeling and making money and surviving really. It wasn’t something when I was younger, I was like, “Okay. When I grow up, I want to be a rapper, or in the music industry.” Not at all. I recently just got my passion for music in 2017. I’ve been doing it for the past three years.
Why start now? I know you do so many other things.
As a person who’s a perfectionist, I didn’t want to just throw myself out there when I knew I wasn’t ready. I had to make sure like, “Okay, am I passionate about this?” And make sure, “Okay, am I going to be focused on this? Is this something that I really want to do?” These are all questions that I ask myself with anything that I put my all into.
I felt like this year was like the perfect opportunity. My kids are actually older, so I’m able to move around a little bit more. Dream will be four this year and King will be eight, so it’s perfect timing for me. I was able to perfect things and figure out what’s my sound and look what seems organic to me.
Have you started the process of putting the album together yet?
No, I’m not going to do an album right now. I’m just focusing on singles because I want people to understand that I’m serious about this and I want to put out visuals with each song that I put out so they can get used to my sound and they know, “Okay. Chyna’s taking it serious and she’s not just doing this because she’s old Blac Chyna,” or anything like that. I’m just taking the proper steps to let people know, “Hey, I’m serious about this and this is something I want to do and I’m passionate about it.”
What was it like putting everything together for the rollout of “Cash Only” with Trippie Redd?
It was cool and it was actually really smooth. This was the first video that I did with a feature. The first song I put out, “Seen Her,” was just me, so it was super easy. With this song, I cut this song myself. I played Trippie some of my songs, but I had a song specifically that I wanted him to get on. I made sure I played it last. Once I played it for him, it was actually two songs that he liked, “Casually,” and another song that I have, but he’s like, “Yo, I’m about to cut it right now,” so he cut it right there on the spot and it was really good. We set up the video and we shot the video and then from there, it’s now out.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBltM2WjAcF/
Can we expect any other big-name features in your music?
I have maybe six different artists that I did collabs with, which I’m really excited about because being a new artist, period, you want people to take you seriously. But for other artists to be willing to support and get on my songs, it’s a big deal to me.
Can you say who you’re working with yet?
I have a song that’s coming out soon. I’m not sure exactly the release date, but it’s with Keak da Sneak and Too Short. It’s OGs in it, so I’m excited about that.
How did that come together?
Well, I cut the record at my house and then I listened to it and I’m like, “Man, I really need to get Keak on this because it’ll sound fire.” I DM’d him and I sent him the song. He loved his song. Two days later he sent his verse back so fast. With songs, people lollygag and wait, but he sent his back right away, so I was really excited about that. I was like, “Man, I’ve got to see if I could get Too Short on it.” I didn’t have a contact for Too Short, so I hit up my brother Mally Mall.
He hit up Short for me and he sent the record out. Short loved it and recorded it. We all coordinated and made sure everybody’s schedule was good to shoot the video. It worked out perfectly.
What’s been your favorite part so far about this journey you’re taking with rap?
My favorite part is just going through the whole process, making a beat, getting a beat, figuring out the melody, laying the song down. Then my least favorite part is the whole re-recording it, but I’m a perfectionist. Now I see how it is when people be with different artists, “When is your music dropping?” People have to understand it’s a whole process behind it.
I think that the most interesting part to me is actually letting people feel how you feel through the mic. It’s not like before, I would take a picture and then they would get the expression from there or doing a TV show. You could feel the artist and how they feel to put you in that mood. I think that’s really interesting and dope to me.
Now I want to talk about 2010 when Drake mentioned you on “Miss Me.” That’s when I learned about you. He said, “Call the King Of Diamonds and tell Chyna it would be worth the flight.” Did you take that flight to King Of Diamonds that night?
Yeah. You know what? I actually had a booking somewhere else because I was dancing at the time. Two of his managers were like, “Hey, we want to introduce somebody to you.” And I’m like, “All right, well, you know I live in Miami,” and I danced at King Of Diamonds. I’m pretty sure they already knew that.
When Drake came in, it was actually a really slow night. It definitely wasn’t a weekend so it wasn’t that many girls there. I’m in the back chilling and they’re like, “Yo, Drake’s here to come see you.” I’m like, “Drake? What? That’s crazy.” I got his ones or whatever I did from the stage. It was cool. It wasn’t even nothing ratchet. It was just real smooth. He’s not like disrespectful at all, not then and not now either. Every time I run into him, I make little jokes, like, “Yo this is crazy.” I’m happy for him because at the time he wasn’t the Drake that we know, the legendary Drake. He was just first coming out himself. It’s cool to watch even people from back then still strive and grow.
I think Drake has been really supportive of women in his career before it was cool like it is now. I feel like women are really running rap right now. Who are some of the rap girls that you’re listening to currently?
I’m listening to whoever is keeping up with the music here, but also too, I listen to a lot of old music.
What oldies are you checking out?
Recently I’ve been like looking at a lot of Eve’s old stuff, Kim’s old stuff. I try to just watch the few videos from both of them. I’m like, “Damn, they don’t make videos how they used to back in the day.” You would watch a video and it just left an impression on you, “Wow, this shit is crazy.” I feel like the videos back in the day with female rappers, it was just more of a lifestyle. Eve was on bikes in Philly. Kim is in New York with Cease, that whole gang and Missy. That shit was hard. It was more like lifestyle videos for me that I feel always leave a longer impression, especially with visuals. I’m thinking with my visuals, I want to do more concepts of that, not just like, a green screen or anything like that. I want to tell more of a story-type of situation.
You are an entrepreneur, you have so many things going on. I just want to know, what’s one thing that you think that every aspiring entrepreneur should remember or know?
That no idea is stupid because I feel it’s just people in general, I feel like we second guess ourselves. We all have our negative blocks, but once you take down that negative block within yourself, you’ll be successful. Definitely being organized and researching the business that you want to go into. Understanding the pros and cons and figuring out the underlying steps to achieving whatever business that you want to go into, so no shortcuts.
A lot of people just do things without doing the base, the foundation of the business, you know what I mean? Either setting up the LLCs and accounts. If you have a salon, insurance and worker’s comp insurance. If they’re passionate about it, it should be successful. No business is just going to flourish overnight. You’ve got to be very consistent and precise with anything that you do.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7NFhdj1qK/
Well, I’m thinking about making candles and selling them. What advice would you have for me?
Yay! What? I love candles.
Yeah, me too, that’s why I was like, “I want to make my own.”
I think that’s really good. I love candles. I actually just put out a few candles of my own. The candle comes with sage and lip gloss. It’s to create an energy. I feel like if you figure out what market you want to direct the candle towards, you can move on from there. Packaging is major. The packaging is key because everybody wants to have an experience.
What is the biggest business risk you’ve ever taken, but in the end it turned out to be worth the risk?
I think the biggest risk was for me moving from DC to Miami to go to school and leaving everything behind. I didn’t know nobody down in Miami, I just went down there by myself to go to school. I feel like that was the biggest and best thing that could’ve happened to me. From there, everything was the trickle down, even though I was dancing and going to school, that’s how Drake saw me at King Of Diamonds. It was all of these negative things, but then it’s also a positive side to it.
I feel just moving from state to state and staying focused on the bigger picture of whatever it was that I was doing at the time and being the best at it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD9wzXrjkiG/
What’s the best part of being a mom for you?
Just basically watching them and learning from them and then me teaching them. I think that’s the best part. With me being successful with the things that I’ve done, good and bad, because then nobody’s a saint. They teach me things about myself, even patience, or “I didn’t think I could do that.” Once you become a mom, your thought process becomes a little bit different.
I’m a single mom. I’ve got two little babies that look up to me. On top of that, in the public eye. I’ve got to be extra cautious with certain things that I let them do without making them grow up too fast.
I feel like a lot of parents in the industry when I watched them, I’m like, “You all kids is too young to be doing that or into that.” I try to keep them occupied with the things that they like to do. Dream, she likes to paint, she likes to eat. She’s just fully entertained. King, he’s into Roblox and coding.
I try to keep them as young and as far away as possible so that they don’t lose the imagination in the things that they want to do and not be all grown up so fast because it’s just really not their place to be exposed to all that type of stuff. I just call them my bubble babies and I keep them in the bubble.
Since you are in the public eye and your name is always somewhere, how do you protect them from that?
Honestly, the thing about kids, and I’m speaking for myself too, with your parents, you will love them regardless. I have an unconditional love for my mom and my dad. Even though I go through things with them, at the end of the day, you only get one set of parents. I’m telling everybody else I’m Blac Chyna, but to my kids, it’s mommy. I think that none of this stuff will ever affect our relationship or affect them. By the time that they’re older, I already have set up a system to where everything will be fine.
Everything I’ve done in my life, I don’t have no regrets about doing it because I’ve learned from it and it made me a better person.
You’re always thinking ahead. Do you have another show on Zeus coming out?
I have a season two that’s coming out. This season is basically going to be focused more like the business side and the music side and came to really know Angela White. That’s why it’s called the show is called The Real Blac Chyna. I want to start to enlighten people to the Angela White side, so they can start viewing me as evolved and seeing the growth of me as a person and as a brand. Blac Chyna is a brand and that brand is… it’s a tough brand, but I do it.
