Touring With Kaash Paige
Hot Girl Zine was invited to style Kaash Paige, shoot her performance at SOB NYC, and interview her backstage. The Texas born, genre fluid artist is best known for her hit track “Love Song” interpolating Chance The Rapper’s “Cocoa Butter Kisses” that reached top 10 on the Billboard charts and took over Gen-Z’s queue by storm with a current 6.2 million monthly Spotify listeners. Flowing from R&B to rap, Paige knows no bounds and refuses to let a label dictate her next move. Once signed to Def Jam Records and managed by Roc Nation, she is now with Rostrum Records and still accomplishing everything she has dreamed of.
Pre-show prayer ritual with the team and Kaash.
HGZ: What’s your pre-show ritual or superstition before going on stage?
KP: I don't even think I have one to be honest with you. My girlfriend prayed earlier today. That felt really good, so I think I'm going to embed that more into what I do for my shows.
HGZ: How do you take care of your mind and body while constantly on the road?
KP: It's actually very hard to do it but I just stay hydrated. Just stay hydrated and try to get as much sleep but sometimes we don't get that.
HGZ: How do you stay creatively inspired when every day on tour starts to blend together?
KP: Honestly, experiences. Experiences like this, having conversations, just vibing out with the crowd, having conversations with my girl, my homies, and just literally experiencing life doing fun shit.
HGZ: What type of fun? Have you stopped anywhere on the road?
KP: Not yet because this is our second day but on our first tour, we all went to the Mall of America, went to some roller coasters then to Fright Fest at Six Flags. That's inspiration, because it's just different stories.
Behind the scenes backstage styling her and during soundcheck.
HGZ: How has touring influenced the way you write or approach new music?
KP: Honestly, I feel like trying to elevate my sound and singing stuff that is more relatable. A lot of my crowd loves the toxic Kaash Paige and there's nothing wrong with that but I have a younger crowd slash older crowd too. I think I'm stepping into making more music that sounds a bit more powerful and can eventually change the world. And people say my music changes the world now but I'll be [like in songs] cheating on the low, kicking it with different bitches. I'm [thinking], “what-how is that changing in your life?” But people have different songs that they like.
I don’t know. I got a song called ACE and some other songs that I'm making that are really big, and so I pray that these start to influence my genre in a different way. People are probably going to say I went mainstream.
HGZ: What has touring taught you about yourself—either as an artist or as a person?
KP: Honestly, just to stay grateful no matter what. I feel like I'm constantly trying to build these outcomes in my head, thinking about the past and how I used to sell out shows. Like you look at the crowd thinking, oh, it's not sold out. You get in your head but you gotta understand people are still making their way to come support you. I think for me, that makes me push forward because it's different stepping stones. It might have been sold out then but this is the biggest stepping stone in my life to those things that I'm dreaming about every single day. I feel like this makes you push harder and be more grateful and appreciative of not only my fans, but just the fact that I have a support system.
HGZ: You just finished your show in New York. How are you feeling about it?
KP: I feel good, because honestly, being SOB’s, I was tearing up on stage. I honestly did not expect to cry. It was kind of random. My A&R said, the day you perform at SOB’s, know that everything's gonna change for you. He said that when I was fucking 18, and today, I seen a picture that my mom sent me. I was in New York on this day when I was 18 years old. I was on a press run.
“My A&R said, the day you perform at SOB’s, know that everything’s gonna change for you.”
HGZ: Oh my gosh. Full circle moment!
KP: I was like, yo, that's fucking crazy. When I started thinking, even though it might not look like it to me, it is that. I feel like we get in our minds about what things should be and how they should look but in reality, it's God's vision, not ours.
Anyways, y’all ready to go out tonight?
Kaash signing a fans vinyl record after the show.
Photos and Interview by Arleth Pando
Styling by Mo Paquin
Produced/Edited by Ace
Special thanks to Mike Snell and Luis Vela