INTERVIEW: Cakeswagg Knows What to Do Today with “Ferb & Phineas”

 
Cakeswagg
Photo courtesy of the artist
 
Rapper and lyricist Cakeswagg is on fire in 2020. After she released her Candy Cake Season EP last fall, the Roxbury native performed at the #HellaBlack femcee show at Boston Center of the Arts, churned out a WAP remix with Brandie Blaze, and collaborated with the likes of Red Shaydez and DJ WhySham. Now she’s out with a new single “Ferb & Phineas” that not only shows how hard she’s willing to go, but also her playful, “not serious” side.

ALLSTON PUDDING: When you started writing this song, did you know you wanted to experiment with your style? Or did the new tone and flow come naturally?
CAKESWAGG: The new tone and flow actually came naturally. I’ve always wanted to lyrically and theatrically stretch more on my tracks, I just didn’t have that comfortability quite yet.

AP: There are a lot of fun references in “Ferb & Phineas,” why did you decide to make those two the focus?
CAKESWAGG: On the show everyday, Phineas and Ferb wake up and they decide what they’re going to do that day no matter how big or impossible and they get it done. Sometimes I feel that way in my own life, like if someone had told me I’d be answering questions for Allston Pudding 3 years ago, I don’t know if I would’ve believed them. There’s so many things I’ve done now that I could never imagine doing, yet here I am.

AP: Was this project born out of one of your #TalkThatTalkTuesdays?
CAKESWAGG: This song actually was born out of a few free styles: I did two Missy Elliot beats and a Jack Harlow cover where I experimented a tad bit with my theatrics and people really enjoyed it and it gave me the encouragement I needed to do more.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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AP: Can you talk more about how your freestyle Tuesdays got started?
CAKESWAGG: So when I first started rapping as a child, all I did was freestyles and covers and it was a lot of fun for me. When I started putting out music I needed to find a way to still keep it fun for me, so I use my Talk That Talk Tuesdays as a way to bring it back to the essence of why I started rapping in the first place.

AP: What about your songwriting process as a whole? At what point does the beat come in? Are you drawn to certain subjects or do you talk about what’s on the top of your mind?
CAKESWAGG: The beat is always first for me, different beats make me feel different things. Some beats make me feel vulnerable, while others make me feel like I need to “boss up” so to speak. I find that my best writing comes from what’s on my mind right at that moment.

AP: What was it like working with DJ Whysham and Kay Wattz for “We Run The City”? 
CAKESWAGG: “We Run the City” was so much fun because Sham literally let us get in there and do our thing, Kay and I got to feed off of each other’s energy and come up with a dope hook. It was actually kind of funny because I wrote a 16 and Kay wrote a 20 so I wrote my late 4 bars right there before I went to record. In fact the whole part where the beat cuts out and I’m rapping over silence I did that day on the spot and it was fire!

AP: You’re also on Red Shaydez’ “We Got it On” with Brandie Blaze, what was that collaboration like?
CAKESWAGG: Red and Brandie are like the older siblings I never knew I had. Out of the majority of the femcees in Boston I’m the “baby” in the group, so they put up with a lot of my shenanigans. Like, I’m usually really silly, making jokes and keeping everyone laughing while we work. The session was so lit that day. Red and I are one and the same, where we just keep writing and writing, ending up with super long verses. Whereas Brandie is like, “Listen, take this 16 and do what you gotta do.” It’s the perfect balance.

AP: How did you get started with music? 
CAKESWAGG: My METCO peers and classmates in Natick are actually the reason I started doing music. In school, I often would freestyle on my school bus or rap my presentations in class and my classmates and teachers supported me. Still to this day, some of my classmates who live all the way in Natick travel to my shows in Boston, no matter how big or small.

AP: I read that you’ve been rapping for a decade, so I’d love to hear how your 2018 record Cheesecake eventually came together.
CAKESWAGG: My 2018 record Cheesecake actually came together out of frustration. I’m a pretty well known bartender in the city and because of that, people tried to put me in a box and make it seem like I couldn’t be anything else. So I dropped Cheesecake, which ended up doing rather well, just to pretty much say: “I don’t give a fuck about what he say or she say.” I’ve always been very direct and even a little confrontational in my music just because I know lyrically, I can back it up. Here I am 1 mixtape, 1 EP and 120+ freestyles later, unscathed.

AP: How have fans responded to Candy Cake Season? Did the pandemic interrupt your plans to promote that EP?
CAKESWAGG: Fans loved Candy Cake Season, you can hear my growth a lot from my first project into my second one. For me Candy Cake Season was about making actual records. I felt like I already knew I could rap really well, but people needed to know I could make songs too — which in some cases don’t always go hand in hand. Not every good rapper can make good songs. The pandemic definitely interrupted things for me, but it also gave me the time to start other things I’ve wanted to do to grow like voice speech and production classes as well as vocal lessons.

“Ferb & Phineas” is out on Spotify and Amazon now. Cakeswagg will be performing virtually with Brandie Blaze, Red Shaydez, and The Misfits Club on Saturday, October 24 at 8pm. More information and tickets here.