Rico Nasty Explains Her Credit Card Statement

Credit History is an interview series where we ask our favorite artists to comb through their credit card statements and tell us about what they bought, from the necessary to the frivolous to the outlandish.

From the time she was ready to “Smack a Bitch” on her breakthrough 2018 single of the same name, Rico Nasty has reserved the right to be angry on her records. Earlier projects like Nasty, Anger Management, and Nightmare Vacation built out her vision of a candy-colored wonderland fueled by rap, rock, and Jolly Rancher-hard punches for any opposition who would dare try to tamp her down. But as she became bigger and her genre-blending style grew more ambitious—particularly on 2025’s Lethal she noticed fan expectations were skewing in a direction she wasn’t comfortable with. 

“I do the rock stuff and screaming stuff so well, people think Oh, she’s screaming, and they’re not really listening to what I’m saying,” she says. Anyone who suggests Rico has forgotten her roots, though, has another think coming. “They say my last two albums were very rock-forward and alt, but I’m still rapping. That’s the bottom line. I see rappers like NoCap and Ralo and their wordplay is so fun and cool. To think I’m not tapped in at that level? I’m a fucking rapper, even though they don’t wanna bring me up in those conversations. When they bring up female rap, it’s like a bitch that’s inspired by me, and then everybody else but me.” 

Rx, Rico’s second project produced entirely by Kenneth Blume (f.k.a. Kenny Beats) after 2019’s Anger Management, is the inverse of the “I’m not a rapper, I’m an artist” argument many tout once they hit a certain level of fame. Though she’s happy to reach across the genre aisle, on Rx, she’s bringing mixtape energy to an album scope. Her punchlines tear through Blume’s production with catharsis and clarity—who else could cuss out ICE for coming after her friends one minute and rhyme about opps riding the coattails of her Burberry peacoat the next? Rico says Rx is a sequel of sorts to Anger, because “both projects are me figuring out what the fuck is wrong with me. Anger Management was me figuring out why I was yelling so much? Why was I so angry? Rx is me prescribing myself the confidence to embrace that and say whatever the fuck I want again.” 

As cathartic as Rx is, Rico’s been about calm and stillness since the album’s release. She’s preparing for a fall tour—half solo, half as an opener for Paramore’s Hayley Williams—and has logged off the internet in favor of learning ceramics and enjoying time outside. The last ceramic item she made was a garlic grater, though the divots she made aren’t deep enough to actually cut the vegetable. “Ceramics is one of the only things where I need both of my hands to do it, so I can’t be holding my phone. I can’t smoke, I don’t make money from it, it’s not connected to fans. Nobody has a say in what I make. I feel like a fucking architect,” Rico explains. 

Her recent purchases represent both her time out in public as Rico Nasty and her downtime as Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly, a single mother who enjoys tending to her hair, her cat, and her toy collection.

Cherry Cola Celsius ($2.99)

Rico Nasty: I drink it every day. It’s bad. My piss probably tastes like battery acid, it’s probably radioactive. 

Why Celsius over a Red Bull or a Monster or whatever?

If I’m drinking an energy drink, I’m tryna go full speed. I don’t need no bullshit, I’m really trying to crank this out. I said I drink them all day, but it’s really during my sessions. I drink them when I’m at work, when I’ve got something to do for long periods of time, and I need to be up and happy and open-minded. I also don’t crash off Celsius, which is weird. I could be wrong because I wake up the next day and I drink it again, so maybe I'm unable to even see what the crash is, because I'm addicted.

Wagyu steak tacos at Nobu ($600)

First of all, the tacos are the size of my fuckin’ pinky, so it’s not like I’m getting full-size tacos. I think they sell them by twos, and it’s $20 each, so… how many tacos is that?

Thirty!

Yeah, that’s about right. It’s really like a potato chip bite. It’s actually insane. When I went in there, they got me, because I’d ordered a lychee martini or something like that that was very sweet, so I was like I’m just gonna keep ordering these tacos. They melt in your mouth, they’re so good. I kept ordering them until I felt like I was full off an actual meal. I remember when I got the bill and I just sat and looked at it like What, for these little tacos?? A Gucci bag on tacos? Okay, Nobu!   

Microwaveable heated bonnet ($20) 

I’m on my natural hair journey. Basically, you do a hot oil treatment, and then you put a shower cap on it and microwave this bonnet. Have you ever had a heating pad that goes in the microwave? It’s like that, but it’s a bonnet. You just put it on when you have hot oil sitting in your hair—make sure you wear the shower cap with it, ‘cause you don’t want that oil getting on the cap. It’s relaxing and makes you feel like you’re at a spa, and I’ve been super into natural hair stuff recently. I want to wear my natural hair and take care of it and wear it out wherever. I’ve been growing it out for the past year or so, and consistently getting haircuts and shit. It’s just something I really love.

I’ve had locs for 20 years and have never heard of a heated bonnet! You might’ve just put me on. 

Throw that on after you do a nice rinse on your hair, bruh? And then you put that fucking bonnet on and just chill in that bitch? You’re gonna be like Wow, this is so good. It makes your scalp feel so fucking good. A lotta times I look like the girl from The Polar Express with my hair braided the fuck up. 

I’m over the wigs, I’m not gonna lie. When you get bigger, sometimes you feel an urge to say something and do something and change the world. I decided I’m not doing that with my music. My music is my diary, I’m allowed to be angry in it, it doesn’t fucking matter. But hair is becoming something special for me. It’s so many artists and women who’ve told me I’ve inspired them when it comes to hair or makeup, so if I can use my powers for good, I wanna teach people to take care of the things they do have. 

My hair grows up, so whether I like it or not, I have a fro, and that’s always something I’ve been insecure about. But the older I get, the more I realize you have only one body and one head of hair, one set of eyes, you’re lucky if you have two sets of teeth. You gotta take care of what you have instead of worrying about procedures to get what you don’t. 

Hot Toys collectible figurines for her son Cam ($1000)

They’re action figures. We were in Japan for Cam’s birthday and he wanted to go to the Hot Toys store. I had already purchased him a couple of the Spider-Man ones, and I know their starting price is $110. But it’s his fuckin’ birthday and he’s 10, so I set myself up by saying “You can get 10 this time!” He went into the most expensive store and got 10 figures. That shit was crazy. He’s so smart, he’s a finesser. But yeah, they’re very expensive toys. 

Is that Red Son Batman I see in the background?? 

His room is insane. He has a bunch of crazy ass toys. Sometimes, when he wants to get rid of them, I just put them in a box in the garage because we’ll be getting our money back for these [laughs]. I have a shelf for all my figures and my Gundam models in there. Like mother, like son, I can’t really blame him.

One question I had for you coming into this was whether or not you were still into Gunpla. 

I am! I have two left I still need to build, but I haven’t had the time to sit down and do it. I got the bigger ones and they’re in Japanese, so I had to go on Reddit to look up the English versions of the instructions. When I get the energy to do that shit, I’m ready. The bigger one I have is, like, the size of my head. It’s not like the regular small ones. 

Do you build the base-level, high-grade models, or have you started to wade into the super-complex, master-grade models? 

I have master-grade models of the 30-Minute Sisters in the back here. They just have more pieces and are a bit taller. But I’ve only built a master-grade three times. I can’t do it more than that. It gets so frustrating when you go outside the body and have to build all the shit in the back. I be seein’ people paint theirs. It’s insane. 

Amika Soulfood Nourishing Hair Mask, 8 oz. ($36) 

I just like the way that it smells. I like when I’m out and I can shake my hair and just smell it. It’s also very light, your hair’s not gonna feel crazy. Sometimes you do a mask and your hair just feels a little bit heavy, but this makes it feel light and bouncy. Anything from Amika, Bumble and Bumble, and Not Your Mother’s or Camille Rose. Camille Rose has this honey hair mask? Bro… it’s like literal honey. It turns warm when you put it on your scalp. It’s amazing. 

Amika’s stuff is kinda expensive, but it’s one of those things you splurge on because it’s worth it. Your hair will smell good over a couple days.  

Automatic litter box ($600)

This is not the fucking ’70s. I am not scooping that cat shit up. The fuck? 

My cat’s name is Telly, I got him while I was on tour with Kehlani in 2022. We found him in a hotel room, and that’s why we call him Telly. He was a kitten—he had to drink milk when we found him. When I first got my cat, I quickly realized I was not that type of person. I’d never had a cat before this—I’d only had dogs. So when I got the regular litter box, and all it take is two days of not checking that box and your whole house smells like shit. I can’t. I got a Frenchie as well, and he farts, so them two in the house is real funky. I’m not having that. I’ve invested in an automatic litter box that rotates twice a day and does it for me. I get a text notification when it’s time to empty the thing, toss it, and re-change the bag. Then you put these little smell inserts in there and it deodorizes it so even when you change it, it doesn’t smell bad. The first thing I smell is the smell-good thing. 

I also have a litter mat in front of it too, so litter doesn’t spread everywhere when he steps out of it. I wanna walk around barefoot and not have to deal with all these booty crumbs on the floor. Honestly? Cats are crazy. Telly’s just weird sometimes. Even if the litter box works perfectly, he’ll find something else to do. Let’s just say his preference is leather, and you know me—I’m a leather down bitch! There was a time we were prepping for tour and I had a leather jacket laid on the floor because I was planning an outfit. It was a $2000 Diesel jacket that was gifted to me—actual leather trench, gifted to me. I was not gonna pay that for that jacket, and bro pissed on it. Ever since then, I realized cats are just like dogs: They’re petty and they don’t give a fuck. He pissed on the jacket because I got rid of his bed because it had so much fur on it. He said, “Bitch, you threw my bed away? I’ma get you back.”

Cats are no joke. Shout out to the cat parents, y’all the strongest soldiers. 

Shout out to the cat parents. If you’re still scooping shit, how about we do a challenge? If you see me on tour and you can rap one of the songs from my new project word-for-word, I’ll buy one of y’all an automatic litter box. How about that?