A young artist with a breakout single can face an intimidating predicament. In the case of alternative rock / rap hybrid Rico Nasty, she's currently living in the shaedow of 2020 single "Smack A Bitch," which ignited her career. However, she's evolved past that early viral single, and you can hear that on "Lethal," the 15-track full-length that dropped this past May. Recently, she started the tour for the project at Riot Fest in Chicago, and she'll make her way to Milwaukee on Thursday night at Turner Hall Ballroom. Ahead of the show, we had a chance to sit down:

OMC: So let's talk about "Lethal," and let's talk about everything that's kind of been going on in the last few days. You just played Riot Fest. How was that experience for you?

Rico: It was really, really fun.

OMC: It's the start of the tour, start of this album cycle to continue to promote the record. How does it feel to start your tour with a festival? Because I feel like that's a different experience. You have to work harder to bring people to your stage.

Rico: That's a pretty good question, because I do love performing for my fans specifically, but I think it was really cool to get new fans, and I enjoyed it. Like, at first, I was kind of nervous, of course, but it felt good to see so many people tuned in, because it was a pretty late show, so it felt good. First show out the gate.

OMC: Let's talk a little bit about the album as well. You took a couple years off between full-length projects, but not necessarily from releasing music. So, when did the production on this album start?

Rico: Maybe the beginning of last year.

OMC: Did you know the whole time that it was gonna be a full-length record, or did you think "let's just see what happens" in terms of putting stuff together?

Rico: I think I had spent so much time trying to make a full-length record that I kind of just gave up, and then it happened.

OMC: That's really interesting, actually. I feel like artists now have to create so much, not only just music, but just content in general. Do you ever feel like there's pressure from people to say "Okay, we need the album now"?

Rico: I've always just not really cared about how fast I'm supposed to be releasing music. I think in my early years, I released so much music. I mean, I have four or five mixtapes. I just felt like I wasn't vibing with what I was making. I think it's funny; oftentimes when you don't drop music for a long time, people think that you weren't still making music. But I was still making music, I just didn't really like what I was making, and I just kind of have felt like... I think I was just getting bored.

OMC: Was there anything that you did to necessarily switch up that process then? What changed that made you just kind of start feeling what you're putting out?

Rico: I think I had to stop being ashamed to fail, or scared that I was going to not be relatable. I had felt like I had taken a step back from posting my life, and letting people know what's really going on. I was just going through a lot of stuff in my real life. So I didn't really quite know how to put that in the music and make it like, a bop, right? (laughs) So, it felt like I kept making sad records, and I'm like, "that's not what the fuck they're coming to the shows for." I think for me, I was kind of reassessing how I'm talking about things, and kind of just not caring again. I don't know what happened, but I came out the gate swinging. I started feeling confused about a lot of stuff that was happening, so I said, "let me figure that out before I just keep running with this fake narrative" that kind of was given to me because of this one song that I did.

OMC: It's almost like breaking out of the box kind of thing. Instead, you're saying "this is who I am now"

Rico: Yeah. Yeah.

OMC: Let's talk a little bit about the live show. Are there records from this album that you can't wait to go and do live? 

Rico: Literally all of them. I feel like any time that I've performed them so far, I'm really shocked at the feedback. I'm not shocked. I don't even know what the word is. I'm thankful. I'm grateful. I'm appreciative, but it is, you know, it's my first time performing these songs live, so the call and response. I did "Son of a Gun" at Riot Fest and they were singing it, and then they like "Smoke Break." They really like "Smoke Break" live. I feel like that won a lot of people over at Riot.

I'm not gonna lie; I remember before I went on, there was a metal band playing right next to my stage. I thought "Okay, so some of them are probably gonna like 'Smoke Break.' They're not gonna expect that from me." So when I went out there and I did the song, some people don't necessarily look at the crowd. But that one in particular, I'm staring deadass and I'm watching people. I love that. That was really, really fun doing that one. I'm excited to perform some of the slower songs, too. I'm excited just to finally have new songs to perform, dude. I feel like I've been performing the same songs for so long, and I know a lot of artists probably feel the same way. But it's like, we made the songs, we love them, but it does get to a point where I'm just like, "oh my god, I can't wait to perform new shit." So, I'm excited for every song on the album. All of them are on the setlist.

OMC: So the whole album is in the show?

Rico: Yes.

OMC: Love that. Yeah. Well, that is amazing. We're looking forward to seeing you, and you'll be coming up this way again really quickly

Rico: Thanks so much, and I will see you soon!

Rico Nasty plays Turner Hall Ballroom on Thursday night with special guest SadBoi. Tickets are on sale now via the Pabst Theater Group website.