Chippy Nonstop Buries The Ratchet on "Alone"

For an artist like Chippy Nonstop, the “game” can appear to be one big clusterfuck. That’s what happens though when your style is unclassifiable, and your signature twerking move has been bastardized by a huge pop star, like Miley Cyrus: it’s evolve or get the fuck out. Today, she premieres her latest track “Alone,” and shows that she has clearly adopted the former path.

Chippy’s gone electro-pop, shedding the pimptastic mink cloak that enveloped her previous release #FinallyVerified and is moving into a more serious melodic territory. Call it maturity or the fact that rap audiences are just “mean,” but it’s a direction that suits her. She’s back in Los Angeles (following a brief stint in Brooklyn) and working with Mad Decent affiliates M|O|D, C.Z., and Lil Texas on her next project, which will definitely be more in the direction of pop.

For now she’s tossing us some new tracks to snack on, beefing with Diplo (sort of), and releasing twerking apps. That’s just how Chippy Nonstop does. If you didn’t rock with her before, you definitely should now.

This new song sounds like nothing you’ve ever done…
Yeah, for sure. [Laughs]

But weren’t you going in a direction where you inspired by Too $hort?
That was when #finallyverified came out. Yeah, that EP was pretty hyphy.

What brought about that change? I know you like to keep things interesting, but that’s a really big switch in your sound.
I wanted to start singing a lot more and I was just in the studio, we were fucking around and we made this in just a few minutes. It wasn’t thought out or anything. But I definitely want to sing more and make more dance and pop music. I have been thinking I want to do less rap shit, because rap audiences are mean. I want to do more fun like party EDM stuff.

I really like Cashmere Cat, and I was listening to this “No Lie” remix, and I really like the drums in it and I just asked Felix [Snow] to use the drums and just make the sound. I wasn’t intentionally thinking about the direction when we made this song, but like I definitely want to start singing more and doing more pop and being positive. Lately I’ve really been into writing melodies. Every time I’ve gone to the studio I’ve been thinking of melodies instead of rapping.

Are you pissed off or thrilled that this twerking shit has spiraled out of control?
Yeah…I think that might’ve been a factor in why I was like, “Fuck doing all this twerking shit.” Because this is like, out of control. Obviously I still love doing all that shit, it’s a part of me—when I go out, I’m still wildin’ out, you know? I like so many different types of music and I like to make different types of shit. I don’t think the way that—I don’t know, not just Miley, but the way people are making twerking music is not even real twerking music. It’s just weird. For me, I don’t want to have to think about “Oh is this going to be for my twerking audience?” A lot of my fans think I’m just gonna keep making twerking music, but I don’t want to anymore.

What do you think about Miley Cyrus or do you not think of her?
I like her. She’s doing whatever she wants. It’s just like…late. [Laughs] I have no hate towards her, but I think she thinks she’s being like insanely innovative and new and rebellious, but so many people I know have been doing this for a really long time. It’s just amazing that she thinks she’s started a movement of some sort of thing, but this has just been happening in the world around me so it doesn’t seem innovative to me. Whatever. I’m glad she’s doing whatever she wants. And I listen to “Wrecking Ball” all the time.

To cry to it? It feels like it's song you should cry to.
Yeah. I cry to it. [Laughs] I can’t talk too much shit about twerking though, because I just put out an app on twerking.

You put out a twerking app?
Yeah, me my brother and one of his homies just collabed on this twerking app, and all of our friends’ music is on it and stuff. Basically, it’s an app, you download it and then you put your iPhone in your back pocket, and it plays a song that’s like Level 1 and it measures the distance of how your butt moves up and down and how well you’re twerking. It gives you points and sees if you advance to the next level. It’s the Time 2 Twerk app. It’s not fully launched yet, but we’re working on it. So, I can’t fully talk that much shit about twerking.

You mentioned Miley’s little rebellion, but there’s nothing more rebellious than you coming from an Indian home doing this music. Do your parents understand your career more now that you’re becoming well known?
Not really. They can’t understand how I monetize or how much longevity there is to it. And I don’t think they understand that once you have a following, there are so many outlets to create income. I could like put out a t-shirt for $40 and like at least 300 kids are gonna buy it. They don’t understand that I can just do that and post it on Twitter. They just don’t understand my longevity and how I’m making income or how I’m going to continue making income.

So has your path crossed with M.I.A. since “the incident” when you leaked her MAYA album after her team stole your ideas?
I don’t know; it doesn’t really exist anymore, that beef. I have beef with Diplo right now.

What did he do?
I don’t know what happened. I tweeted at him a joke like, “#ThrowbackThursday when Diplo was funny,” and then literally three days later he tweeted at me that I’m like mean and ugly and all this shit. I was like “Uh, ok.” It was really awkward because I thought he was joking, and then he texted me all this shit about how mean I am to him or whatever. I don’t think anything meant anything at the time. But then I saw him out last week and he hugged me, but I was blacked out so I don’t know what he said to me. But he said my name on the microphone like five times. I was so confused because I thought we were like fighting. I guess it was a petty fight, but he still has me blocked on Twitter.

But nothing could be meaner though than him not giving you credit on his song “Wind Up.”
[Laughs] True.

Since you’ve been taking more time to create more thoughtful melodies in your music, would you say you’re in a more pensive moment in your life?
Definitely. I feel like everyone around me, myself included, we’re at this stage where—I don’t know, I like to party and I like to do all this shit, but I want to be taken seriously. It’s frustrating to me because I’ll go out and be having fun and people are judging me. But I’m like, “Isn’t the point of going out to have fun?” People assume because I’m out during the night that I’m fucked up all day for some reason. They don’t realize that I actually do work. I feel like if I just continue to make turnt up rap, people will be like “Oh you’re not a serious artist.” I want people to know that I can write actual song lyrics and melodies. It’s frustrating because the older generation on top of us doesn’t see a lot of the ways that we fit. With Twitter, the Internet, marketing and branding, I feel like they don’t realize we are actually insanely creative in the way we put out our information and the way we market ourselves. People don’t take us seriously, but I know what I’m doing.

Do you think it also has to do with gender?
Definitely.

Juicy J makes turnt up music all day, and everyone is fine with it.
If you’re a girl, and you turn up and go out it, might go hand in hand with you being a slut and you trying to get attention. But if Juicy J is at the club holding a bottle and wildin’ out, he’s hilarious and he’s so cool and he’s turning up. But if a girl is at a club and on a table, even if she’s wearing sweats and a baggy shirt, you’re like “Oh look at that slut trying to get attention.” It’s definitely a double standard.

I’m not complaining because that’s how the world is, but I just have to take shit to the next level and prove that you can’t do it without us, so we’re gonna keep doing our own shit and keep moving. But I hate having to overthink when I’m out at a party and everyone is supposed to be having fun, but I have to think about when I go home and see all these tweets like, “Chippy’s on a table fucked up,” and someone from Red Bull or Converse will see that and be like she can’t be a part of our brand because she turns up at a party. You know what I mean? Things like that. At the end of the day, I just have to take shit to a whole other level where people can’t deny me.

Kathy Iandoli is a writer living in New York City. She's on Twitter - @Kath3000