TiaCorine on ‘FreakyT’ and anime trap: “You cannot box me. I do what I want”

4 August, 2023

Tia Corine

TiaCorine has spoken to NME about the viral success of ‘FreakyT’, teaming up with Latto on its remix, motherhood and her alternative “anime rap” sound.

The Winston-Salem star is known for her slew of viral hits – starting in 2018 with ‘Lotto’, which became a sleeper hit. The track was popular on SoundCloud and was the lead single for her 2020 debut EP ‘34Corine’, before gaining traction on TikTok in 2021. The same year, she released a remix of the song featuring fellow North Carolina juggernaut DaBaby, further pushing her dubbed “anime trap” sound to the world.

TiaCorine – real name Tia Shultz – garnered the same success with last year’s single ‘FreakyT’. After releasing her debut album ‘I CAN’T WAIT’ in September 2022, the 30-year-old star was told to go on TikTok – the app that launched her career – to try and repeat the magic of ‘Lotto’, and it did – raking in over 26million listens on Spotify.

After making her UK live debut at this year’s Wireless Festival, Shultz reflected on the success of ‘FreakyT’ and her ability to go viral twice.

“It feels good,” she told nME. “It was cool. I was like, ‘OK, wow!’ Definitely didn’t know it was going to be ‘FreakyT’ because I did ‘Chaka Khan’ too with Kenny [Beats on ‘I CAN’T WAIT] and everybody was going crazy over that song. So when I put on the album, I thought that was going to be [the hit].

“But I went with ‘FreakyT’, and it just feels good. You solidify yourself like, ‘OK. See, I can do it again and again and again. I have real listeners, not people for the hits. They really like my music and me.”

At Coachella this year, Latto invited the rising star to preview the ‘FreakyT’ remix. “She was really nice and genuine,” said TiaCorine of the collab. “When I met her, that’s how [the remix] came about. I met her and she was so loving and supported me. She was like, ‘You up next. You’re really fire and your name is out here’.”

She continued: “[Latto] was like, ‘What you doing with ‘FreakyT’?’ I was like, ‘I don’t have a remix.’ She’s like, ‘What’s up?’ And I sent it and we got it going. She supported [‘FreakyT’] and kept supporting it and still supports me. Brought me out to Coachella and shouted me out on the BET Awards when she got her award [for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist]. So, shit, nothing but love and respect for Latto.”

‘Anime trap’ is how Shultz describes her sound. Explaining the term, she said: “When I say ‘anime’, I mean animated. It’s passionate. It’s very energetic. It’s high-energy like when you watch anime, you can feel it. It hits, though. It’s got big 808s. People can rock to my shit and mosh-pit too. It’s a good mix of that.”

‘I Can’t Wait’ was a varied album showing off how broad rap sounds today, dipping into disco, atmospheric “plugg” music and punk-rap. Her debut EP ‘34Corine’ and its deluxe version ‘The Saga of 34Corine’ also showed off her love for punk rock and idiosyncratic vocal deliveries on tracks like ‘Avril Lavigne’ and ‘Forever’. “I don’t have a certain sound,” TiaCorine said. “I just make what I want to make when I wake up in the morning.

“I make sure I put different sounds on [my records] because I want people to be OK with hearing rock one day, and then a melodic 808 sound another day. I think a lot of people do things that people like and want to hear from them, and then when they want to experiment, it doesn’t get accepted. ‘Oh, I just want to hear the old person!’ But, that was never you.

She added: “So I said, ‘Fuck that. I’m going to give them everything so that they’re used to it because I don’t want to hear no complaints later. You cannot box me in. I do what I want. I don’t do this for you all. I do this for me. I love the people that support it’.”

Speaking about the diversity of female representation in rap, TiaCorine said that she believed that all music made by women – especially of colour – “should get the same respect and love and care” as the music that is overly sexual.

“If you rap and talk and say, ‘Coochie, coochie, coochie, coochie,’ that’s more accepted than me doing alternative or rock or mosh pit [friendly music]… All of those different sounds should be catered to, cared and loved just as much as trap or hoochie music – whatever you want to call it. I love hoochie music, but [all rap music] should still be cared for and acknowledged just as much.”

There has been some positive progression for women in the rap world, especially when it comes to mothers having fruitful careers. Some of the world’s biggest female rappers (Cardi B, Nicki Minaj) have children and it doesn’t affect their success. Last month, Sexyy Red spoke to NME about attitudes towards mothers in rap are changing.

However, whilst building a name for herself in the fickle rap world, Shultz finds it “hard” to juggle between motherhood and her career.

“I have someone that wants all my attention all the time, but I also have to give my attention to my fans and my career. It’s hard,” she said. “It’s hard to share somebody that’s a part of you with the whole world [but also] get them to understand that I need time for myself. I have to explain to her that I’m not yours all the way. I’m still my own person. I’m still Tia. I’m your mom, too. It’s very challenging, but you can do it and it’s worth it.”

During her Wireless set, TiaCorine previewed a new song which she described as “melodic 808s but it’s still very cool and vibe-y.” She told NME that the track has a feature on it, but wouldn’t reveal who it was because she wants it to be “a surprise” for fans. She confirmed that the song will be released soon.

Around the same time, she posted a photo of her and pop-trap star Lil Uzi Vert together and fans have speculated that the two have a collaboration together.

After her current festival run, TiaCorine hopes to embark on her own headline tour and give fans another album “by the start of next year.”

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