Happy March! Happy Women’s Month Paper Koi! All the Women & Femmes out there— Whats up? We’re just out here making history! Women, Thank you! I wanted to bring on an interesting woman; She’s a female rapper. First of all, I love female rappers, PERIOD. If you know me like that, [you’d know] I just love women who talk their sh*t, I really do. That’s exactly what she came to do! My favorite song on her album [“Diabla”], is YBW. That song… We gon’ chat in a second! I have one of the most beautiful and talented in front of me tonight! I’m so excited to introduce, rapper, DUHVILLAIN.

Interview is Transcribed Below:

D: Hi guys! Hey Ya’ll, thank you for having me! 

G: How are you doing today? 

D: I’m doing good, how are you? 

G: I’m good thank you. I’m so elated and excited. Thank you so much for taking the time out to sit with us. 

D: Thank you for having me! This is dope! 

G: Oh my god, like… b*tch… you’re HER. 

D: Oh my gosh, don’t be gassing me now! 

G: You deserve it, c’mon! Take it! Let’s start off simple with this interview, okay? Today we’re just dive into who you are as an artist, we’re gonna touch on “Diabla” a little bit, and we’re just gonna conclude on a fun note as well, okay? 

D: Awesome! 

G: Where are you from? 

D: I’m from Redding, PA. It’s like a little ass, small ass town in Pennsylvania. We used to be really popular back in the day. We have a lot of railroads and train stations out here. I guess that’s pretty much what we’re known for. 

G: I have family out in Philly, I know it’s not the same thing… I’m just not a stranger to PA. 

D: Philly is like an hour from my way & to be honest, it’s really similar to Philly. Just really Tiny. 

G: What is your earliest memory of rap music?

D: To be honest, I grew up with parents who are heavily into Hip-Hop. It’s always just been around. When I was younger, my mom used to make me and my brothers and sisters like fake-freestyle and stuff like that. My mom’s a character; she would make little raps like, “Oh yeah! We making spaghetti tonight!” Or something like that. 

G: Dinner time was lit! 

D: Dinner time was definitely lit, everyday! 

G: How would you describe your style?

D: My style of music is definitely like… I definitely be rapping my ass off. I would say, maybe on some alternative rapping sh*t. I honestly wouldn’t know. I got this one comment— this man was like, “Man, you rap like you did time” and I was like, “what the f*ck do that mean?!” 

G: You a thug! 

D: I bet, some people would consider it “Boom Bap Rap” , some people would be like, “Nah this is more like alternative”. I want to say more towards the alternative side. 

G: Okay! I definitely see you going on tour with Rico Nasty. I don’t know if that’s a compliment to you or not. 

D: Yes, I love Rico Nasty! Definitely inspiration for sure! Especially the way she dresses. 

G: When did you realize, “yeah… ima start spittin..”? (How did you get into rap music?) 

D: I’ve always done music my whole life. I grew up going to church, like three times a week; I was very much in choir. I was in school choir, I always played instruments. I want to say when I was about 18 years old, I had just graduated [from highschool] and I had a bunch a friends that made music themselves. One day, I was like, “Yo, can I try something?” And they were like, “Yeah, go ahead!” And they were like, “Wow, that was actually really good. You should probably consider making music. That would be dope!”. I was like, “for real?”, and they were like, “Yeah, you already know how to play instruments, why not?” . I was like, “You know what? That’s tough.” I didn’t take myself serious with rap until I was like 18 or 19. 

G: You were [basically] like a baby adult, you had some type of awareness. 

D: A baby adult, for sure. It was like very scary too… cause I was like, “oh my god, what if I get made fun of?” 

G: But I admire that! The courage, that’s half the battle really. 

D: My mom always told me that cliche saying, “Your fear of looking stupid is gonna hold you back” and I like, “F*ck it”. 

G: Yeah, I totally get it. It’s one of those things [cliche sayings] we “get” it now. 

D: Yeah literally, just don’t be a P*ssy!

G: Yeah, basically. 

G: March is Women’s Month— where we celebrate the great women who’ve made strides in some way. I don’t necessarily think you have to do anything monumental to be considered an influential woman— but I wanted to interview you this month because I really enjoy how you dare to not care and bring your fire out in your music. Women talking their shit, is my favorite genre. As you grow in your artistry, can you name any women that have positively influence you? 

D: OF COURSE! I want to say that all the women that were considered rebellious in music, even outside of rap, like Madonna, Janet Jackson… Janet Jackson was the first woman I ever looked at and was like, “Bro, I wanna be her.” Like, she’s TOUGH. Definitely Nicki, definitely a barb over here! As far as the newer girlies, Rico Nasty— I literally love that woman. Her style, everything! There’s so many, even newer, newer like Lola Brooke. She goes crazy! Ice Spice! I see them and I’m like, “Yo, that’s so tough. I hope I could work with them”. 

G: I mean like… I wouldn’t be surprised, let’s put it that way. 

D: I wouldn’t be surprised either. The way things have been going with music so far, I literally would not be surprised. 

G: Let me manifest on your behalf. Do you believe that women’s stories matter? 

D: HELL YEAH! What? Of course, they do! 

G: Why do you think people are so slow to female rap? 

D: I think a lot of people are slow or closed-minded to female rap is because one, motherf*ckers don’t care about what we have to say… and then I feel like a lot of people are used to women being misogynistic in a way, so they think we have to make music to cater to men, to impress men. Like for instance, guys hate when we rap about our coochie. Like why? Ya’ll be rapping about whatever— you know what I mean? It’s just like… double standards be so stupid to me. I feel like that’s one big reason… the music industry is very male-dominated. As a woman, I guess they just look at us like, “Yeah, nah she can’t do what I do”… but 9 times out of 10, we do it better. 

G: TEA! 

D: We do it WAY better. 

G: How do you maintain respect as a female rapper? Like how do you make sure your peers take you seriously? 

D: The features on my album, those are all people I know personally. The respect already comes naturally because we’re friends or acquaintances. Let’s say, working with new people or men in general— it’s hard. It really is hard… I’ve had people downplay me to my face… like, “Hey, I want a feature but I’m not paying your price. I’d rather [us] go on a date”. Like bro, you would never say that a man. 

G: Exactly! 

D: So why you saying it to me? I’m here on a business tip… especially if you’re inquiring me. I’m very professional, I maintain my boundaries, I don’t entertain anything… as soon as I see a guy being flirtatious in any way shape or form— even women too, cause sometimes women do it too— I just dead it, because I’m like, alright… clearly you have other intentions, you don’t really want to make music. You want to waste my time…

G: You dropped your album July 2022, “DIABLA”— Do you have a favorite memory creating that album? 

D: Oh my god, yeah. I have a few. For “HALLELUJAH” I remember I was in the studio..I had to do that song twice.

G: Really!? 

D: Yeah, my first time recording that song I was in a studio out here in Redding, I was with my producer and I just was having a bad day. I had recorded three songs prior, hallelujah was the fourth song that day. I’m like, “Bro, it’s not coming out right…” and my producer is a dude. He’s just straight to it, he’s not really like an emotional person at all. I remember that day he was like, “You know what, Yaya? Don’t piss me off! You could do it!”. He was like, “You’re gonna make me mad!” He gave me the craziest pep-talk of my life! 

G: Wow, what a push! 

D: Yeah! He was like, “Don’t be a fucking p*ssy! We’re gonna end this session, but next week we’re gonna pick back up this song! You’re not gonna give up on this song!” ‘Cause I was just tryna throw the whole song away and he was like, “NO!”. 

G: It’s a good thing you kept it cause it’s so [in your face]. 

D: That song is funny! I like that song! Another good memory is when I shot my album cover [for “Diabla”]. I had travelled all the way to New York, my best friend is a photographer, I booked her—

G: It looks like a movie cover!

D: Oh, I love it! Like she really did a great job, thank you! We set up the stuff in the living room, we just had a bottle of Casamigos, we had the vibes on, and we had things in rotation. It was just a really nice time. It was just really wholesome because I’m happy that making money so I could book my friend and pay my friend. I love the work too, it’s not even biased ‘cause it’s her, you know? She did a phenomenal job, turn around time was crazy. It was just— the vibes were awesome! That was really my favorite part, doing the cover. 

G: Also, which track(s) was your favorite to make?

D: My number one favorite is, “Like a Ho”. 

G: I actually have a question about that! How does one act “Like a Ho”?

D: Honestly, I had a boo at the time… and he was pissing me off! So lowkey, that song at first was a diss to him because he had me so mad up! I was like, “why you acting like a ho!?”. He got me so mad, I think I seen him in some girl’s likes or whatever— some stupid ass sh*t. I was like [thinking], that’s a battery in my back! Shout out to him for making me mad and that’s really where the song came from, I just ran with it and started saying whatever… what really made me love that song is that I have dancer friends and I went to the club with them. They played that song! I didn’t realize that it had club potential—

G: and that’s the best audience, honestly! The girls! 

D:  The girls were so kind to me after too! They were like, “That’s you!?”  

G: They would be! Of course! 

D: I love them! My second favorite song on the album is “BALLIN’”. I love that song, I love my verse, I love that I spoke Spanish, [and] I love my friends’ verse. Like he freakin’ snapped! I was like, “bruh, this is a great song, 10 out of 10”. 

G: You need the album with a bang! What’s your story behind “The Best”?

D: Around the time I made that song I was going through a lot… I was going through a lot of rejection… discouragement with music. During that time I had joined a group of people who be doing cyphs [cypher], rap cyphs and stuff like that. I was the only girl… they were nice to me when I first met them, but after a while them dudes was tryna play me. They were really dogging me, talking about me behind my back, separate group chats—

G: MESSY!

D: One boy in the group was like, “I’m not jackin’ that!”. Eventually, I left! Those emotions put a battery in my back because i’m like, “Yo, they hatin’ on me. They mad at me. We all together , we got the same 24 hours, we have the same resources, the same studio, videos, pretending like we f*ck with each other… and then I was like, “I don’t give a fuck! I’m the best in this bitch!”. 

G: Period! 

D: I was like, “y’all suck anyways! I don’t even care to work with y’all no more!” What makes it worse was half the dudes in there were pushing thirty and it’s like… y’all grown and messy as f*ck!

G: Was the hairline pushed back? Let me stop… 

D: Hairline pushed BACK! Fitted ON! HAT-FISHING! I’m just like, bro f*ck this! I’m the best! It was a feeling of arrogance, they wanted to humble me and I’m like, “FUCK THAT”. They wanted to humble me so bad, “You’re just a cute girl from the city that raps… good for you…” Like, NO. 

G: I’m happy you talked your shit on there, now I’m going to listen to the song differently know that I know this. 

D: When I said, “Yeah I love my city but they hate to see me winning”, I meant that sh*t! I love this city, the fact that y’all don’t want to see me win… it’s crazy too because when you work as a team with people, all it takes is one person to win, and ya’ll all UP! It could be either of us, and y’all hating’ on me? That’s the story behind that song [“The Best”]. 

G: Ok— My favorite song from DIABLA is YBW. Can you talk about the story behind “YBW”? “Man, they hate to see a young bitch winnin’, bitch i’m going up I been a boss from the beginnin’ ” I felt that.

D: It was lowkey inspired from YMW Melly, I’m a big fan! I was like, “I’ma do Young B*tch Winnin’” , you feel me? Same thing as Melly! I dropped it as a single, I was really nervous about the song because… I don’t even know why, because it’s a good song. I made “the Best” and “YBW” around the same time. I was still in the negative/hostile feelings of arrogance, like “fuck them”, you know? My agenda behind them songs was to really snap. You can’t sit there and say, “Oh yeah, she be rapping about her coochie…” I have more to say than that. 

G: that’s so beautiful DUHVILLAIN you know what else? Your name is, DUHVILLAIN— Why? What is the meaning behind your name?

D: When I was an angsty teenager, I wanna say like 15— I was, well I’m still a super big MF DOOM Fan. He has an alter-ego under “Mad Villain” and [my name] started of as an Instagram name, honestly. I just left it that way, people always called me that. When I started making music, I just ran with that. It suits me well, it’s like “evil” or “mischievous”! 

G: What’s the best thing about being a rapper?

D: Not on no cocky sh*t, but I love going places and people know me. It’s crazy, because now it’s starting to be a bigger audience. Now I have a lot of eyes on me from all over now.

G: Yes! Your hard work is paying off! 

D: Yes, and I’m so grateful! 

G: What is something that people would be surprised to know about you?

D:  I majored in Psychology. 

G: ME TOO! 

D: OH MY GOD! That’s so f*cking cool! 

G: PSYCH BAD B*TCHES MAKE SOME NOISE! 

D: I’m very passionate about mental health. I’m also passionate about culinary arts. Hopefully when I’m already settled as a rapper— with my rapper money, I would love to go to culinary school… for fun! 

G: Oh my god, you’ll be like Kelis! 

D: YES! 

G: She a whole cook, bro! And has a farm! 

D: I literally watch her stories! 

G: ME TOO! I was so hyped one day, she liked my comment. Okay, I hate to be annoying to ask— When should we expect some new work? 

D: I’m starting to wrap up making this EP, no features. Hopefully, by May. 

G: MAY! You heard it here first Paper Koi! We’re gonna get some new DUHVILLAIN as the summer creeps in! GET READY! Okay, so let’s transition to the fun questions. 

G: Whats your Zodiac Sign? And what do you think is the most [zodiac] thing you do?

D: I’m a libra, air sign! The most libra thing I do is, I’m like self-obsessed. I’m like, “Beautiful, Love you!”. I’m self-indulgent too, I’m like, “Nah, I deserve this!” It be anything. I’m gonna treat myself today! 

G: What’s your favorite meal? 

D: My favorite meal ever is pasta. Seafood Pasta, specifically. 

G: Would you rather see the future or change the past?

D: I’d rather see the future, 100%. 

G: Would you rather be underestimated or overestimated?

D: Definitely underestimated. 

G: Would you rather be a ninja or a pirate?

D: I’d rather be ninja, pirates used to stink! I know them motherf*ckers STINK! 

G: Would you rather gold teeth or platinum chains? 

D: Definitely gold teeth! 

G: Pink or Black?

D: PINK GIRL! 

You can find DUHVILLAIN on Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Soundcloud