Rye Rye
By Ferrari Sheppard
Less than two months ago, 18-year-old MC Rye Rye was set to embark on a tour with A-Trak in support of her debut album Go! Pop! Bang!. The M.I.A. protégé recently pulled out of the tour, and released a statement on her blog stating why: She's pregnant. But the latter part of ‘09 will see Rye Rye back in the spotlight─writing and performing at lightning speed.
I caught up with Rye Rye, whose birth name is Ryeisha Berrain, to talk about her album and her future goals. This is what was said:
StopBeingFamous: Take us back to your first performance. What was it like for you?
Rye Rye: I was 15, in a club, I can't remember which one. At the time, I was only performing one song; Blaqstarr was DJing, and he'd play "Shake it to the Ground" and I'd perform. I was really shy.
SBF: What drew you away from your shyness?
RR: Before I started performing on my own, I'd be on tour with M.I.A, and I'd go off the stage, and she'd be like, No, come back. She knew I was shy. Eventually, I started doing my own set, but I'd stay on stage for M.I.A.'s set, dancing and hyping the crowd.
SBF: How did you become associated with M.I.A.?
RR: She heard a song I did, and [had come] to Baltimore to work on her album. She was working with Blaqstarr, and he called me to the studio. He said on the phone, “Someone at the studio wants to meet you." It was M.I.A. and Diplo. After she and I got to know each other, we recorded some songs and kept in touch from then on.
SBF: How would you describe the creative dynamic between you two?
RR: She's the producer and I'm the writer. We have a friendship bond, so it's not like we go directly to work. We fool around a lot. She works on beats and I work on writing; we're usually in our own zone.
SBF: What is something you learned while on tour with M.I.A.?
RR: Just the business aspect. We had managers on the bus─assistant managers, tour managers. They all had to make sure certain things were handled, from equipment to everything. It was interesting because the people on the tour bus were from different places. A lot of people were from overseas, and there were people from the states, but different parts of the states─we all had a different vibe and got a chance to experience each other and new kinds of music, which boosted my sound. I started experimenting.
SBF: How did your family respond to your emergence?
RR: My mother was very excited. My whole family was excited. I knew I was young and I had to go to school, but in Baltimore, opportunities like the one I was given don't come around often. It might be once in a lifetime. My mother was all for it because she liked the fact that I'd have a chance to tour the world and express myself. It was crazy; it just happened out of nowhere.
SBF: How did your friends react?
RR: I missed home and I missed my friends. Sometimes I got into arguments with friends, and lost some because I was away. When I came back to school, everything felt weird. I don't know why, but when I came home from tour, I felt strange talking on the phone. I was gone for months and most of the time I was barely on the phone. Well, at first, I'd always be on the phone on the tour bus, and M.I.A. would say, "You’re always on the phone," [Laughing] but when I went overseas, my phone wouldn't work.
SBF: Has the idea of Rye Rye being known by a lot people sunk into your head?
RR: I'm still really humble. I mean, yeah, it’s sunk in that I'm popular, but I still feel like myself. It's like nothing changed. I go places and people say, "Oh, there's Rye Rye" or they'll tell me they love me─I just laugh and say I love you too. I'm just chillin'. Actually, I don't think it's really sunk in yet, but…I'm still myself.
SBF: Your new single "Bang" was an instant hit. What was it like making that song?
RR: At first the song was just a normal club song, there were no lyrics, just the beat and the chorus. M.I.A. was in love with the beat, and she said she needed one Baltimore club song on her album. Everyone was going crazy over the beat when they heard it, but Maya [M.I.A.] was like, It's already taken, it's going on Rye Rye's album.
SBF: We know that you recently canceled your tour with A-Trak because of your pregnancy. Was coming out publicly about your pregnancy difficult?
RR: When I first found out I was pregnant, my first thought was to get rid of it, because of my career. My mind was made up, but in the meantime, I was still touring. I was still on the road. I was still doing this and that, in between times. There were times when I could have went to the hospital, but I couldn’t do it because I had to catch a flight the next day. It kept happening like that. My family and my great-grandmother told me, “If you have any doubts, don't do it.” They said, “If it's meant for you to have a career and it's meant for you to have a baby, you'll have both of them. God is the only one that can determine that.” I'm the type of person, I don't care what people say if it's negative. I like thinking positive. I believe I can have this baby and keep my career. It all goes back to me making music, which will never stop. I went for a while without telling my record label [M.I.A.’s label N.E.E.T. Records]. I eventually told everybody, and they were like, cool. We started planning around it, and coming up with a new strategy.
SBF: What is the new strategy?
RR: The album was originally supposed to come out in September, so we pushed the album back. The plan is to have it come out in January. I'll be back on the road in November or December.
SBF: When is the baby due?
RR: The baby will be born in October.
SBF: Do you know the sex?
RR: A girl.
SBF: A girl? Congratulations!
RR: Thanks. It was funny because I was touring for like six months…almost every day during South by Southwest and Winter Music Conference. I was doing all of these photo shoots and no one even noticed. This went on for over five months. I decided to tell the label and M.I.A. I felt like I could keep going─after all, I accomplished all of that in first five months. I was going to do the A-Trak tour while I was six months, but we eventually pulled out of it. It was two days before we were set to fly out, everything was booked, but M.I.A. said she didn't want me to do the tour. She thought it wouldn't be good for my health. There was a big argument because I felt like I could do the tour, but she thought I couldn't.
SBF: She's kind of like a big sister, huh?
RR: Yeah. I wanted to do it. I wanted to tour until at least August.
SBF: How are you feeling now?
RR: Confident. I didn't like writing a press release. When the record company said I had to, I was like, God! Why do I have to write a press release? [Laughing] Why do I have to go public? People don't know, they don't have to know until they see it. I was scared, but at the same time, I was laughing about it. They said I should write one because people needed an answer as to why I pulled out of the A-Trak tour.
SBF: You should have said you were abducted by aliens.
RR: [Laughing] Nobody is perfect and everything happens for a reason.
SBF: New habits around the pregnancy─eating, exercise? I hope you're not just eating Doritos and chillin'.
RR: [Laughing] No. I've been eating healthy. I haven't really gained weight. When people see me, they can't even tell I'm pregnant. Half of the time I couldn't eat because I was so sick. When I was on tour, it was crazy, the food in the U.K....
SBF: Your album is coming out a bit later now. What can we expect to hear?
RR: My goal was to put out an album and let the world explain what it is. It has a Baltimore feel. It's not just Baltimore club music. It's a fun album. I experimented with different sounds. I'm 18, I'm just having fun.
SBF: Any last words, for your fans?
RR: Anything is possible. End of Interview 
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Rye Rye with friends Photo: Jason Adam Baker
M.I.A. and Rye Rye on tour.
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