Maiya the Don Talks Hip-Hop, Women in Rap, and New Music

Fifty years in the past, the sisterhood of hip-hop didn’t but exist. The style was nonetheless an toddler, and ladies have been preventing to have their voices heard among the many founding fathers, so competitors between them was extra inspired than comradeship. But, 5 many years later, rising artist Maiya the Don finds herself in the midst of rap’s ladies renaissance with fellow femcees supporting her at each flip. Not each up-and-coming lady rapper can say that.

“Everyone that I’ve engaged with has been nothing however candy and welcoming,” the 21-year-old tells POPSUGAR of her newfound rap friendships.

Beginning out as a magnificence creator on TikTok, Maiya did not get her first style of fame till her massive second arrived final October. “Telfy,” the Brooklynite’s first hit single — a flip of Sisqo’s 1999 basic “Thong Tune” and dubbed the official Telfar purse anthem — was inescapable on social media as her designer-inspired, braggadocious bars made the rounds. “This gown look good ‘trigger I am in it / Large physique Vary Rover, not rented,” she raps with zeal. “I am in my bag, I am in my Telfy / Dripped down in Prada, footwear is Giuseppe.” Quickly thereafter, Maiya’s title was all over the place.

After her full of life arrival to the rap scene, Maiya’s fanbase nearly instantly demanded extra materials, and he or she answered again this yr with singles like “Dusties,” “Maintain It Cute,” and “Luv U Higher.” However almost a yr after reaching breakout success, the eye and fame are nonetheless an adjustment. “Typically I notice, all proper, I can not do that or I can not say this,” Maiya explains. “I do not suppose I am going to ever get used to it.”

What retains the budding rap star grounded, although, is her supportive ladies hip-hop tribe, whose conversations have been about “extra than simply the music,” she says. In keeping with Maiya, fellow up-and-coming rapper Monaleo is “the sweetest soul” and offers her “lots of recommendation,” and Coi Leray — who gave Maiya a refined shout-out together with her 2023 BET Awards look — has been “tremendous type” to her. Collaborator Flo Milli, in the meantime, was “the primary feminine rapper to embrace” her. “I like [her] a lot. I take into account her like a buddy,” Maiya gushes. “She’s so supportive of every thing. Each time I flip round she’s there, you recognize?”

From present stars like Lola Brooke to icons like Lil’ Kim, seeing “ladies supporting different ladies in any capability” is fulfilling, Maiya says, particularly contemplating their historical past in hip-hop. She shares: “Everyone has supported me in some kind of means and I actually recognize it, as a result of I used to be a shopper of all their music simply a few months in the past. So to go from a shopper to look — and never solely being simply their peer however them appreciating my music and giving me props and kudos — is good.”

Consider it or not, Maiya pivoted to music out of boredom. Although she grew up with a deep appreciation for writing poetry and enjoying devices, her rap profession started out of angst. “Doing TikTok full time, I discovered myself feeling tremendous stagnant. I did not really feel fulfilled,” she remembers. “I felt like I may very well be doing extra, nearly like this sense of worthlessness. I used to be making folks proud of my content material and folks loved it, however I did not really feel glad doing it. It wasn’t sufficient.”

So she discovered a brand new outlet: the studio.

Recording music for enjoyable, for her, is the “spotlight” of her week “each time.” And that zeal drives her at the same time as some could doubt her future in rap: “I genuinely get pleasure from making music. I believe that is essentially the most motivation that I want.”

Maiya provides, “The second that I cease having enjoyable is the second that I am going to simply resolve to stroll away, however I genuinely like it. I believe my followers wanting extra music from me and simply that alone is all that I want.”

Maiya’s connections with hip-hop’s OGs have been a supply of motivation, too. She remembers how working into fellow Brooklyn native Fabolous at Trend Week earlier this yr was considered one of her “pinch me” moments: “I simply wished to say hello as a result of I like him, and he knew who I used to be. He knew my songs. That was loopy. That was a second.” Not too lengthy after, Maiya had one other surprising encounter with a rap star — this time, a cellphone name from Busta Rhymes. “He simply was like, ‘I like you and I like your track and I like your music,'” Maiya remembers. “In order that was actually cool.”

Maiya would not let these moments go to her head, although. Strolling within the footsteps of her hip-hop predecessors, particularly ladies who paved the best way for her, retains the rapper humble. “It would not be Maiya the Don with out each single particular person, from MC Lyte to Cardi B. Each single considered one of ’em has made their mark not directly for me to have the ability to do one thing on this trade,” she says. “So I give props to each single [one of them].”

She would not thoughts getting within the studio with any of them both, like Cardi, Lakeyah, or Brooke once more (Milli’s “Immodest” remix collab). She says, “Actually, pay attention, anyone who wants a verse outta Maiya the Don, I am a textual content away, for actual. I received a verse for all of them.”

“‘Trigger I am a very massive fan and I like what we’re doing as ladies in rap,” Maiya continues. “I really feel like we’re actually taking up and doing our largest one but. So camaraderie and coming collectively as one to do one massive factor is admittedly necessary to me. I assist all people whether or not they assist me or not. Love what all people’s doing.”

Nonetheless on her “come-up” journey, Maiya is taking her time together with her future releases as she builds her discography, so do not count on an album or EP simply but. “I am nonetheless grinding, I am nonetheless doing issues to point out those that I do that,” she explains. “I am nonetheless within the stage the place I am creating as a person and an artist. I am nonetheless studying. I am going to eternally be taught although. I am all the time a pupil.”

Whereas Maiya’s conserving the remainder of her strikes near the chest for now, her “largest objective” stays making her youthful self proud. And above all, she’s targeted on “having enjoyable” — as she places it, “that is the place I am at proper now.”