Define Me
Interview: Kemet High
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2022 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now.
When it comes to the rap game, Saucy Santana, 28, has been stroking the bees’ nest. In the last two years, the Perry, Fla. native has unleashed five projects including Pretty Little Gangsta, Keep It Playa and more. All are threaded with his tortuous flow, racy lyrics and viral anthems that have boosted his buzz. Here, the rising rapper and established personality discusses five songs that have earned him the title of being next up.
“Walk Em Like a Dog”
That was my first song. And it did 1 million plays in one week. I wasn’t signed to nobody. I wasn’t known as a rapper or anything. Once I put that song out, everything changed… It was a song about things that I had experienced, things that I’ve seen my homegirls go through, [that] my mama go through. I think it just hit home for everybody.
“Material Girl”
That was my second song that I had ever recorded. I shot the video two days after I got shot in Miami. It’s just so crazy that now, with the power of TikTok, the song spun the block and it just went crazy. Me and my team always felt like “Material Girl” was a great song. I just think that with me coming out, I was ahead of my time, you know? My cadence with “Material Girl” was kinda fun. It was a different beat for me.
“Back It Up” featuring Light Skin Keisha
Meagan Good has a show called Harlem. They put “Back It Up” on the soundtrack of the show. So, my fans was going crazy. It was dope, though, for it to be 2022 and my song from two years ago is on the soundtrack to the TV show. It just goes to show you, you never know who’s watching or who’s paying attention.
“Here We Go”
We made up a dance [to it] and put it on TikTok and Instagram. It hit The Shade Room in like 10 minutes. Everybody started doing the dance and what made it go viral. Some more was people started to realize that the dance goes to every song. So, just having a fun record and having a big trend to go with it was definitely monumental for me.
“Shisha” with City Girls
A City Girls and Santana collab has always been highly anticipated. The City Girls are my babies. Those are my sisters. And shisha is a thing right now. I’m not going to no club without no hookah. I don’t want to go out to eat if it ain’t no hookah. I don’t want to have a meeting if it ain’t no hookah. Everybody does hookah and smoke they little vape pens. So, I just feel like that song was for the culture.
Read the cover story with Playboi Carti and check out the other interviews in the magazine with Fivio Foreign, Latto, DaBaby, Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J, Joey Bada$$, Denzel Curry, Hit-Boy, Big K.R.I.T., RZA, Saba, Morray, Kali, Sleepy Hallow, Nardo Wick, ATL Jacob, SSGKobe, Pink Sweat$, Saucy Santana, Jason Lee, Angie Randisi and Colby Turner in the new issue of XXL magazine, which is on newsstands now and in XXL's online shop.