Pap Chanel isn’t the type to waste any time. As soon as the beat drops in a song, the 23-year-old rapper goes in with enough substance and quotables to pack an entire album. To do so, she uses fluttering flows that are often delivered with a husky tone. That potent combination of attributes are reflected on tracks like "Apple Jacks" and "Gucci Bucket Hat." Over the last few years, both songs have generated millions of Spotify streams and counting, further stamping Pap as an ascending lyricist to be reckoned with.
Pap, which stands for Pretty and Paid (a group started in middle school for bosses), grew up in a hip-hop household. Her brother used to rap around the crib, and between the ages of 8 and 11, the Milledgeville, Ga. native started spitting with him. As time moved on, she would put her own spin on old records and upload them to Facebook. Around the age of 15, she laid down her first official record, a feature on Quan DaKing’s 2015 track "Add It Up." Her momentum continued to balloon until things really popped off with a 2017 flip of Tee Grizzley’s "First Day Out."
The next few trips around the sun were lucrative, as Pap’s hustle increased the status of her name in the South. In 2018, her first project, The Definition of P.A.P, was released. The effort features an appearance from Lil Baby on "Talk 2 Cheap." "Freestyle," a chin check to Pap’s doubters and flex of her artistic prowess, followed one year later and set the tone for her Pretty & Paid project in 2020, led by the head-knocking "2 Way Street" with Blac Youngsta. In 2021, the second installment of Pretty & Paid 2.0 arrived, including records like "Gucci Bucket Hat" with Future and Herion Young—a previously teased viral snippet—and "Apple Jacks," a freestyled revamp of C-Murder’s classic "Down For My Niggas."
Peeping what she brought to the table, record labels banged her line in hopes to get involved with the movement. These days, she has three entities of support: the independent label 1865, 4th & Broadway and now Def Jam Recordings. The deals were all inked over the last three years. Those moves are a further testament to the fact that she’s getting bigger with time. Her music has been heard on favored shows like Starz's P-Valley, Hulu’s Woke and BET’s College Hill. And her new song, "No Biggie," is featured on the soundtrack of Madden NFL 23. From TV shows to video games, elevation is clearly the name of the game.
Her next project is in the microwave now. Ahead of it, Pap Chanel stopped by The Break: Live to discuss her illustrious resume, being inspired by Nicki Minaj, the camaraderie among women rappers right now and much more.
Follow Pap Chanel on SoundCloud and Instagram.
Standouts:
"Apple Jacks"
"Gucci Bucket Hat" with Future and Herion Young
"2 Way Street" featuring Blac Youngsta
Pretty & Paid 2.0