That was my only aspirations in life,
trying to be the biggest female drug dealer there was.
I’ve just come out of prison. This is the life that I’ve lived.
Being a woman in these kind of places is scary.
I got used to being so violent and carrying weapons,
and I thought it was part of the game.
I don’t think I would be able to make the music I make
without living my story.
..One in his leg, one in his head, one in his back
One in his chest, one in his face, and he dead in a flat.
Them hoes wanna pull up on me to fight
While I’m busy trying to call up my link
for the hand ting that I like...
[NOISEY RAPS]
British rapper Lavida Loca emerged onto the scene in 2019,
when after being released from jail,
she posted a freestyle on Snapchat that went viral.
Since then, she’s proven herself
as one of the most powerful female voices in the UK scene,
being selected for the BBC 1Xtra Hot List.
La Vida was born in Malawi
but grew up in England after her parents illegally emigrated there.
With a troubled childhood, Lavida spent time in the care system.
She found herself selling drugs as a teenager
and in prison at 16.
Despite moving around a lot,
one of the key places that shaped her life
was where she lived in her teenage years—
in Southend,
one of the most deprived areas in Essex.
So, right now, we’re where I grew up.
This is literally my bedroom.
My childhood was both happy and unhappy at the same time.
Like my mum and dad really loved me,
and a lot of people who see our relationship
will see, like, they adore me.
But I think the way they treated each other
was also my bad kind of like memories.
So it was a lot of drinking, fighting, screaming, swearing.
I didn’t stay here for long
because shortly after then, I went into care.
..Get me to social services
My mum kind of gave up
So she left me to the streets
She left me on the road trying to get it any means
I’m currently on my own N**** taught me out to eat...
I started learning how to write my pain.
Using music as an escape, it helps create good music, actually.
..Mummy never had visa
So I took trips on the m-way
Help Mummy stack them ps up
So I took trips on the m-way
Help Mummy stack them ps up
Talking air while I weigh drugs on the scales like Libra...
I grew up listening to reggae.
My dad listened to reggae a lot around me when I was a child.
It’s all, like, Buju Banton, Yellowman, Culture, Gregory Isaacs.
..I’m cute N***** know that I got that juice
Tell a fuckboy move
Couldn’t handle what this body can do...
And then I grew in to love Rihanna.
My dad played her around me first.
Amongst all the other artists he played,
it was
and all these songs that were kind of reggae-influenced by her.
And I was thinking, “Oooh, who’s this?”
and I loved her as a pop star and then grew into loving music
and went into musical theater,
so I love a lot of musical songs.
First discovered road rap when I actually jumped on the roads.
I was around for mandem that would listen to that kind of music
around Stockwell, Brixton Hill, and Tulse Hill.
It was just everyone’s making drill music and everyone’s got clout.
And then I went away, I went to jail,
and then when I came out, everyone’s famous.
They were all on tour with Skepta, and I’m thinking,
“Wow, these are the guys I used to chill on the block with.
What the hell have I done with my time?”
..Rudegyal, I don’t watch my tone
There ain’t a fuckboy that can call my phone
I’ve been in the trap, bagging dirt alone
So no one’s own, not a ting I own
Tell the bitty keep my worker for the night, that’s a two on two
While I’m busy seeing view on view...
Right now, we are on York Road.
I class York Road as one of the worst roads in Southend.
It’s full of drug addicts,
full of bandos,
alcoholics.
This is kind of like where I found trapping.
When I was a broke little girl,
and I was tired of being broke, so I said, “Let me hit the bando.”
And we’re actually here, we’re at the bando,
the first... trap house, whatever you want to call it,
the first drug addict house that I stayed in,
where I used to sell from.
..I’m warning you pricks, man or a bitch,
I’m really about it I’m banging them sticks
And I'm really about my ps and that too
Busy in the trap I ain’t looking like you...
I was selling, like, crack, heroin.
When I first started trapping, I was 13.
I had a lot of people trying to rob me,
dealers, drug addicts themselves trying to rob me.
That’s happened here. That actually happened up there.
..Man, it’s disgusting,
In a trap, hear me cussing
Guns that I’m bussin to the feds say nothing...
It taught me how to be in a man’s world, in a sense.
Because you are of use to the males above you or around you,
they’re going to keep you in this world
and tell you what they need to tell you
for you to feel like, “Yeah, trapping is good, trapping is cool.
Keep holding our packs, keep holding our guns.”
I think at that point of life,
I didn’t think there was ever going to be a way out of here.
I thought that was my life.
I really thought, “Yeah, that’s it. This is life... drugs.”
..I’m going to tell you a story...
I went to jail when I was 16 going on 17.
My first charges were burning a house down
and gun charges.
I burned down an ex’s house
because he was a dirty dog.
And then while in prison
serving them sentences two years later,
I then caught another case
after basically attacking someone in jail.
But actually she attacked me first.
I just finished it.
And I definitely regret it
because it gave me an extra five years to do.
But I’ve never felt so supported when it came to my music
as I was supported in jail with the girls on the wing.
They would literally just be like,
“Lav, rap. Lav, sing for us. Lav, do it.”
I thought I wanted to be the biggest trapper in the world.
Jail was the only thing that turned around my mentality of,
“No, you need to do better than this
because otherwise you’re going to be just in and out here.”
Fuck a snack, I’m the whole damn platter
Whipping in the pan, making dough, no batter
They’re hating on me, but them rats, they don’t matter
When they see me and my bitches live, oh them all scatter
So move, get out my way
While them bitches watching, I’m still getting paid
Send him to country and give him away
If that bitch want a job too, I’m hiring today, bitch
No snack, I’m the whole damn platter
Putas wanna hate, but them hoes don’t matter...
So right now, I’m getting my canerows done,
then should be shoot ready.
The name of the song we’re doing is called
I like the fact that there is more females coming up and coming out.
You know, we can spit about our lives.
We come from somewhere.
It’s not just males that have lived a certain kind of life.
Sometimes you go down the wrong path, end up in jail.
There’s a lot of other women
that can relate to the things that we’ve been through.
The more me and yous there are, the more girls will think,
“Let me chase my dream as well.
What else is there outside of trapping
or holding this for my man
or driving my man’s packs here or doing this for my man?
What do I want to do for myself?”
I had an EP called
The artwork is half of my face with makeup and my hair done.
The other side is a bally.
People feel like if you’re going to be the bad girl, road girl
that’s gone to jail,
you have to look a certain way or act kind of way.
I feel like I’ve been a product of my environment,
and then I've grown out of that.
That’s why I can still be this person now.
And the other side, the bally,
I’ve still done more than
half of the people that carry themselves to be “bad.”
Not because I'm proud of it,
but I had to do a lot more than them
just to survive in the streets that I’ve come from.
..I’m icy, bitch I’m a pricey bitch
Every n**** that I’ve fucked wanna wife me, bitch...
I want to be a pop princess, like, I grew up on Nicki and Rihanna,
and I want to make softer music and talk about boys and love.
But then the minute I start doing that, everyone’s like,
“Well, where’s Lavida Loca? I don’t know who that girl is.”
Back then, I used to want to be the biggest female trapper,
but now my dream is to be the biggest female rapper.