After butting heads with her label, Snow Tha Product decided to release a mixtape entitled The Rest Comes Later. The Latina rapper was intending to release a project called 40oz in First Class, but was unable to get it done how she wanted.
“It’s a lot of drama and bullshit or whatever,” she says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. “I figured it’s been awhile since I put out a new product and I want to go on tour and I want to do all this stuff for my fans. There’s a lot of politics and drama and bullshit that goes on with music stuff so I figured you know I’ll just put out this project and even if whether anyone is behind it or not, like I just want to put this out for the fans and the rest will come later. Everything else and everybody else will come later. This is just music for my fans to at least appreciate and for me to be able to go on tour and show them some new stuff.”
The Latina rapper is signed to Atlantic Records and says that tensions with the industry have gotten stronger over time.
“I think it’s always been there,” she says, “and yeah it does build over time because you get a little salty about certain people that are supposed to help you and people that are supposed to be there to help you build your career and they’re not. And they promise things and they don’t. I think after awhile you kind of compound it all to a point where you’re just kind of like, ‘What the fuck? What’s going on?’ I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I’m making my music, I’m building fans, I’m keeping up with fans, I’m touring, I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do. Why do other people not play their position?”
AD LOADING...
With these frustrations, Snow has found allies in Tech N9ne and Immortal Technique, who are both independent artists. They have encouraged her to create her own platform via her Woke movement even if she doesn’t get support from the label.
“I get a lot of advice from independent artists because they’re like, ‘You got to act like an independent. You just got to keep pushing,'” Snow says. “That’s what I’ve been able to do and continuing doing with Woke and all our crew.”
She has built her career off connecting with fans on a personal level. From getting her name out via social media or the BET Hip Hop Awards cypher, Snow credits her fans, whom she calls Product Pushers, with giving her the platform that she has. She makes sure to let them know she appreciates them. She is currently on the 37-date cross-country tour with the same name as her mixtape.
“For the most part everything has been built off of Product Pushers and myWoke fam and all the fans spreading the word and it’s very grassroots,” she says. “I always want my fans to know I’m always going out and meeting everybody. There’s no meet and greet. I’m meeting everybody that’s going to the shows. I’m putting in the work because they promote for me and they put in the work to support me and I am very appreciative of that so I want to make sure that they know. I’m going to go meet people. I’m going to go talk to people. I’m going to stay there until I have to make sure that they understand that I appreciate them. I haven’t gotten to open for a major artist or nobody’s ever picked me up. Nobody’s co-signed me or whatever but I did build this on my own to headline and I just want to make sure that people know that even though I am headlining and even though I am going to all these cities I’m going to go meet every single fan. If they come out we’re going to have a blast.”
AD LOADING...
Snow says she plays beer pong with the crowd using giant red cups. She performs crowd favorite “Hola” and is also trying out a new song, “Not Tonight.” The latter song is not on the mixtape, but she is hoping to release it as a single.
“I really like it and I think the girls are really going to like it,” she says of the “really danceable” track. “It almost sounds like a love song and then it turns into some crazy turn up.”
Besides having fun, Snow also uses her music to bring awareness about issues facing the Latino community in America. The song, “Bet I Will” came from an impromptu recording session with her brother.
“I’ve just always felt like I get the shorter end of the stick in this game being that I’m a woman and that I’m Latina,” she says. “One day I just got frustrated and my brother, who doesn’t really even makes beats very often, he just made this loop and I started rapping to it and we just kind of made the song as we went along. It was more kind of like a freestyle kind of written. I was writing as I went but that I was just not holding back and I writing what I felt. It’s dope. People like it. People really like when I go off like that like on ‘Holy Shit’ or like on this track. So we were just kind of releasing my aggression.”
AD LOADING...
Snow says that she agrees with the majority of America that Donald Trump was wrong in his comments about Mexican people who come to America bringing drugs and rapists. Corporations like Macy’s and NBC cut ties with the businessman and presidential candidate.
“I’m very glad and I hope that people start respecting that the Latino vote really won Obama to the office but I know that there are a lot of Hispanics that were promised things regarding immigration and that’s what kind of got it to go overboard and I think a lot of companies want the Latino buying power because we are very brand loyal,” she says. “Once you stick with something we pretty much keep buying the same stuff and I feel like people want that money and they want that support but they never want to give us support when it comes to our issues. I’m very aware that there are the shootings and things that people are rioting over and everybody is very aware of the Black-White thing but I think Latinos always get lost in the mix. Our issues never seem to be big enough, which I understand that there are bigger things than just immigration but at the same time there’s a lot of things in Latin families that get overlooked and I would like somebody to start paying attention. If we’re disrespected or people are saying Latinos only come over here and they are rapists, killers and…there are some good people. It’s kind of like, what? You’re just stupid to say something like that. Why would you ever think that you could run for office? If anyone takes them seriously they’re just stupid and they should definitely be kicked out of this country because I don’t want them here and I’m American.”
Overall, Snow doesn’t know what the future holds, but is happy where she is at. She has faced frustrations, but knows that her fans are supporting her for who she is. That is what The Rest Comes Later is all about.
“The way that we are doing things works and I’m staying real to myself and I’m staying real to my fans,” she says. “So it doesn’t matter if I get to be the famous person in the world. I’m just happy with sticking to what I said I was going to do and being the star and I am appreciative about that.”
