I first heard Ghandrx on a warm July night last summer while I was sitting on my fire escape. It was musky outside, the overgrown plants and ivy sagged on the neighboring apartment buildings, and the sky was transitioning from dark blue to black. My friend and I’d just finished eating pasta on my fire escape when they played me a song they thought I’d like, “PLANE” by Ghandrx featuring imyjavi. A mellow synth pattern was followed by a punchy baseline melted with Ghandrx’s voice, and I was stunted. I was addicted to her effortlessly confident rapping and domineering femininity and I felt like I was just shown the best-kept secret.
Born and raised Southern rapper and producer Ghandrx calls Atlanta her home. She doesn’t carry the South with her but rather feels it as a guiding life force: “It’s just in me, it’s just the way that I was raised.” After experimenting with visual arts like drawing and painting for a long time, she longed for something new and began experimenting with rapping in high school: “Bitch, I need something to do.” She describes being hunkered down and focused on making music for herself only, not showing it to anyone else. “You’re making this for you,” she says, “why do you have to show it to anyone else?” Her genuine internal drive shines throughout her music, as her lyrics are witty, assertive, and self-assured. She doesn’t play about herself, her time, or her worth, a quality that I wished all musicians carried with them in their music-making. It’s strictly tailored.
Ghandrx’s feminine confidence also outshines all these carbon copy boy rappers and puts men in their place, rightfully so. I love rap music for this very reason: the ability to talk shit, take pride in yourself, and stand your ground, it’s just unfortunate how much of it comes from a male-centered and misogynistic perspective. Many male rappers use this rhetoric to assert power over women and their sexuality, reducing them to objects to add to their other possessions: designer clothes, expensive cars, and money: it’s corny, tired, and embarrassing. It shouldn’t be subversive when a woman is confident, shameless, and domineering. Ghandrx normalizes this idea and proves that women have been the ones running this game all along: “He think his dumbass running shit / no the fuck he not.”
I got the chance to get to know Ghandrx a little bit when she came to visit the station for a live session.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Who are your influences?
Top two have to be Young Scooter and JunglePussy. I like artists who make things [out] of experience. I like really confident rappers, and they just exude confidence. I feel like I grew 10 inches when I listened to that music.
I hear this same quality in your music, when I listen to you I feel so good about myself, I feel energized and I feel hyped. That’s so important to me.
I want people to feel like they can punch through a brick wall.
Tell me about when you started making music.
I used to paint and draw a lot. I put that down and just thought, “Bitch I need something to do” so I picked up music. I used to buy junk equipment and record off that. I was just experimenting, I never really showed people my music, I was hunkered down. I would buy beats and then rap on them, and when producers thought it was good they would send me more for free, and I just kept on going.
What was your process of looking for producers like?
Okay, people have this thing where they like to work up, but I like to work around me. So if I see somebody at a studio session or a friend I talk to them and see if they want to make some cool stuff together. I got this habit where I scrap the cool stuff we made and actually make something of substance, but yeah it’s fun.
After I discovered you I discovered [rappers] SHONE and imyjavi who you collaborate with often–
My bitches, those are my bitches!
When y’all are all rapping together on a song I can tell that y’all are besties. How did you meet?
Before I started making music, everything was kept on a small account and it was just a bunch of snippets. I was just buying beats– I really do think it’s ethical to pay your producers, pay your producers!– and I saw Javi. It was kind of queer, and I was like, okay, that’s cool. I don’t really like a lot of producers, so I was just like, “Let me go ahead and invest in this.” It was just for myself. And I guess they heard my music and were like– Bitch, you’re good– so we kind of just locked in from there. Shone knew me from when I made my first song, oh my god. She found me and she kept posting me on her story. We never really talked like that, but then a year later, we talked one time, and it was just an instant connection. You just click. She’s been by my side ever since. Yeah, those are my girls.
You guys are such an iconic trio, you can feel that love for each other and you are all so confident. It’s organic and that’s refreshing to hear. Okay, time for some fun questions. Polka dots or stripes?
Polka dots. Polka dots are every day. Stripes are for the bedroom.
Cookies or cake?
Cake 100%. Any type of cake. Except for chocolate. Preferably vanilla with a buttercream.
I know you play Marvel Rivals. I see you posting highlights on Twitter…what’s your main on Marvel Rivals?
Oh my God. Right now it’s Emma Frost and I’ve been playing hella Magik. I haven’t really been on my strategist shit yet. I play it with SHONE and I cuss her out sometimes.
What’s your favorite skin?
My favorite skin isn’t out yet. I used to play Hulk a lot, specifically the punk Hulk skin. He has a mohawk.
On the topic of video games. Your video for “YOU FUN TO ME” takes place in a GTA strip club. How did you do this? Was this you?
That was me! SHONE got a PC and I was like girl, we bouta play GTA RP all the time. You know my character ‘bout to come through blinged out, long hair, Gucci purse, nails. Anyways. Once we started playing we looked at it and were like, ‘We should make a music video on this’ and then we just did it. SHONE was playing the stripper, so she was doing all the moves for the strippers, and my other friend gball hopped in the video too. I edited it and yeah!
Do you have a favorite song right now?
Literally I walked into the station and they were playing it. Wait what’s that song by Blood Orange? “Come into my bedroom, come into my bedroom?”
“Champagne Coast”?
Yeah, Champagne Coast. Dude I love that song.
Do you have any upcoming projects we should know about?
I have an EP coming out on June 28th. It’s four songs, really fresh, it’s got one feature. It’s produced by Sundiata who is a sweetheart. I’m producing on there too.
