When we first heard Pig the Gemini’s music, we were mesmerised. The emotionally honest lyricism and hyperpop sound – with production courtesy of her brother, New York-based rapper-producer 454 – were unlike anything we had heard before. Pairing a playful flow with lyrics that speak to loss, love and confidence, the 24-year-old from Orlando, Florida connects with a wide audience thanks to the hybrid flavours she brings to each and every song.
Pig the Gemini has been releasing music for the best part of a decade now (originally under the name Lil’ Echo) after her mum bought her a mic and her brother helped her shoot lo-fi music videos around their neighbourhood. But it wasn’t until 2015 that her track “La Familia” blew up on SoundCloud, where it currently has approaching one million plays. “It just skyrocketed out of nowhere,” she says, remembering its impact. Still in high school at the time, suddenly PTG was booking shows and counting down the days to graduation, when she’d be able to go bigger, harder than before. “Then I was really able to do my thing,” she says. “My music was floating around everywhere”.
Last year, Pig the Gemini released her debut album, A Rose Out The Concrete, followed by 2022 singles “Sin City” and “Hey Mista”. But it’s her features on 454’s FAST TRAX 3 mixtape – “SWISS CHEESE” and “LOVE ME, HATE ME” – that really got her noticed outside of Florida and her own loyal fan base.
Fresh from supporting Aminé on his US tour, Pig the Gemini performed at i-D’s party with Marc Jacobs at Art Basel Miami Beach last week. Still buzzing from the performance, we caught up with the rising star to discuss growing up in Orlando, her debut show in New York and plans to take over the world.
So tell us about growing up in Florida and how it led you to music.
I’m from the west side of Orlando. I grew up in these apartments called Orange Center and it wasn’t a super struggle; everything was all good, we grew up with both parents in the house. Then our Pops passed away in 2009, so that was a rough patch, that was hard. Then, around 2010, my brother and I started to record ourselves in a closet with headsets; just going on beats, doing a little freestyle and jumping right into them. It was natural, ’cause we grew up around the music scene. My dad used to work with a group in Orlando, and my mom, she got the voice of an angel — she was singing all day. I was more into rapping, my brother was more into producing, so it kind of just went just like that.
That’s a beautiful story. And art can definitely help in dealing with hard things. Do you feel like the music got you guys through some of that loss?
Yeah, losing people really made me open up a lot more in my music and with myself. At first, I just wanted to get on the beat and bounce around and just rap, but you know, even just saying ‘long live my Pops and free the guys’, it helped me get vulnerable.
It’s like turning back ain’t really an option when you’ve witnessed death in that way.
Right, right.
So “LOVE ME, HATE ME” has basically been on repeat since it came out.
That has become everybody’s song! I didn’t like that song at first… we were in the studio and recorded it, but like, I ain’t like it. And then, when y’all heard it on FAST TRAX, that was my first time properly hearing it – I was like, ‘damn, he really dropped that!’ Then I seen everybody fuckin’ with it, which made me like it more.
Your verse is really good, like comedic word play.
I wrote that verse in under 30 minutes. I’m one of those people who sometimes might take a whole goddamn day to write a verse, I might take four hours, or might take five minutes! It all depends on how I’m feeling in the moment. But that particular verse, I wrote it fast and didn’t have time to perfect it. I just wrote it and recorded it.
You always seem to take such an interesting approach to your verses, how did you develop that sound?
Yeah, I’m so weird like that. When I write a song, I don’t really know what I want to write about, so I go to the studio with shit on my mind and just talk about that. I would say my most de-structured work comes from that; I’m really just meditating on everything.
So it’s not something you overthink?
I try to listen to the beat and like actually listen to what the beat’s saying. I’m trying to find one instrument, way in the background, and I’ll pick my flow based on that instrument. Then when I go to switch up from a different instrument to rap on it, I just do it like that.
Who are some of the artists you listen to on the daily? Your go-tos.
Honestly, my brother, 454. I listen to some oldies sometimes too, and a lot of old school R&B, like Teddy Pendergrass, Barry White, Mary J. Blige and Fantasia. I throw on Nirvana sometimes too, and I like rock. I’m really versatile when it comes to music.
It sounds like your style is very much your own, rather than pulling from all these different influences.
Yeah, I try not to listen to a lot of people only ’cause I don’t wanna fall into their style, you know? If you listen to somebody over and over and over, you will end up recording like them. I listen to my own music a lot and it’s helpful to my process. FAST TRAX 3 is my go-to right now. Like, you can’t even get in my car if you don’t wanna hear that.
So what was it like, when you guys started to tap into New York after your brother moved there?
He had been gone for a minute while I was still doing stuff in Orlando. So, when he decided to actually drop music, it was wild because he had been recording for so long – I never thought he was gonna drop the music. When he started getting recognition in New York, I was loving it for him, like, ‘bro, finally you can show everybody that you are a genius!’ He was already known for skating, and then he comes with this crazy, super different, futuristic sound. I was super happy because while I’m big in the city, or even in the state of Florida, I saw these other doors start opening. I’m like okay… everything happening like it’s supposed to. Everything we dreamed about when we were young is all coming to life.
And how was the first show y’all did in New York?
That was the biggest show I’ve had. Plus it was back-to-back, so we did the same theatre twice back-to-back, two days straight. It was dope bro, very crazy. I love New York.
So what are you excited for now? What does the future look like for you?
I’m really excited for me and my brother to drop our album together. We’ve got an album’s worth of music, so we’re just seeing what songs will make the cut. We grew up together doing music, so it feels good that he finally jumped into the music scene with me like he’s supposed to – being on stages, being in big studios, you know?
Credits
All photography Rahim Fortune