BIA Has a Whole Lot More in Store for Us (2024)

When BIA styled herself for Lollapalooza two weeks ago, she found inspiration close to home: her own hit song “Whole Lotta Money”—specifically, Nicki Minaj’s verse in the remix. The hip-hop superstar has a NSFW line about wearing Pucci (on a certain body part), and BIA, a fashion lover, was naturally influenced. “I was like, ‘I definitely want to go in with some song inspo,’” she tells BAZAAR.com over the phone from Los Angeles of her festival outfit. In the end, she went with a button-down in Pucci’s signature swirl print, paired with chains, black hot pants, and knee-high Bottega Veneta boots, “so I can drop it low and not have to worry about running across the stage.” Fashion and function—what’s not to like?

The festival, which was attended by just fewer than 400,000 people, was the biggest in-person testament to the success of BIA’s music—all that time social distancing left her gauging the reception of her songs to online responses. “This was definitely the most crowd reaction I’ve seen in terms of knowing the music,” she says, “because I’ve done shows before as a new artist and people don’t really know as many of your songs.” This time around, one of her songs had gone viral on TikTok. “Whole Lotta Money” exploded on the app in recent months, with close to 280,000 videos soundtracked by BIA’s audacious yet nonchalant rhymes, starting with, “I put on my jewelry just to go to the bodega,” and ending with, “It’s a whole lotta money in this motherf*cker.” Moving beyond the screen and being able to see her fans sing her lyrics along with her, together in person, felt “euphoric,” BIA says. “It’s just a blessing.”

Though “Whole Lotta Money” was on her For Certain EP, which dropped last December, it wasn’t until months later that the song spread like wildfire. BIA realized the buzz in April when she was coming home from a vacation in Puerto Rico. She wasn’t anticipating it at all. “I stopped having expectations, because I’ve been making music for a long time, and I’ve realized that I want the best for my music,” she explains. “I just hope people love it. And I think that that’s allowed me to be grateful, whatever the outcome is, because I’m not expecting anything.”

The fact that “Whole Lotta Money” is the track everyone connected with means something to her in the context of the past year. “It made me feel like manifestation is definitely upon everyone,” BIA says. “A lot of people I knew had a tough year, and in the pandemic, and so many people just wanted to get out, feel good, and that’s what I try to do. I just try to make music that makes people feel good and makes people want to get to that bag, and manifest. So I think it did its job.”

BIA knows a thing or two about manifestation herself. “I feel like I manifest everything in my life.” Long before collaborating with Minaj, she had already been messaging her as a genuine fan. “I’m a big fan of Nicki, and I was DMing her for years just as a fan, like, ‘Hey, girl, it’s me,’ ‘Hey, do you see this?’ You know, just stanning. And when ‘Whole Lotta Money’ came out, she went to write me. And when she wrote me, she’d seen all my messages to her, and that’s how we actually connected.” Their connection was basically meant to be.

“She thought it was a fire song,” BIA says of getting Minaj on the track. “I didn’t have anyone particularly in mind other than her or Rihanna for the remix. I just wanted either one of them, ’cause I just felt like those were the two women that I love the most to get on that song. [Nicki] invited me over to her house, and we did the remix, and it was just amazing.”

The Beam Me Up Scotty rapper even bestowed BIA with “tons of advice.” She recalls, “I found myself asking her so many questions, and she was just really down to earth and just relatable; she told me a lot of big-sister advice about everything. I’m just so grateful for her, because she didn’t have to do that. She didn’t have to be so nice and real with me, but she was.” When Minaj’s verse was locked in, BIA “lost it” the first time she finally heard it. “I probably screamed when she played it for me. I just started twerking, screaming, and going crazy.”

And for anyone wondering, BIA does, actually, wear her jewelry to the bodega. “Oh, yeah. I wear my jewelry every day,” she says. Her key pieces range from necklaces and bracelets to anklets and watches. And her go-to bodega order? “Well, it used to be ham and cheese on a hero with light mayonnaise, but toasted,” she says. Although, she doesn’t eat ham anymore. Now, she’d probably go for a turkey bacon, egg, and cheese. “I would invent the first vegan bodega, or the first, like, health-conscious bodega,” she muses.

Born Bianca Landrau, the Puerto Rican-Italian artist hails from outside of Boston, in a town called Medford. “I’ve been back and forth between New York and Massachusetts my whole life,” BIA tells BAZAAR. “On the corner, right next to my dad’s house was a bodega. So I’ve always been going to bodegas. That’s more of a New York thing.”

BIA, who also performed under Perico Princess, always believed making music was her calling. “I felt like it was the one thing I was really just good at naturally,” she says. “It became like a release, but also, it was rewarding at the same time.” She’s had a steady climb over the past decade, starting in 2012 when her video for “High” caught the attention of rapper Fam-Lay, who then introduced her to Pharrell Williams. She signed to Williams’s label, I Am Other, in 2014, and appeared on a couple seasons of the reality show Sisterhood of Hip-Hop. She went on to collaborate with J Balvin (“Safari”) and Russ (“Best on Earth,” which got a Rihanna shout-out and a BET Hip Hop Award nomination). Victoria Monet, Kali Uchis, Lil Durk, and Kiana Ledé all got a song with her too. Now, after collaborating with Minaj, BIA would love to work with Rihanna next. “She’s definitely GOAT to me.”

BIA listened to a lot of Aaliyah growing up. “Aesthetic-wise, I just loved her,” she recalls. TLC, Missy Elliott, M.I.A., and rappers like Foxy Brown and Minaj, obviously, were also her go-tos. These days, when she’s not listening to “Whole Lotta Money,” she’s streaming modern R&B artists like Brent Faiyaz and SZA. She’s even planning to dip her toes into the genre. “I’ve been actually working on R&B for a little while, on the side,” she admits. “I think it’s been a completely different side of me, because with R&B and with singing, you can be more vulnerable. It’s not as hard as rap.” A release date for that undertaking is still unclear as she’s ironing out the details, but it’s coming. “I’m a perfectionist, so I’d probably like to work on it a little more, and then gear up for, like, the top of next year.”

Aside from the R&B project and her upcoming deluxe record, BIA is also flexing her entrepreneurial skills. “I’m working on a lot of side businesses this year,” she says. One is a makeup line, which is already being formulated. Named Beauty for Certain after her EP, the brand is “close to almost getting it out to the world,” she says.

BIA has always been a beauty junkie. “You can scroll back all the way through my Instagram page, and my eyebrows are square,” she laughs. “I went through every stage of trend makeup that you can think of, but thankfully, we made it, we’re here. I love makeup. I love blushes, highlights, shadows, and lips. I just love being able to just enhance your look and make women feel beautiful.”

Perhaps, like Rihanna, mogul status is also in BIA’s future. “That’s definitely a goal,” she says. “I want to do all the things I’m passionate about and find a way to make those a part of my everyday life. And if they become successful businesses, then that’s what’s up.”