Meet Bb Trickz, Barcelona’s Drill Savior

Meet Bb Trickz. The Barcelona native has had a big year: nine months after going viral for lip syncing with her homegirls to her sample-laden breakout track, “Bambi,” she’s just dropped her second EP, Sadtrickz, following a month-long run of music video releases. Cheekily dubbed the Ice Spice of Spain, she’s pulling together regional American rap sounds, raunchy bars, and a playful cool kid swag—and making waves on TikTok in the process. We caught up with her after her EP drop to talk studio nights, passé fashions, and mastering the algorithm.

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JULIAN RIBEIRO: Thank you so much for taking the time to Zoom with me. I’m really excited.

BB TRICKZ: Thank you.

RIBEIRO: I know you’re getting a project together right now. It’s coming out soon. What’s the vibe?

TRICKZ: It’s definitely very emotional. It came out of my sadness being launched into this industry and dealing with fame, and money, and how people treat you. I just had a very “summertime sadness” type of summer. And musically, it’s very different from Trickstar. The beats were mostly made with producers in the studio, not at a distance. I was actually sitting there working with the producer.

RIBEIRO: I initially heard of you when I was in a room full of dudes at this apartment and we were listening to music, and I was like, “Guys, what should we watch” And two dudes at once were like, “Bb Trickz, let me put you on.”What has your propulsion into the music industry been like? How quick was this come up for you?

TRICKZ: It was pretty quick. I think I had premeditated the situations I could have been in, or what it was going to be like. But in reality, everything happened really fast and went bigger than what I ever imagined for myself. I mean, it’s a 24/7 job. It’s a lot more than making the music and the videos. It’s been interesting because I feel like I’m growing up. I’m 23 now, so I’m just coming into actually being an adult and having responsibilities while starting a whole career in an industry I’ve never been in.

RIBEIRO: Do you feel like a part of your workload is not just making music, but sculpting your brand and being visible in the right way to the internet?

TRICKZ: Yes, definitely. It’s something that I didn’t even know I would have to do. I really just thought I would be going to the studio and making videos, but there’s a lot that goes into it. There’s social media, and then there’s all the editing for the videos.

RIBEIRO: In a different world of being a recording artist, maybe you had people in your label handling old-school communication, but so much of it falls onto the artists now, especially in this age of popping off on social media.

 

TRICKZ: We haven’t really done any marketing, apart from whatever I’ve been able to do. Things used to be very different. Like you said, you’d have your label do the marketing for you. Now, we live in a moment where you’re your own advertiser. You’re basically creating your own publicity on the apps.

RIBEIRO: You’re your own photo retoucher, your own editor, your own strategist. It all falls on your shoulders.

TRICKZ: Yeah, it does. But it’s cool. I enjoy that part too. I like the internet. I grew up with it.

RIBEIRO: Talk to me a little bit about how you started making music. How old were you? 

TRICKZ: I’ve always liked music. I’ve always sang since I was a little girl in school. Whenever there was a play or anything involving entertainment, I’d always want to be part of it. Most of my teenage years, I would fantasize about being an artist. So it was always on my mind, but I never really took it seriously until a year ago, last September.

RIBEIRO: Okay.

TRICKZ: I wanted to make it an actual career and not a hobby anymore. That’s when I started rapping and really trying to package myself into a product.

RIBEIRO: What was the moment for you where you were like, “Wait, this is really happening”?

TRICKZ: When I was doing TikToks it still felt like, “I’m just viral on TikTok.” I think when it really hit was when I dropped the album. There’s this music video that’s at my birthday party, “Tu Nightmare.” That night, we were trying to film the music video and everyone was trying to push into the video. It was hectic and a lot of people showed out to support me. That was really when it hit, because it was physical, it was in the real world. I was seeing all these people pull up to my birthday party, and I was like, “Oh, shit. This is my new job.”

RIBEIRO: That’s really cool. When you talk about your TikTok, what was your TikTok moment that started gaining a lot of momentum? Was it “Missionsuicida”?

TRICKZ: No, it was this song called “Bambi.” I was scared to drop music with no one expecting it, so I posted a TikTok. One day passed by, nothing really happened. I don’t have notifications on, so the next day I went on Instagram and I had a bunch of new followers. I was like, “That’s weird. Did someone post me?” Then I went into TikTok, and “Bambi” had taken over. Then I started doing snippets for other songs and started dropping music.

RIBEIRO: Whoa. It’s always interesting to me what the algorithmic push is that puts things on people’s feeds.

TRICKZ: Yeah, I realized that when I made a video with my homegirls, it would get more traction. So I put that into my own TikTok because I knew it was something that people could replicate.

RIBEIRO: There are other artists that have felt like the extra push for their song on TikTok was to tie it into a dance or some trend. Do you feel like your videos were giving people an example of the vibe?

TRICKZ: Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, sometimes people will start their own trends, but that was definitely something I considered. 

RIBEIRO: It’s the future of music.  So you’re from Spain, what is the scene there for people making music your age?

TRICKZ: I don’t really keep up. I definitely listen to a lot of American music when it comes to rap. There’s definitely a rap scene out here, but there wasn’t really the type of rap that I’m doing. I’m sampling New York drill, and I have some Detroit and West Coast songs. The rap scene out here, it’s different, it’s Latin rap. It’s hard to explain.

RIBEIRO: Who are some American artists that you love?

TRICKZ: I really like Shawny Binladen and Cash Cobain. DD Osama is cool right now. I love Chief Keef, he was the first person I heard do drill years ago. I also love Kodak and Young Thug and all those OGs. But I also love the underground, like Rx Papi and Rx Nephew.

RIBEIRO: I love hearing that list open with Shawny Binladen. I’ve been living in New York for a long time and lately the sample drill here has just exploded. There’s so many creative samples that people are using. Is there a sample that you really want to make a beat out of?

TRICKZ: I love sounds that remind me of video games I like or shows I’ve watched. I try not to do too much of it, but I always end up loving beats with the sampling. In the music industry, the rights to samples are not very… If you do too much sample drill, it’s hard to work with companies because there’s just too many samples in your album.

RIBEIRO: Yeah.

TRICKZ: It’s not very… no sale a cuenta is how we would say it in Spanish.

RIBEIRO: Totally. It’s a whole legal thing. What’s a day in the life for you at this point in your career? How does it feel to wake up and be Bb Trickz?

TRICKZ: Lately, I’ll wake up, I’ll probably have an interview in the morning, have a little lunch break in between. Then, in the afternoon I’ll probably be on my phone planning or working on a cover. I tend to go to the studio at 11 or 12 at night, and I’ll leave the studio at 8 AM or something like that.

RIBEIRO: Wow. So eight hours in the studio?

TRICKZ: Yeah, it’s at least six. It’s a long shift.

RIBEIRO: You’re clocked in, for sure.

TRICKZ: But when you get into it, 10 hours go by really quick.

RIBEIRO: Do you feel like it’s easy for you to lock in?

TRICKZ: Yeah, but I don’t like recording OD. I don’t like waking up every day and going to the studio. I like living, doing whatever else I got to do, and then when I go there, I really let everything out.

RIBEIRO: Do you find inspiration to write in your day-to-day life?

TRICKZ: Yeah, definitely. For me to keep writing, I need to keep living. Everything that I write—well, I don’t write, I freestyle, but everything that I say is real and raw to me. So it’s very important to keep having emotions and keep getting inspired by things.

RIBEIRO: Totally. Let’s say you weren’t making music, is there something else that you feel like you would have a lot of fun doing?

TRICKZ: If I wasn’t doing this, I would be a creative in another way. I really love fashion. I love film. Definitely music is what I have more luck and more experience with, but I would definitely be my own boss doing something creative.

RIBEIRO: A lot of your fans are really into your style. Talk to me about your fashion. What are you looking for when you’re shopping?

TRICKZ: I definitely go through phases. Right now, my swag is nerdy swag. But, when I go shopping, I just buy things that are exciting to me or really catch my attention. It’s just about having fun and playing. For me, that’s the whole fun of fashion. Playing around, mixing textures and colors, and being inspired by things and people, but not letting yourself be inspired by trends.

RIBEIRO: Right.

TRICKZ: I feel like the coolest time to rock something is when it’s out of style.

RIBEIRO: Yeah. It’s cool when stuff gets wack. 

TRICKZ: For me, that’s what makes it cool is that no one thinks it’s cool right now.

RIBEIRO: I feel like a lot of artists on the come up play a lot of unconventional places, but do you have a dream venue for a show?

TRICKZ: I’m just excited to produce a show where it’s not just music, but it’s a whole experience. But also, I don’t know why, but my first thought that came into mind was singing at someone’s birthday party for some reason.

RIBEIRO: That’s a great answer. Someone probably paid you good to be there.

TRICKZ: Yeah, someone’s daughter really fucks with me.

RIBEIRO: Have you ever thought about DJing?

TRICKZ: I do DJ at shows, I just don’t mix it myself. I always have someone mixing and I just tell them which songs. We’ll do the work 50/50, because I really enjoy setting the mood and I got good taste. I’m not passionate about the actual mixing. I don’t really have time to be practicing. 

RIBEIRO: What do you play?

TRICKZ: It depends on where I’m at. In L.A. I was playing a lot of L.A. shit. In Italy, I usually play dembow or club shit, because in Italy they don’t really be dancing to drill. And in L.A., a little bit, but not as much as if I was DJing in New York.

RIBEIRO: It definitely pays to read a room. You have a project coming out at the end of this month, right?

TRICKZ: Yeah.

RIBEIRO: What’s your vision for the next few months looking like?

TRICKZ: I’m going to drop this EP, and then it’s back to business. This EP is sad, heartbreak. I want to go back to doing more rap shit, more drill. I’m excited to go back to the studio a lot. I mean, I have a whole ecosystem behind me of other artists that still haven’t come out, so I’m definitely going to focus on that too. And doing shows, which is something we haven’t really been doing. I definitely want to do a tour. I don’t know what my next project is going to be. I’m just back to business.

RIBEIRO: Back to business. I wish you a ton of success. I really appreciate it. 

TRICKZ: I loved talking with you. Bye, take care.

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