Cakeswagg’s flow never falters in the studio, but if she needs a lift, you only need to mention her most recent partner in rhymes, DJ WhySham.
“Pretend like you’re at the studio with Sham” was the prompt that would put her ease as she cut the final recordings for The Pencess, the duo’s new collaborative mixtape, released earlier this month. The EP’s six songs are new, but the overarching theme should be familiar to hip-hop fans in the know. As Cakeswagg and WhySham emphasized on their prior collaboration “We Run This City,” they dominated Boston music in 2020, and they still do in 2022.
That’s pencess, not princess, as WhySham clarifies throughout the tape. There’s no royalty here — but the duo are proud to extend their reign over the scene nonetheless.
“We were banging out half a song, and maybe even a full song each session,” Cakeswagg tells Vanyaland, speaking on their efficiency. “Sham is really good with beat selection and picking what songs work for an artist’s voice. So the music part was really easy.”
“I have a wild mind — I was ready to get some projects going, things got delayed, but CakeSwagg stays ready and don’t have to get ready… unless we talking about showtime, [then] we need a week or more to prepare,” DJ WhySham chides. “Her work ethic is why her and a lot of the females in the city #GotNext.”
Their creative juices are so momentous that the pair even shared a follow-up project within days of dropping The Pencess: A new single and video called “Who Got Next?”, a riff on WhySham’s own business Boston Got Next.
The two projects amplify each artists’ strong suit, as recognized by their collaborator; WhySham felt blown away by CakeSwagg’s “unlimited bars,” while Cakeswagg applauded Sham’s respect for details. The confident facades of both The Pencess and “Who Got Next?” present their teamwork as bulletproof. On the other side of that steely front, however, is a partnership built upon brutal honesty.
But when you belt out savage bars — or produce the beats that bolster them — you can take the criticism.
“We’re close now and she’s sure to get on my case when I start slipping. She doesn’t hold back at all,” Cakeswagg shares. “By the time we got to The Pencess it was very easy for me to just go with flow because Sham’s never steered me wrong.”
“I learned that if you want something, and you have someone in your corner, you have to be open to being vulnerable,” DJ WhySham adds. “This means no hurt feelings. We were both in a position to learn, positively give constructive feedback and just go non-stop some days or nights and say to each track [we] recorded “this is the one.'”
Of the seven new tracks the duo released in February, it’s tough to discern which best fits the description of “the one,” but “Outro: UnderStated” feels like as good as summary of their skillset as any. “Every day I prove that I was never one to play with / I swear they liked me way before I had this city shaking,” Cakeswagg concludes over a smart sample of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” the triumphant Dreamgirls showtune.
As for the question “Who Got Next?” …well, you should know the answer by now.
Meet The Pencess and “Who Got Next?” below.
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