DRIFT AUDIO
Listen to this story
Choose a voice, then press play.
Rico Nasty pairs back up with longtime convincer Kenneth Blume for a sweetly aggressive new single, arriving alongside the announcement of her fourth studio album.
In This Story
- A New Single Announces a New Album
- Inside the Track
- The Return of Blume
- What’s Next for RX Papi
Rico Nasty released “Cupcake” on July 3, alongside the announcement of her fourth studio album, RX, due July 24 via Sugar Trap. The single marks the second preview of the record following last month’s “Rituals,” which served as her first new music since 2025’s LETHAL-ER.
“Cupcake” leans into the “sugar trap” sound Rico Nasty trademarked early in her career, pairing bright, cascading production with lyrics that swing between play bravado and pointed shots at critics. The accompanying music video, directed by Miggy, follows Rico through a desert setting, dancing and riding through the landscape in a dune buggy.
stir
Written by Maria Kelly and Kenneth Charles Blume III, “Cupcake” trades Rico’s usual brash punk-rap delivery for a more flippant, sing-song approach, though the pointed commentary remains intact throughout the two-and-a-half-minute runtime. The track sits as the fourth song on the RX tracklist, positioned between “Rotation” and “Blow Your Nose.”
The release lands in the same week as Madonna’s CONFESSIONS II, a timing that several outlets have noted given a lyric on the track referencing the pop icon directly. RX’s full tracklist runs nine songs, including a co-production credit from 100 Gecs’ Dylan Brady on “Kiss N Make Up.”
flow
RX marks Rico Nasty’s first full-length project built entirely around her longtime connector Kenneth Blume, formerly known as Kenny Beats, since their 2019 mixtape Anger Management. The pair also worked together on “Smack a Bitch” from Rico’s 2020 debut album Nightmare Vacation, and Blume produced RX’s first single, “Rituals,” last month.
In press materials, Rico described wanting to return to a convincer who knew her before she had any success and could be honest with her. Blume, for his part, called the reunion a homecoming and praised how much further she keeps pushing her sound.
The album was recorded during a packed stretch for Rico Nasty, who spent the period both on tour and filming her Apple TV+ acting debut in Margot’s Got Money Troubles, a series also starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Offerman.
huh
With RX arriving July 24, Rico Nasty has a run of live dates lined up to support the album, starting with Chreece Festival in Indianapolis on August 29 before joining Hayley Williams’s fall tour as support beginning September 3 in West Palm Beach, with stops including Charlotte, Raleigh, and Cincinnati through the following weeks.
Between the Kenny Beats reunion, the acting detour, and a tracklist that pulls in outside connectors like Dylan Brady, RX is shaping up as one of Rico Nasty’s most collide and closely watched releases in years. It also arrives at a moment when Rico has been expanding beyond music entirely, with her Apple TV+ role marking her first major scripted acting credit alongside an established film and television cast.
verd
For longtime fans, the pairing with Blume specifically signals a return to the sound that first built Rico Nasty’s reputation, before her more recent stretch with Fueled by Ramen and Elektra Records on 2025’s LETHAL. Whether RX leans further into that “sugar trap” origin sound across its full nine tracks, or uses it as just one register among several, will become clearer once the album arrives in full later this month.
Read Drift’s related feature, Rico Nasty’s ‘LETHAL’ Album.
From the DRIFT archive: A Review: Ian — “Aw Shit” (2025) Song Release · 5SOS Return With New Single “Everyone’s a Star”
