GloRilla and Sexyy Red Interview Each Other

Having Our Way
Two of the baddest ladies in hip-hop toss each other some Qs and As.
Interview: GloRilla and Sexyy Red
Images: Travis Shinn
Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Winter 2024 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands in January of 2025 and available for sale on the XXL website now.

Memphian Gloria Woods and St. Louisan Janae Wherry might never have crossed paths if they hadn’t gotten into the same profession. Now, both ladies, better known as GloRilla and Sexyy Red, respectively, are friends, coworkers and rap stars.

The two femme fatales dominated hip-hop this year with big singles and full-length releases. Sexyy, 26, hit fans with her third mixtape, In Sexyy We Trust, which included popular records “Get It Sexyy” and “U My Everything” featuring Drake. The project came out three months after giving birth to her second child, a daughter named Chyna. Sexyy was already a mother to son Chuckyy, 4.

Glo started the year with her second mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang, which offered the hit singles “Wanna Be” featuring Megan Thee Stallion and “Yeah Glo!.” The track has since been nominated for two Grammys: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.

Midway through the year, GloRilla joined forces with Megan for the North American leg of the Hot Girl Summer Tour, a testament to Glo’s growing influence in the industry. Riding on the momentum, she released her debut album, Glorious, on CMG/Interscope. The album spawned the hit records “TGIF” and “Hollon,” but the biggest record off Glorious is “Whatchu Kno About Me” featuring Sexyy. With Glo’s deep, infectious flow and Sexyy’s raunchy lyrics, the track offers somewhat of a female flip to the celebrated Southern anthem “Wipe Me Down” by Trill Family featuring Foxx, Boosie BadAzz and Webbie.

GloRilla and Sexyy Red’s collaborations have significantly impacted the music industry. Their guest appearances on Tyler, The Creator’s “Sticky,” off his No. 1 album, Chromakopia, and their joint track “Whatchu Kno About Me” have been climbing the Billboard Hot 100 and breaking into the Top 20. These successes are a testament to their appeal to the masses and their growing influence.

Will they make a joint project? How does Sexyy juggle two kids and an exploding career? Is Glo really single and celibate? Who has given them the best advice? What moments are they shocked they’ve been part of? These are some of the questions answered when they sat down to interview each other on a long, Manhattan day in late November. Both draped in designer white outfits, Sexyy wears a Gucci top, Amiri jeans, Tom Ford heels and a Daniel’s Leather coat and Glo rocks Dolce & Gabbana lingerie, Thom Solo boots and a Retrofete coat, the two women currently dominating hip-hop sling questions back-and-forth and exchange banter with a shared camaraderie and respect. It’s the new ladies running the game.

Sexyy Red: OK, so, GloRilla, if that’s your real name…
GloRilla: GloRilla. Glo The P.
Sexyy Red: Glo The P, period.
GloRilla: Uh-huh.
Sexyy Red: So it say you was nominated for two Grammys [for] “Yeah Glo!” How did that make you feel?
GloRilla: I felt good. I was excited, and you know I’m always blessed with everything.
Sexyy Red: Yeah. That’s what’s up.
GloRilla: Yeah. I’m so excited.
Sexyy Red: Yeah, that’s what’s up. Congratulations, my girl.
GloRilla: Thank you.

Sexyy Red: Period. And OK, and then it say, we saw you out there singing Jennifer Hudson, and you also sang in church. Do you plan on singing in your music?
GloRilla: Yes. I’ma take me some vocal classes, get me a lil’ vocal coach.
Sexyy Red: Why I said the same thing?
GloRilla: For real?
Sexyy Red: Yeah, I want to sing.
GloRilla: I’ve been seeing. You be doing your Auto-Tune.
Sexyy Red: I be trying.
GloRilla: I see you. I be sounding a mess on Auto-Tune. I record something and nobody’ll never hear it.
Sexyy Red: For real? Yeah. You be playing. You ain’t even letting me hear it.
GloRilla: Yeah, the studio. OK, so Sexyy. Janae.
Sexyy Red: Oh, hold on now.
GloRilla: Nae-Nae. Nae-Nae.
Sexyy Red: Hold on now. Hallelujah. Gloria. OK, see, now she cutting up.

GloRilla: OK, so we both on Tyler, The Creator’s song, “Sticky.” What reaction have you gotten to the song?
Sexyy Red: Everybody love it. They love it. We on another song together, and I don’t know,
I think they fu*k with that. We all on that song.
GloRilla: I saw y’all twerking on stage together and sh*t.
Sexyy Red: We always twerk together. Every time we see him. We always twerk.
GloRilla: Y’all stupid.
Sexyy Red: He funny.

GloRilla: OK, so do you have plans to release any non-rap songs on future projects?
Sexyy Red: Like singing and stuff?
GloRilla: I guess.
Sexyy Red: I mean, I already did that. I be on some versatile sh*t. I could do anything. I’ll do a rock-star song. I be on some other sh*t.
GloRilla: OK.

Sexyy Red: Yeah. So, I want to know how did it feel to hear Beyoncé and Rihanna say that you one of they favorite young artists?
GloRilla: I feel like can’t nobody tell me sh*t now.
Sexyy Red: Oh!
GloRilla: Like, nobody can’t tell me sh*t. I feel like that bi**h.
Sexyy Red: Yeah, for real, though. That is major, though. I ain’t gon’ lie.
GloRilla: Yeah, them two of my favorites.
Sexyy Red: Yeah, I said I wanted to work with them, too.
GloRilla: That gon’ be epic.

Sexyy Red: Yeah. OK, who have you got the best advice from in the game so far and what was it?
GloRilla: [Yo] Gotti? I’m gonna say Gotti gave me the best advice. He be telling me…for sure he tell me financial… a lot of financial advice and he just give me a lot of boss advice. He always tell me, “Don’t get lazy” and stuff.
Sexyy Red: On God.
GloRilla: And don’t lose my confidence.
Sexyy Red: Yeah.
GloRilla: That’s what I took from him.
Sexyy Red: Period. That’s what’s up.

GloRilla: OK, so you a mom. And you just had your second child. How have you been balancing everything?
Sexyy Red: Umm, I balance it ’cause I got my mama to help me out. She be helping me watch my kids when I gotta work. But as soon as I get off work, she like, “Here go your kids.” So yeah, that’s how I balance it.

GloRilla: So, is it hard? Like, with you being on the road having a newborn?
Sexyy Red: It’s not hard ’cause I got help. Even though I’m a single parent, I got my mama to help me, so it balances it out for real, for real.

GloRilla: OK. Yeah. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received about juggling motherhood and a career, and who was it from?
Sexyy Red: The best piece of advice, I ain’t gon’ lie. People always be giving me advice on that sh*t. I be sad I got to leave the house, and [my kids] crying ’cause they don’t want me to leave ’cause they know I’ma be gone a minute. And then [people] be like, “But you doing this for them.” I be crying. I cry with [my kids]. Yeah, everybody be like, “Just keep doing what you doing. You doing this so they can live a better life than you did.” So, that’s all I take from that.
GloRilla: Right. Period. OK, don’t play with you.

Sexyy Red: Yeah. OK. So, we both dropped a project this year. What was your approach on creating your new project?
GloRilla: Um, it bounced off my mixtape. At the top of the year, I’m like, “I’ma put out a mixtape.” ’Cause I felt like they were trying to play with me and stuff.
Sexyy Red: Period.
GloRilla: So, I said, “OK, I’ma put out this mixtape.”
Sexyy Red: Period.
GloRilla: ’Cause I had been working on my album the year before that, but I’m like, hold on.
I had scratched it. Like, a lot of the songs from the album I been had, but I said I’m gonna do the mixtape first. And then I said the mixtape gon’ help me lead into the album and the album [is] going to have a lot of substance. I’m talking about different stuff.
Sexyy Red: You definitely popped out with your new music. Like, you just coming back-to-back-to-back.
GloRilla: Thank you.
Sexyy Red: That’s what’s up. You doing your thing.
GloRilla: Thank you.

Sexyy Red: OK. Who haven’t you worked with yet that you would work with?
GloRilla: Beyoncé.
Sexyy Red: Yeah, period.

GloRilla: OK, so was there a moment you have been a part of that you couldn’t believe you took part in?
Sexyy Red: Yeah, a lot of times. I can’t be specific and say, ’cause it be so much going on in our lives. My life be moving so fast, but it do be stuff, and I will be having to sit back like, “Dang, I’m the same little Nae-Nae from the Northside, and I’m sitting right here doing this sh*t.” I be just in my head. I won’t say it out loud, but I’ll be sitting there, like, I could be hanging out with you and be like, Dang, I’m straight hanging out with somebody from another city. We both rap. I just be thinking all kind of sh*t.
GloRilla: See, I can’t hide it. I just get to acting fanned out. I don’t know how to hide it.
Sexyy Red: You do for real?
GloRilla: Girl, what? I cry every time I see Beyoncé, and I done see her three, four times and I cry every time.
Sexyy Red: You do too much.

GloRilla: OK, so what have you been the most excited to be a part of this year?
Sexyy Red: Umm, what have I been the most excited to be a part of? Sh*t. I guess just the rap, the female rap culture. I’m a part of that sh*t. At first, I used to be on the outside looking in and like, Dang, I can’t wait ’til I’m up and now, I’m with the big dogs. I’m with them.
GloRilla: Period. Don’t play with you.

Sexyy Red: “Whatchu Kno About Me” is a hit. Why do you think the fans love it so much?
GloRilla: I think ’cause they wanted to see me and you on a song together for so long.
Sexyy Red: Yeah.
GloRilla: Like, they wanted to see us work together. And then, with the sample, too, everything just came in place.
Sexyy Red: Yeah, that’s my sh*t. Girl, I stay hearing it down here, too.
GloRilla: For real?
Sexyy Red: Before I just came up here, I was in the car laying down. I ain’t say nothing, but I heard it on the radio. Usually, I’ll call like, “Y’all heard it? Y’all heard it?” But I keep hearing it, so it’s like I’m not even finna keep saying nothing. This muthafu*ka just be playing.
GloRilla: That junt still going up right now.

Sexyy Red: How would a Glo and Sexyy project sound to you?
GloRilla: Ratchet as fu*k.
Sexyy Red: Yeah.
GloRilla: It gon’ be some super ratchet sh*t. The ni**as gon’ hate us. No, I mean the men gon’ hate us.
Sexyy Red: I think they’d love it.
GloRilla: You think so?
Sexyy Red: Because we both trench-certified, you know? Two young ladies.
GloRilla: You know how we talk our sh*t, though.
Sexyy Red: That’s what I’m saying.
GloRilla: When I first came out with “FNF” they was like, “Who is this bi**h talking about, ‘Fu*k ni**as’?”
Sexyy Red: You know what I’m saying? You snapped out with “FNF.”
GloRilla: But it’s just a whole lot of ratchet.
Sexyy Red: You snapped out with that one.

GloRilla: You know we gotta do it.
Sexyy Red: You know you did, right?
GloRilla: You know.
Sexyy Red: I ain’t gon’ lie. You definitely popped out with “FNF.” Everybody was remixing that muthafu*ka.
GloRilla: On God.
Sexyy Red: That was like one of the first songs I seen everybody tryna hop on and remix.
GloRilla: They were rapping out…they was doing that sh*t for so damn long.
Sexyy Red: That’s what I’m saying.

GloRilla: We both kind of new to this level of success in our music careers. What has surprised you about the hip-hop game so far?
Sexyy Red: The gossip. The drama. Love drama. I’m just playing. Nah, for real, though, because you know how at first, we was on the outside, so we ain’t know nothing about the celebrity tea. But now, we in the drama, we in the mix now. So, I think that’s tight.
GloRilla: Yeah.
Sexyy Red: Because people from my city, they be trying to ask me like, “Red, like…” and I be like, “Nope. Can’t tell you.”
GloRilla: And it be so crazy because when we was on the outside looking in, it was like we just believed anything. Now I be seeing that so much sh*t be fake.
Sexyy Red: I don’t believe everything I see.
GloRilla: I be like, Wow. It’s so many lies they spread about us and they just be believing it. Sexyy Red: Yeah, ’cause they be lying about me, but I’m not gon’ go clear it up. I’ma let y’all put that jacket on me. I don’t give a fu*k.

GloRilla: What do you think is the best part of having all these lady rappers out now and dominating?
Sexyy Red: The best part… because it’s like the dudes be straight bumping our music now. That’s probably the best. It’s more female rappers right now. It seems like the females outweighing the boys right now. It’s more girls and there’s new ones coming out the woodworks every day. It’s all different kinds of girls coming out.
GloRilla: Sho’ is. Who run the world? Girls.

Sexyy Red: Girls. OK, so you recently posted a picture pregnant, playing with people too much. Who did you get for real when they were like, “Glo, so you really pregnant?”
GloRilla: Everybody thought that and everybody was calling. Everybody on my team. Everybody calling my family. They like, “Is she really pregnant?” Y’all just saw me on stage with a six-pack.
Sexyy Red: Right.
GloRilla: When the fu*k did I get eight months pregnant?
Sexyy Red: Is this a prank? They crazy.
GloRilla: They should have known that sh*t wasn’t real. I don’t know why and then I play too much anyway. People take me too serious sometimes.
Sexyy Red: I knew you wasn’t because I had just seen you and we had just did our shoot. So, I’m wondering what she got. Is she doing a video, photo shoot? I ain’t know. I’m like, is it Halloween?
GloRilla: That’s what everybody was trying to say, too.

Sexyy Red: Yeah, I’m like, Is it a costume? OK, so it say you recently said you were single and celibate until God sends you a husband. What’s up with that?
GloRilla: I ain’t worried about no niggas right now.
Sexyy Red: You celibate, or you selling it?
GloRilla: You know, I ain’t gonna say it. They gon’… I ain’t even gon’ say nothing ’cause I know they gon’ take this clip and try to make it go viral. So, I’ma leave it at, I’m just single and celibate.
Sexyy Red: Single and celibate. The world wants to know! Is they not coming with the money, so you not selling it?
GloRilla: Uh-huh.
Sexyy Red: Not selling it.
GloRilla: Uh-huh. I ain’t selling it.
Sexyy Red: These ni**as ain’t got no money. They ain’t got more money than us.
GloRilla: Not at all.
Sexyy Red: OK, so she’s single and celibate. She wasn’t playing. You wasn’t playing when you said that?
GloRilla: No.
Sexyy Red: Girl, you lying. How long you been celibate?
GloRilla: Umm.
Sexyy Red: A couple hours.
GloRilla: A couple days.
Sexyy Red: OK, that’s good. You stronger than me, sister.

GloRilla: A lot of people will give female rappers a hard time, saying we are too sexual or over the top with lyrics and video content. What do you think when you hear that?
Sexyy Red: I think y’all some haters. I think y’all don’t want y’all bi**h to shine because y’all insecure and it ain’t a problem when y’all got y’all chest out, or y’all little tiny d**k print showing and all that with your drawls sagging, your stinky a*s out, doo-doo stain. It’s not a problem when y’all do it, but y’all stealing our style. It’s wrong when we do it?
GloRilla: It’s cool when they do it.
Sexyy Red: It’s wrong when I do it? The fu*k?

GloRilla: OK, last question. How do you want to open up the doors for women in hip-hop?
Sexyy Red: I feel like we open ’em up for them because, like, we from the trenches. They can relate to us. I feel like they picked up a random girl from the hood, and just gave her some money and put her on TV. That’s how I feel when I look at myself. ’Cause I be like, Ain’t no way. Like, is this a prank? I don’t know. It’s crazy.
GloRilla: I feel like we brought a new, not exactly a new sound, but kind of a new sound.
Sexyy Red: Is it called “jenner?”
GloRilla: Genre.
Sexyy Red: Genre? It don’t look like it spelled genre. It say “jenner.” We the new “jenner” and…
GloRilla: But yeah, like it wasn’t like, we what hip-hop was missing. Know what I’m saying? Then we both from like Down South. Is St. Louis Down South or Midwest?
Sexyy Red: Midwest.
GloRilla: Damn, for real.
Sexyy Red: Yeah, but I’m saying it’s like they picked up random girls from the hood. You can find girls like us on the street, so that let you know anybody can make it, for real.
GloRilla: Yeah, I’m proud of us.
Sexyy Red: I am, too.
GloRilla: We did that.
Sexyy Red: Period.
GloRilla: To the ghetto bi**hes.
Sexyy Red: Bad bi**h sh*t. Northside sh*t.

Watch GloRilla and Sexyy Red Interview Each Other

See GloRilla and Sexyy Red’s XXL Magazine Winter 2024 Cover + Photos