Vanessa Tha Finessa Owns Her Hot Girl Energy
Channeling hot girl energy, Vanessa The Finessa arrives with a down-to earth-attitude and a natural confidence in her songwriting and sharp lyricism that is inspired by the matriarchs that came before her.
Vanessa The Finessa and Vanessa are the same person.
“It's just me. It's literally just my personality. It's how I was raised by my mom and by the women around me. All the matriarchs around me, they're really strong and have always been confident and always been able to do it for themselves and marched to the beat of their own drum.”
Vanessa Tha Finessa is not your typical rapper. Born and raised in Accra, Ghana, Vanessa had a unique and eye opening upbringing. As early as she can remember, hiplife (pre-contemporary Afrobeat) music was played in the home. Her uncle regularly listened to dancehall and reggae music, and she was exposed early to American pop music through TV and regular pop culture discourse. This amalgamation of sounds and genres heavily influenced her ear and later helped inform her own personal artistry.
When she was 10 years old, her family moved to Mount Vernon, NY and later to Pittsburgh, before eventually returning to New York. It was during this time in her life that she became exposed to a wider range of American hip-hop and rap, specifically the burgeoning indie rap mixtape scene that included greats like Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa.
After attending college in the states, she began a young adult stint in modeling, after being discovered by the influential casting director Sarah Benjamin. Throughout her time as a model, she covered numerous magazines including 10 Mag & WWD, and was featured in campaigns with Nike, Coach and Milk, amongst others.
Vanessa eventually moved across the country to Los Angeles, where she is currently based. It was in LA where she met her closest and most consistent collaborator, the DJ/producer Smiles Davis. It was Smiles that encouraged Vanessa to bring her witty personality and dynamic style to music, and in 2019 they recorded her first ever song “Run it.”
“Run it” was later followed up with the Bollywood-influenced electro-rap track “Talk Tha Talk” and freestyle “Bad Bitch Steppin.’”
Already having made a bold and explosive impact on the LA music scene, Vanessa is ready to take her career to global heights and reach new audiences, just like the artists that were able to reach the speakers in her childhood home in Accra.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your creative style and artistic persona?
[VANESSA]: My personality inspires me and all the things that I am and all the things that have made me and all the things that I consume and all the people that I’m around. Different environments and communities that I am a part of inspires my artistry.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What artists inspire you, either lyrically or sonically?
[VANESSA]: I’m a Barb so Nicki has been a huge influence on my music and I think she is so incredible. Missy Elliott and Young Thug are huge influences as well.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Say if someone has not heard of your music yet, what song would you play for them to introduce your discography that encapsulates your creative growth as an artist?
[VANESSA]: “Bad Bitch Steppin’” and “Run It.” “Run It” is my first song and it’s my first baby. I think it introduces the sound of what’s to come. “Bad Bitch Steppin’” introduces me, my lyrical style and where it can go as well.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your newest single “Top Notch” released and it’s very high-energy and dreamy. What is the inspiration behind the single?
[VANESSA]: The inspo was the vibes in the studio. My producer and I started making the beat and the production, and I was really feeling it and I belted out an Afro-beat inspired hook and that sparked excitement in me for the entire song. It was the first time I’d ever done that. It was also the first time I tried to sing since I have always done rap, so I experimented with a melodic style.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Top Notch” is your first single off your upcoming debut EP CURRENT. What is the inspiration behind the EP and how was your experience bringing it to life?
[VANESSA]: My inspiration behind the EP was to create music that sounded like me, and to have fun with it. My biggest thing is to have fun all the time. It's super fun because everyone I worked with are all really close friends, they’re family, I love them. They allow me to explore and they’re super understanding of the fact that I'm really new to this and I'm experimenting. They allow me to express myself creatively. That was such a fun process to make music with all of my collaborators and everyone that I work with.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What can listeners expect from this new era of music?
[VANESSA]: Bad bitchery you know, hot girl music. I think my music exudes confidence and it just makes you feel confident. I want to make you feel like a bad bitch and like you’re that bitch. Listeners can also expect fun, cute visuals and cute one-liners.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song off CURRENT and why? Is there like a specific lyric or message that stands out to you or that you love the most?
[VANESSA]: I have two favorites and I really go back and forth with them. “Top Notch” and “It’s You” because both of them have an Afro-fusion sound that I really love, but they’re still different from each other. “It’s You” is very melodic, soft, dreamy and ethereal. “Top Notch” reminds me of “Bad Bitch Steppin’” because it’s like a move, get out the way type of energy.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How does it feel to have your debut EP out in the world?
[VANESSA]: It's really cool. It's like my first one and I'm excited to just release it. I think that what I've learned throughout this process and journey of making music is releasing allows you to tap into new creative spaces within you, so I'm really excited for people to hear it. It's something that I've been sitting on for a while, so I'm excited to release it so that I can get to new things.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What message, emotions or story do you hope listeners can take away from CURRENT?
[VANESSA]: I think confidence like I want the motion behind that to be empowering in a way that you already know that you are. It’s also knowing that you’re a bad bitch and never letting that crown slip.
[UNPUBLISHED]: how do you embody that energy outside the studio and kind of channel that into your writing?
[VANESSA]: It's just me. It's literally just my personality. It's how I was raised by my mom and by the women around me. All the matriarchs around me, they're really strong and have always been confident and always been able to do it for themselves and marched to the beat of their own drum. I think that was instilled in me at a very young age, and it's just who I am. It's my personality. In my music, Vanessa Tha Finessa and Vanessa are not that different to be honest, they’re pretty much the same person.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What do you need in your space when you’re feeling creative inspiration hitting you and you need to write?
[VANESSA]: I just need the production to hit whatever I'm feeling at the moment and whatever comes out, comes out. I also need to be around people that allow me to express myself creatively.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Unpublished?
[VANESSA]: I am feeling really good and optimistic. I have a couple things in store post-EP release. It’s all rap. I am just experimenting with various sounds and I’m excited for everything to drop.
