Photo courtesy of Gabriela Hernandez
Rapper/singer/producer Baegod released an album in the last quarter of 2024 titled #lethercook. The Sacramento emcee did more than cook on the album, acting as the producer, writer, vocalist, engineer, and executive producer for the release.
#lethercook is an 11-track album courtesy of Bae’s very own Bedroomtrap label. The album is produced by Baegod with one track handled by Bedroomtrap co-founder, Sbvce. Featuring on the project are Sbvce, Nash Boogie, Steve Spiffler, EGDABEAST, and Bap Notes.
Baegod chatted with The Real Hip-Hop about breaking glass ceilings in Hip-Hop, making music with her better half, Sbvce, and her new album, #lethercook.
TRHH: Why’d you title the new album #lethercook?
Baegod: Well, there was a couple reasons. Obviously, the play on the “let her cook thing” just people saying “let him cook” I think is funny — one of the reasons. But my name Baegod, originally when I did that was because in like 2014 I put out a song called “#CookingforBae” and that was what made me change my name. So, like cooking, funny themes, food, entendres, that kind of thing has been like a thread through my music, so, I felt like it was funny. I was like, “I love this” especially because it’s my first self-produced record. So, I did 90% of the recording myself, all the production except for one song, but everything right here in my lab. I just did it all myself, so, I felt like, let her cook. So, it kind of had a couple different meanings.
TRHH: Your album came out around the same time as GloRilla’s song Let Her Cook. What did you think when you heard her song?
Baegod: I felt like so many people had said it already and it was already a term that people were using. I had already chosen the name for the record before that song came out, because I think I had probably a few weeks before I saw that song. I thought about it and I was like, “I’m not going to change it, first of all, because there’s not a song called “Let Her Cook” on my project either. It’s the name of the project, so, it’s an actual album project name versus being a song. So, that probably would have made me reconsider a little bit more but I was like, “Nah, it’s a saying.” And it’s not the first song, there’s other songs out there called “Let Her Cook.”
I actually think there’s an artist from the Bay Area named Qing Qi, I think she was the one that had the song first. I follow her on Instagram, we’re cool. It’s nothing taken from anyone else or anything, I definitely wasn’t trying to do that. I was like, “Man, let women cook right now!” Every chick could have a song named “Let Her Cook” and I would be cool with that, because there’s not enough of that happening. It’s so small we are as producers, and writers, and even rapping and all this stuff. So, I feel like it’s actually universally good for everyone.
TRHH: What made you get into production?
Baegod: I would say I’ve seriously been focusing on it for like going on 3 1/2 years now. I’ve actually dabbled in it since I started making shit like 20 years ago. I mean, probably a long time ago when I was a teenager I tried. Just didn’t really know if it was something I wanted to do. I didn’t really have much encouragement or anyone around me, even though my partner, not saying that he wasn’t encouraging me. He was so good at it already, I didn’t really feel like I needed it in my bag. I was more worried about focusing on writing, singing, rapping vocals, and engineering. I already knew how to do that before we started working, so, I knew that at the time, too. I just didn’t really know if it was something I was interested in, so, over time I think my album that came out in 2017, Algorithm, I chopped some of the samples in there. There was things that I did, I have co-production on a couple of the songs in there. I recorded half of that recorded 75% of it myself.
So, I was already doing it, but I think also I just got an itch. I was like, “I want to do this. I think I would like it.” Then when I started he was like, “Well, if you’re going to do it you need to do it the hard way — really be serious about it.” And he encouraged me. He was like “We’re going to go to flipabeatclub, we’re going to go to the in-person in-store flip started by Mons Rock and Dibia$e, which a lot of people know out here in Sacramento. We have like eight cities now, so, that was a big part of it and them encouraging me, too. Once I started I went there and I had to make a beat in front of people and play it for them. It just really progressed from there. I realized I really like it, it’s a new way for me to express myself without having to talk or even be the face of everything all the time. It’s a new outlet to be creative, just giving me a lot of new confidence and new inspiration.
TRHH: I’ve seen videos of you using the 404, what else do you use to make beats?
Baegod: As far as my production, the 404, I don’t really produce in there. I mostly just use it for live effects and live edits. So, when people ask me I make sure and let them know, “This is a fun tool for me, and there are people who make beats in it, but I am mainly making beats in Reason. So, I’m using a DAW and a MIDI controller. So, anything I’m playing, I’m playing on my keyboard, I’m chopping samples in there and I hand chop. I’m not even that great at gear — I hand chop everything. I’m really good at manipulating and doing that.
I think for me, the type of stuff that I make, especially before I got into making more Hip-Hop centered stuff when I was making a lot of dance music and remixes, the DAW gives me freedom. For me to be able to hand nudge, especially when you record vocals and when you’re remixing somebody and things aren’t perfect, being able to do that, there’s just so much stuff. A lot of people go through gear and DAW, I’m mainly just in a DAW and my gear would be my controller and that mostly.
TRHH: “I Wish We Had More Time” is a song with a message that a lot of people can relate to. What inspired you to write that song?
Baegod: So, that song specifically is really for my dad who passed in 2019, before COVID. Actually, this whole record is dedicated to him. I dropped it on his birthday, which was October 24th. He was my biggest fan and a huge reason why I’m into music. Growing up he was the person in my family that really shared music with me. He would do all those Columbia House catalogs where you can get a certain amount of CD’s. All my first stuff came from there. He was really big into jazz, he would listen to the instrumental jazz station where they replay versions of songs. He introduced me to a lot of soulful and more different kinds of stuff that maybe even I wouldn’t listen to on my own. He sang in a choir even when he was in high school — music comes from him, I think that was a big reason.
So, from him inspiring my music so much I wanted to dedicate this project to him. I wanted to shout out my family — I have two brothers, my mom, and my dad was my immediate family. I came from a situation where they were together. They didn’t get divorced until all the kids were out of the house. I was like, “Man, I appreciate the dedication to a relationship.” But they stayed friends, they were really close. I just kind of wanted to shout everyone out, specifically my dad, and I want to remind people that we’re so finite. Life is so short you just have to appreciate it and appreciate all the blessings, the privileges that you get, the way you grow up. There’s a lot of different messages in there, I would say a ton. There’s a lot to unpack and I don’t want to go too deep into it, but 100% definitely my dad.
And just in general telling people to appreciate that, because I didn’t see him before he passed. I wasn’t there with him. I didn’t get to be there and it was really sudden and my mom was there, thankfully because he lived close by to her where she lives at. I’m in a different state, so, there wasn’t really any of us that got to be there. I just felt that was really definitely hard. One of the bigger traumas I have dealing with the grief of losing him definitely comes from the “I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have said this, I wish I would have came and visited you.” He was supposed to come out here a few months after he passed. We were doing this whole big family reunion. Just that — things that you go through in your head with grief, too.
TRHH: Where do you feel like you are now with the grieving situation?
Baegod: I don’t think it ever goes away. It’s a day by day thing. It gets easier to deal with it, but it doesn’t hurt any less. I feel I am in a positive place with it just because I feel I talk about him a lot. I put him in a lot of things I do. I think about him all the time. I’m like, “Man, what would he say about this?” I can’t call him right now and tell him how I excited I am, because with my music he would be the person I would call and be like, “Hey dad, guess what? This happened for me.” We had a really close relationship.
I’m the only girl, I was the youngest, I’m like daddy’s girl. We’re very close and music would be our connection, so, he would understand. He lived with Nate, my partner and I, actually for a couple of years and we were taking care of him, so, they had got a really close relationship. We always talk about him. I have little keepsakes and cute little things of his that I have. Tiny little things that I keep with me. It’s just good energy, good luck, mementos, things that make me feel better and remember him. So, I think about him every day and I definitely talk about him like he’s still here.
TRHH: You also have a new project coming out with Sbvce; what’s your creative process like when doing a joint album?
Baegod: So, for the last one we did, Cold Couple, which came out not this past November but the November before, that one we did and this one it was pretty similar. Just the whole year the nights that we would lab and create we would go “specifically we’re working on our record.” Because we know that sometimes we’ll make stuff that isn’t necessarily sonically for that and we kind of have a sound that we’re going for. So, we would go, “Oh, let’s work on our record tonight” and just kind of throughout the year just made a bunch of different songs. For this one specifically that we’re working on now, all of it so far is pretty much all Sbvce on the production. It was just because I had been working on my record, I’ve been doing so much, most of the stuff that I made was for other things.
Except for our first single that we just dropped is produced by me, but that song is one of the last songs we made recently. We have the records — I would say we’re about 75% of the way there. We kind of took a step back once we dropped the single we were like, “Man, people really like this.” We definitely want to make sure that we have a few other things that fit this and its cohesive. So, we are actually still probably going to make two or three more new songs for it. We decided to take two or three off that we had that kind of maybe fit a little bit of more of our pop rap and trap direction that we were doing. SoundCloud era, they feel more like new versions of that but it doesn’t really go with the record.
We’re kind of open, we’re just flowing with it, so it might still be a couple more months until we get it done or get to have it all the way there. We’re not afraid to reprocess, also it gives me a chance to maybe have a little bit more production on there. We have a couple of songs that aren’t finished that I was going to do some beat changes to and I was going to go in and do some of the talking samples and things I did on my record already, which would be my contributions of organizing. I’m usually the person who puts the track list in order and says, “Okay, here’s this sounds.” I’m kind of that person, but I do want to have a chance to maybe make another beat or two for it. I would like to, so, I think we’re going to try to do that.
TRHH: How is it doing business with someone you’re in a relationship with?
Baegod: I mean, I would say my experience isn’t everyone’s experience. So, people take a grain of salt from that. I think it’s hard. I think it’s really hard. I think relationships where you’re really close with someone whether it’s your best friend, sibling, any relationship where you’re that close to the person or you’ve been together so long like we have, it’s hard. But I will say it’s rewarding if you can get through the bumps that you might face while you’re going through it. I think my biggest thing I tell people, especially if you’re in a romantic relationship with the person, siblings, or family, that kind of stuff is different too, when it comes to the business and music we could be in an argument, we could be annoyed with each other, but if money calls or business calls we both know how to immediately dead that and put it on hold. We’ll talk about that later and work on whatever that is.
Because at this point being together so long we know we’re not breaking up. If it’s not over and this is just a little “this” then to hurt any of our opportunities or chances, or to do anything really stupid or ruin anything doesn’t really make sense. Unless it’s over, it’s over, if not then you have to figure out how to communicate. I think that’s the biggest thing that I would tell people is whatever relationship, communication, man. I’ve had this to be something I’ve had to learn a lot over the past probably five years, but just setting my boundaries, explaining what I will and won’t do when I’m helping people, or working with other people, so there’s no unspoken expectations. Having boundaries is fine, everyone should have that. Knowing what you’re willing to do; when I start working with people now and when we do we both try to lay out exactly, “Hey, we’re not promising you anything of the world, we’re saying ‘this is what’s reasonable, this is what we think we can accomplish, these are the skills that we have’ and we can go from there.” Instead of trying to promise too much to people or overextend yourself, which isn’t good either.
So, we learn how to do those things with each other, we do that with other people, and then when we communicate we talk about everything. I mean every little detail of everything; why we did something, why we said something, even when we’re listening to each other’s writing and verses. He’s going to have suggestions for me and I’m going to have suggestions for him and say, “Hey, what did you say there?” or “Why did you do this?” We pick each other’s brain, we talk about all of the things we’re doing and why we’re doing them pretty much as deep as we can get — I think that’s also big. So, that you’re on the same page and why whether you like it or not, at least you have an explanation and there are no questions left unanswered. It’s a hard road, I mean, I tell people, “Hey, if you could do it, do it, but definitely it’s not going to be easy.” It’s a lot, but it’s fun!
TRHH: What type of artists are you looking to sign for Bedroomtrap?
Baegod: I mean, as far as right now we have a couple of artists that we’re already representing. Things are so different now, we’re such an independent label and the way that we do things we’re really just going more on a release by release basis. Like, “Hey, we’re going to put this project out with you non-exclusive.” Like the good situation — this is going to be a 50/50 split and a non-exclusive type situation. As far as artists, I like to get to know the person — it’s really hard from the internet. I don’t know if I want to just be picking up artists to take over their whole thing or do too much work that I just met from the internet anymore. Because I like to know how someone deals with life, how they deal with other people in person, in relationships and business dealings, because we’re really professional.
I care about my image. What are you representing? We’ve had some of those issues before. I’ll bring it up now, but just political, “Man, that’s what you’re into? Okay, well that doesn’t represent us and what we’re into, or the label at all.” I have to make those decisions and I have to detach myself from this because I don’t want to be associated with that, especially in a time like this. Now matters more than ever what you’re saying and what you’re putting out there. So, it’s tricky. I’ve kind of put a hold on just jumping into putting out artists’ whole catalogs or doing this, it’s more of a we’re focusing on ourselves and collaborations with other artists. So, there’s probably going to be a lot more of that with us — small EP’s, collaborative EP’s. Even me as a producer, I’ve got a couple of projects I’m working on that are going to be an EP with me as a producer for this person. I’m not signing them to the label, this is just a collaborative project we’re doing. If things progress and then we end up having an opportunity, or some money comes along, or there’s something like that and we want to do that, cool. But I’m kind of on an open-ended thing right now.
The industry is really volatile and a lot of things are changing and social media and all of this is just so much that I don’t want to over commit to things that I’m not capable of. I don’t want to be disappointed and I don’t want to end up like I said representing something or putting too big of a stamp on someone that maybe I go, “Ah, I don’t want to be associated with that.” So, I do think that now I’m taking a lot longer look. I say I have to take a couple of years and build a relationship with someone before I really put a stamp on, “Okay, we’re putting this out. This is Bedroomtrap, you’re on the team.” I have a lot of people in my circumference and around me that are like fam. These are my people, but I’m not saying they’re on my label or they’re my artist. Only certain things get that stamp.
TRHH: On the song “Glassdoor” you say “You knockin’ on the glass door, that ain’t really living/Forget about the encore/it’s time to make decisions.” Explain those lines.
Baegod: So, the Glassdoor is kind of like a metaphor for the glass ceiling, also of women because I’m talking about women a lot in the song. I mean anyone can look at it for whatever is stopping you. Basically, the Glassdoor was like a metaphor for that. So, the encore is forgetting about all of the praise, and all of the hype, and all of that other stuff, and thinking about all of the after effects, right now you have to just do it and just make it happen. You know how some people are so worried about what they’re going to get from something and what’s going to happen over ‘here’ that they missed the details of what’s important right here. So, it’s like, forget about the encore, just worry about performing, worrying about your situation, and worry about what you’re putting out there — what you’re doing right now. And then even that, knocking on the Glassdoor is also the glass ceiling, but it’s also like, man, break that shit open! You can see through it!
There’s also this level of you can actually see what’s on the other side, so, that’s what I’m saying kind of like, you’re looking through a glass door, there’s some things blocking you there, but you already know what you need to do, too. There’s a couple levels of what that actually means. I know that people are going to interpret it how they want to interpret it to what they need to hear at that time, so, whatever you want to take from that on top of what I said. Sometimes when I write things even like that I’ll go back and listen six months later, a year later, I’ll find triple and fourth meanings into what I said that I didn’t even necessarily mean when I wrote it — that’s what it means too. So, that happens a lot. Some of this record in six months when I listen to it, in a year from now, as I go I’m sure that there’s more things about it I’ll be able to find.
TRHH: Who is the #lethercook album made for?
Baegod: The dedication to my dad, obviously, and myself, but as far as the listener, man, I think there’s a couple places where I specifically would hope that it would touch people. I have a friend who listened to it with his daughter who I think is 15. He told me it was perfect because he’s a younger dad. He’s probably early to mid 30s with a teenage daughter and they listen to music together. Listening to it together he told me her reaction was, “Man, you know her? This is so dope!” and it’s a Hip-Hop record, but it’s a self-produced female Hip-Hop record which they’re still almost non-existent. There’s very few. I tried to find as many as I could just so I would even know what was out there that maybe I didn’t know, and it’s almost none. So, I’m like, if I’m going to do this yeah, I want to make it for women especially, and representation, female producers and young women that might want to get into that to also encourage them.
I do think that that’s a big part of it, but also listen to it with your dad, he would understand. This record I would say the production was highly influenced by a lot of the stuff that I was listening to in 2003 to 2008 specifically. A lot of Madlib “The Unseen” and Dilla “Donuts” were two records that I specifically was listening to a lot while I was making this on purpose to try to just go, “Okay, a female producer/rapper getting inspiration from these, what would she make right now?” What does that sound like? Because there aren’t many examples of that. So, I would hope anyone that likes those artists, like I said, all the way down to youngsters that are just finding out about Hip-Hop and some of those artists right now. Just finding out about DOOM or just finding out about a lot of underground Hip-Hop stuff. I feel like those are the sounds that inspired me especially when I was probably getting into music maybe around 19ish-20. Right in that era for me that was when I found a lot of those sounds.
So, hopefully people in that really impressionable time will find it, but also like I said, you can listen it to it with the young G, OG, everyone in between. Anyone can enjoy it. I tried not to go too crazy on profanity and other stuff. I wanted to make it a little cleaner just because I wanted to say stuff that was important, but I didn’t have to use that as a thing. Because I want everyone to be able to enjoy it, and to be able to enjoy it together, and not feel like, “Ah, this is ‘this.’” And just being myself also and hoping that a lot of people can enjoy it, but especially like I said, people to enjoy it together. I would hope that it was something that a parent could listen to with their kid and they both like Hip-Hop. And go, “Hey, there’s a little bit of something on here for both of us and I respect that.”
Purchase: Baegod – #lethercook