CleoTrapa is well-known on social media for both her personality and her music, but one could consider that the former informs the latter.

The Staten Island, New York rapper, who currently resides in Atlanta, went viral in 2021 for an instructional grammar video in which she tries to dead the confusion between the words “angel” and “angle.” And while it was one of the first times she attained a large amount of internet fame for content she posted on her socials, it was purely indicative of the talent and magnetic nature she relays in-front of the camera.

In her music, CleoTrapa, born Cleo West, has covered a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time. Only starting to rap seriously in 2018, after an impromptu studio session led her to release her debut diss track, “Letter to My Haters”, from there she dropped songs and videos loosely before admittedly losing confidence in recording. That’s when people she happened to meet over the years encouraged her to keep dropping.

“[SZA] really pushed me to drop more because when I slowed down, she was the main person that was just like, ‘Girl, you need to keep pushing your music, like you're really, really good,’” Cleo told BET during a recent interview. “And I'm like, SZA telling me that, I don't care what nobody got to say. I was so moved by that.”

In 2023, CleoTrapa is full steam ahead, already dropping her latest song/video “Main Character” in January. Speaking with BET, she announced she’s going to be dropping more in the way of singles and videos and even a debut “project” she’s planning for this coming winter. Read the conversation below.

BET: You’re from Park Hill, Staten Island. Take me back a little to growing up there and how it shaped you as a person before you thought about doing music.

CleoTrapa: Well growing up, it was kind of like – Park Hill is a rowdy place. But I moved when I was like seven to Stapleton. It was kind of the same kind of thing but I was always still coming to Park Hill because that was where my friends was at. And it's really like a family dynamic – everybody knows each other and everybody's African, so we're all a big family pretty much.

BET: You started taking music seriously only a few years ago, after dropping “Letter To My Haters.” What made you want to move into doing music?

CleoTrapa: I've always wrote music since I was like 10. I always had a book where I would write music and stuff. Of course, [Nicki Minaj] is my fav, so I got a lot of that from listening to her. But I decided to take it more seriously a few years ago when I got in the studio. I never really got in the studio. I was always just writing stuff, but when I got in the studio, I'm like, Yeah, this is my vibe. I was on some freestyle s**t, I just left it to my ears, but then I started doing more songs and kind of took him from there. Then I took a break around COVID, I feel like the break kind of pushed me back. Now I'm back in my zone.

BET: You dropped the video for “Main Character” in January and it has a very organic feel to it. Talk about putting all of that together including the song and visual…

CleoTrapa: So “Main Character” I had it in my phone, but a lot of my music takes me a minute to drop it because sometimes I'm scared. I'm like, I don't know how people are gonna feel. I had “Main Character” in my phone since I think I recorded it in the beginning of 2021. Just recently, I wanted to drop something. I was supposed to drop “Girlfriend,” which is something I'm gonna drop around the summertime. So everybody should look forward to that.

I was supposed to drop [“Main Character”], but the video and everything didn't turn out how I wanted to, so I had to go back to the drawing board. But I didn't want to leave people with nothing, so I'm like, You know, let me put out this song. I don't want people to think that I'm a drill artist, but it's like, I'm from New York and this is what New York sounds like. The feeling was like what I'm about.

BET: You also have some very influential fans in both SZA and Telfar Clemens. What has each of their support meant to you?

CleoTrapa: I met Telfar in 2017 before anybody even really knew about the bags and stuff. I would be at his pop up shop and I had these modeling friends that would be modeling for his brand, and they told me about him. So I went to the pop up shop in the city and I really tuned into it from there. I'm like, this brand is gonna be big. Then I just started seeing people wearing the bags. It took off really quick and I started getting into it, I started supporting him a lot and they reached out to me to do one of the Telfar TV shows, and that's where I had met him again. It was just like a cute full-circle moment. I'm just like, Wow, we both did what we had to do. We're here and it was really lit. I love him. That's really a cool friend of mine. He's huge, but he's really humble and I love that.

SZA, she really pushed me to drop more because when I slowed down, she was the main person that was just like, “Girl, you need to keep pushing your music, like you're really, really good.” And I'm like, SZA telling me that, I don't care what nobody got to say. I was so moved by that. She probably doesn't even know that moved the s**t out of me. I always listen to her music.

BET: The drill scene in New York has been big for a while now and I feel like now there’s a second wave coming with particularly female rappers – artists like yourself, Maliibu Miitch, Ice Spice, Lola Brooke, Billy B. What would you say about that movement as it currently stands?

CleoTrapa: The second wave is definitely for the girls for real, heavy on the girls right now. I feel like the girls are making catchier music and people are starting to notice that you can hear what we're saying. We're not mumbling. So I think the second wave is definitely going to be big and everybody's gonna be tuned in – especially the New York girls. That's what I feel like it's giving us: New York. Female rap takeover.

BET: You’re also very active on social media, particularly instagram and very funny. I’ve been dying at some of your most recent videos. Talk about how that’s kind of part of the package people get with you…

CleoTrapa: Yeah, so my videos is like, that's me. People can get that same vibe from my music and I feel like my fans, they want to see another side of me. So I feel like they get that from Instagram and that makes people f**k with me more than once they tune into my videos, and then they tune into my music and they like, “Damn, she's a multi talented queen.” And they f**k with that.

BET: You went viral early on in your career for the grammar video you posted on Twitter. Take me back to that time and what came out of that afterward…

CleoTrapa: Honestly I never thought about that until you said it. What really happened that made me go viral. It was really that long ago, it was really a few years ago. That's when I started it during the pandemic and stuff. There was online classes going on, so [I was like] let me come up with my own little online class and everybody's gonna tune in because everybody's home.I'm just like, alright bet. So that's how it really came about. Before that, I was already known for my other videos that will go viral, but that really like put me on for real for real. Everybody was just like more tuned in, the ShadeRoom had posted it. So that's how I really amplified it.

BET: You’ve already dropped a few singles and videos this year but what’s your plan as far as music is concerned for the rest of 2023?

CleoTrapa: Well, right now, I'm gonna drop another single, most likely between this month and next month. But after that, I'm definitely gonna be putting out a project somewhere around the winter time. I don't want to give it a day. It's gonna be a project, I wouldn't call it an album, but there will be a collection of songs. I call it the EP.

BET: What would you say is your goal in music, because for a lot of people it can be a lot of different things?

CleoTrapa: My goal will be to pave the way. There needs to be more female artists like me. So I want to pave the way for girls like me to feel like they could do what I do. They could be just like me, you know, confidence, build other people confidence. That's pretty much my goal.

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