Prado has never lacked for confidence. Back in 2019, when the Vancouver artist was turning heads with the irreverent indie/rap&B hybrids she uploaded to SoundCloud, she would tell journalists about a debut EP that was set to drop—even though, at the time, it didn’t technically exist. “I was talking out of my ass,” she admits to Apple Music. “I wasn’t ready at all.” But now, following two years of artistic and personal evolution, Prado is primed for her close-up. If the title of her inaugural release—Prado Monroe—didn’t make it clear that she’s a star in the making, then its six diamond-cut tracks seal the deal, presenting a genre-bounding, globe-trotting synthesist in the mould of M.I.A., Santigold and Kali Uchis. Prado Monroe is a fierce, take-no-prisoners takedown of all those ignoramuses getting in the way of her living her best life—be they white male oppressors, noncommittal lovers or players at the club—but its profane, streetwise sass is balanced by the sort of angelic pop hooks that got her scouted as a songwriter for Skrillex’s OWSLA label. “These tracks took a bit of time,” she says, “but they sound stellar. I feel properly grown into the person I am today.” Here, Prado gives us a track-by-track introduction to Prado Monroe. Stephen “‘Stephen’ could be [former Conservative Canadian Prime Minister] Stephen Harper or any oppressive male figure—it’s always a f**king Stephen. I’m Aboriginal, so first and foremost, f**k the state and f**k the church. [The lyric] ‘bad b**ches’ is like a warrior cry for me to give strength and call upon the bad b**ches. We ride out!” Drip “My sister wrote this track in poem form, and we ended up tweaking it together to be a song of manifestation. This is our ‘na na na boo boo’ track where we’re like, ‘Yeah, hoes, we the s**t.’ It’s a song celebrating Black women. The beauty and dreaminess is heightened by the production from Hamb Sun.” Likeline “I originally wrote this on a BBJuelz beat in 2017 for a group called So Loki out of Vancouver. I ended up keeping it for myself. It’s always such a s**t situation when I fall for someone 30 times more than they do for me, but I wrote this straight from the heartstrings. This song has a crazy pop dynamic and reminds me of a circus or a roller-coaster ride—which just so happens to be most of my relationships.” Gucci Store “I came up with the synth line out of the first-bar melody—‘I’m not gonna play with n****s anymore’—and added the production as soon as I got home from my receptionist job. It was literally the moment I decided I wanted to take myself seriously in music and give it my all. I quit my job after I got back a bounce of Franco Maravilla’s drums on ‘Gucci Store’!” Louis Tee “This record is very true to my sound. Bennyman [from Coventry, UK] and I were in the studio together all summer of 2020, and this was my final addition to the project. I wanted something fresh and reflective of where I’m headed with nods to where I’m at in Prado Monroe. Bennyman contributed a grimy edge and deep appreciation for hip-hop to the project that I’m happy to have explored and everyone should see more of soon.” Men in Black “‘Men in black/All sluts no lie/Can’t get in the club at night.’ Purrr. N****s be having the audacity to act like they have a spot in the club when we’re the reason they got in for free. This is based on real-life events.”