While it oozes sensuality, Money Badoo’s debut album, PORN$TAR, isn’t necessarily audio porn. The collection (which follows her anthemic 2019 single “All My Friends” and a joint EP with fellow rapper Sauwcy, 2020’s MK-Ultra) offers glimpses into the rapper/singer-songwriter’s persona and contains moments of vulnerability, cockiness and reflection. Despite its provocative title, the LP contains only two tracks that directly tackle intimacy and sex; the title was born from a negative comment the Johannesburg native once received. “Because I’m very confident in the way I dress,” the artist born Jade Alves tells Apple Music, “somebody said to me, back in 2019, ‘If it really doesn’t work out, you can always become a porn star.’ At times, as a woman, being self-expressive comes with a downside of being under the male gaze. And then another thing was just being also sexually liberated—being able to speak openly about the things I like, and I don’t like, and what it is to find my femininity.” Here, Money Badoo takes us through what inspired each song on the album, track by track. “K.R.E.A.M (Intro)” (feat. Maglera Doe Boy) “‘K.R.E.A.M’ stands for ‘kroon rules everything around me’. Maglera Doe Boy and I collaborated on this very organically while working on something for his album. I knew that he’d be the perfect narrator and is somebody who tells stories well. We had such a similar story when we met each other that this intro just felt so organic, and it came together so beautifully. We’re both from—I call it ‘the Dirty South’, but he’s from Maglera and I’m from Ennerdale, which are both not suburban areas.” “g2g” (feat. lordkez) “lordkez is an insane artist. I’m on a song of hers called ‘Rice Krispies’, and that’s how we started collaborating. Also, I’m really close friends with her. We were in the studio, and NOTBENJAMIN and Mars Baby collaborated on a beat that we really loved. We jumped on it and made ‘g2g’.” “Gone Girl” “‘Gone Girl’ is produced by Playground Productions. And it’s a song that I feel like is more of a prophecy that I was writing to myself about just being gone, about putting effort in and putting my best foot forward in anything that I do. And just saying that I’m a gone girl, that anything I do, I’m so gone and I’m not here. I’m from the future—just prophesying a really successful, long-lasting, beautiful career ahead.” “47K$” [Money Badoo & Ricky Tyler] “Ricky Tyler and I became friends. We decided to just have some fun studio sessions. ‘47K$’ is one of the first songs we ever made. And I called it ‘47K$’ because I was just mocking his song ‘Thirty K’s’. And Playground Productions usually just gives their demos names like ‘13K$’. When I started working with them, I felt it was something cool that they used to do as a team. It was very on-brand for them. So, that’s why I called the song ‘47K$’. 47 is also my lucky number, and it just felt fitting.” “Your Way” “‘Your Way’ is produced by NOTBENJAMIN. We randomly made this song. It’s a love song and also almost like a prayer. It’s about saying that I feel like I’m a control freak and I have to let go of something in order for [things] to just happen. It’s saying that I’m going to leave it in God’s hands. I’m going to let the universe take its path and I’m just going to follow however my heart feels.” “H3ART OVERBOARD” “‘H3ART OVERBOARD’ is the only heartbreak song on the album. NOTBENJAMIN and Mars Baby created the production from scratch with me in the studio. And I was just in a really heartbroken phase of my life. Some things were changing for me. I was moving away from my family, I was working on this album, I was signed to Republic54. I was doing so many things, and [so much] was happening in my life. And with change always comes some kind of bittersweet feeling. I guess, ultimately, my heart was broken because I was seeing somebody and that ended, and I was like, ‘What am I supposed to look out for after this?’ I was sad. I just didn’t know what was happening, what [was] going to happen after this.” “PI$TOL POP” “Another song produced by NOTBENJAMIN. The idea just came out of nowhere, like the hook idea that I came up with. And then I started realising that it was actually influenced by A$AP Rocky because in ‘Fashion Killa’, he says, ‘Her pistol go bang, bang, boom, boom, pop, pop.’ And that’s how I felt about myself. The song is about just being the best version of yourself and making sure that anything that you do is always going to be great. I always put my best foot forward, and that’s what ‘PI$TOL POP’ is about.” “100 DAY$” [Money Badoo, Sliqe & Yanga Chief] “I was just thinking about how it felt like [even if it] took a 100, it feels like a 1000 or 1 million days that you put into your career—a 100 days or a 100 nights that you don’t even sleep. Any money that you’re making, any time that you’re putting yourself out there, it takes work and effort. And especially in music, it’s beyond that—you spend seven days a week putting this craft together. That’s what ‘100 Days’ is about; it’s about how much effort I’ve put into this, how much more I was willing to [put in] and how much I’m going to give to this business. My passion is what I love to do. This is one of the most important [tracks] to me on the album, because I really speak about what it feels like being in the industry.” “cum 2 me” “‘cum 2 me’ is almost the same narrative of ‘Your Way’, but saying ‘I don’t chase, I attract,’ and then I’m attracting what’s meant for me in the most positive and wholesome way. I think ‘cum 2 me’ is such a sensual song because it’s about honing in on your desires. It’s like, ‘Am I what you want?/Am I what you desire?’ It’s about intimacy more than just the act of sex. It’s more about the feeling of somebody that you really love, or that you even just like, and the softness and how vulnerable you feel in that moment. And having that person actually see you and hold space for you.” “PORN$TAR” “This is the opposite of ‘cum 2 me’ since it’s the rowdy, raunchy song about just sex and just about being the sexiest version of yourself. And how you feel when you let somebody into that space of yours. And I consider myself super confident, definitely a badass person. And I wanted to be super straightforward, down to the point about it, and I felt like it was a song that needed to be on a project like PORN$TAR because I took you through all my emotions and all my feelings, and so there has to be one rowdy, raunchy song about just straight-up sex.”