If there’s one thing Cleotrapa wants you to know, it’s that there’s only one Cleotrapa. “Let me set that record straight,” the New York City-based rapper says the morning after opening for Doechii at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. “Because other bitches are coming out of the woodwork. I’m one of one; there’s only one of me.”
Dry-erase marker in hand, Cleotrapa has become known for giving out lessons on how to stay away from weirdos and toxic men. “Weird people are repeat offenders,” she says in one TikTok. “If they was weird one time, they’re gonna be weird again.” Speaking her truth and never shying away from a bit of trolling, Cleotrapa has leveraged her unapologetic online presence into a rising rap career.
In addition to opening for Doechii — “I really am the face of the city. So when she came to New York, she thought of me, period.” — Cleotrapa’s “Everybody Ate” soundtracked a Stuart Weitzman campaign, while her On the Radar performance had internet stans raving in the comments: “Her articulation and breath control is insane.”
Cleo’s debut album, Supernova Girl, out today from Stealth Music Group/ UnitedMasters, showcases her self-assuredness as an artist. The project channels her wide range of influences, spanning old-school rap, modern pop, R&B, and even rock. “It’s a body of work where people can actually know what’s going on,” she says. “Supernova Girl is that girl; she embodies doing whatever the fuck she wants to do. You guys can’t box me in.”
“Baddies,” the album’s single, is a bouncy, Afroswing-infused glimpse into the world Cleotrapa is building. But it’s only a fraction of what the album holds. “I want listeners to feel a vibe — different sounds, different moods, different emotions. I can deliver that,” she says. “I’ma do what I like. I’ma do what I love. And if you fuck with me, you’ll eat it right up. Good music is good music.”
Long before the fame, the followers, or the mic, the Staten Island-raised musician got her start as a preteen in a girl group called the Pinkies. She sharpened her lyrical edge in high school with a freestyle to Nicki Minaj’s “Itty Bitty Piggy,” a moment that hinted at the flow she’d later become known for. She also played Beethoven for a talent show and was part of her school’s African Dance club. “I was always on stage performing,” she says, naming Lana Del Rey and other genre-blurring pop and rap stars as key influences in her musical upbringing.
With her first single in 2018, “Letter to My Haters,” a response to years of internet trolling that stirred plenty of opinions, Cleotrapa has stepped fully into her own, turning every bar into both a clapback and a confession — something she has continued to perfect. “Heard you was looking for a bad bitch, here I am,” she declares on her 2024 single “Von Dutch.” The track followed her breakout hit “Rockstar,” which sampled the Hannah Montana song of the same name. Together, these records set the tone for her next chapter, including the aforementioned “Everybody Ate,” a clever and self-possessed single that arrived in the wake of her feud with former friend and fellow rapper Ice Spice. (Spice, Cleotrapa says, invited their whole tour crew out to dinner without her.)
Juxtaposing an unfiltered exterior against a guarded ethos, Cleotrapa’s music expresses her truth, uncompromisingly honest, witty, and never short on humor – a cadence that can land as either a joke or a threat. “Just ’cause I'm a funny, cool bitch on the internet don’t mean you know everything about me,” she says. “I'm gonna make you kiki, but I don't really let people in much into my personal life.”
As our conversation comes to a close, she reflects on the ongoing noise around rap beefs and the media’s habit of pitting women rappers against each other. “Rap has always been about competition,” she says. “People were having rap battles on the street, coming at each other.” This doesn’t faze her. Her strength lies in knowing that good music is all about “popping your shit.” With Supernova Girl out in the world, she’s proving she can do exactly that.
