Interview: Juice Menace [@juicemenace] talks her musical journey, ‘Money Dance’, navigating the industry and more

Cardiff’s Juice Menace is definitely one to watch and has been gearing up to carry on making waves through 2020.

If you don’t know Juice Menace it’s time to get to know her. The young talent has already worked with the likes of Flyo, Elevated, Nastylgia and been playlisted in Spotify‘s official Rap UK playlist. 2020 has been a good year so far for Juice, with her first release of the year ‘Bounterfeit’ being playlisted and her follow up ‘Money Dance’ spawning a Triller challenge. In light of the new track, it only made sense to catch up with Juice Menace as she gets ready to ramp things up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9U2J0k1ZY

Who is Juice Menace?

Juice Menace is a 19 year old from Cardiff, I consider myself to be a creative and an artist.

What was it like growing up in Cardiff?

Pretty laid back I guess. Cardiff’s a very small place so it feels like not much really goes on but that’s changing. I feel like I’m seeing a lot more creatives and networking going on, hopefully, soon it’d be cool to have our own scene.

Coming from somewhere we don’t typically expect rappers to come from, why did you decide you would do it?

For me it’s like my aspirations and hobbies have nothing to do with where I’m from. I think some people would see it as a barrier or maybe a reason not to become a rapper, but for me, it was like “aw no one’s really done this before or been able to take it far” so I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna change that narrative.

Who were/are your musical inspirations if you have any?

So many honestly I think my answer changes every time, I admire artists for lots of different reasons there’s a lot more to an artist than their music. It might be their style or their sound, how they dance or I could just be inspired by how they’ve built themselves. I think my two biggest inspirations are Travis Scott and Pharrell Williams for creativity and being moguls in the industry.

When did you know you could make a career out of music if you’ve even thought about it like that?

Music is such a gamble, you have to tell yourself you can make it from the jump but for me, it was coming to London and having people who are already in the industry say that they believe in me or see the potential. That was all I needed to keep pushing.

What do you do to stay inspired?

Music is an outlet for me so inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere but I’m always looking at something I love art, fashion, and film so I just let it all bounce off each other.

It’s known that women have a tougher time in the music industry, how do you keep yourself sane with everything that happens?

Inequality can definitely take its toll and cause a lot of frustration. I hate being put into a female rapper box it’s annoying and you know rap is rap but it’s also definitely motivating, I take all my frustrations out in music. I feel like that’s the best way to show that I as a female deserve the same recognition that a male would get. But in the past year, there’s been a great increase in girls in the scene so things are changing. 

You just dropped ‘Monday Dance’, tell us a little bit about how that song came about.

Just good vibes in the studio the beat got sent in and I remember I couldn’t think of a hook, so I just repeated myself and finished recording and was like this is kinda hard.

At only 19 you’re already in a great position to go far, what’s the dream thing for you to achieve?

As far as goals go the sky is the limit. Doing music has always been about putting myself in the best possible position to achieve anything I set my mind to. But I would love to get my first plaque that’s 100% a big goal of mine.

What should we look out for from you over the next year?

I just wanna stay consistent and show what I have to offer definitely more singles and maybe my first project.