INTERVIEW: ONLYHEAVEN

A NEW ORLEANS BOUNCE LEGEND IN THE MAKING

New Orleans bounce is an indestructible form of American dance music. It might zig and zag through the zeitgeist, but it’s never not there when you need it the most. The first time I heard OnlyHeaven, I was reminded of the power of the style, which has its roots in both old-school rap and even older forms of New Orleans music—it’s built on a sonic foundation of a few samples and a whole lot of attitude. And OnlyHeaven, a New Orleans-born, Atlanta-based bounce artist, has got that attitude. She understands that bounce music is driven by energy and harnesses that energy with the skill of an artist indoctrinated into the music at a young age.

Over the past few weeks, OnlyHeaven has been getting some attention that goes beyond the confines of her scene. On Instagram, Drake shared a snippet of a song by the artist, and her most recent EP, KISS (Keep It Short & Sweet), got a positive review from Alphonse Pierre at Pitchfork. This attention is part of a longer trickle of shine that seems to point to a certain level of forward momentum; OnlyHeaven is helping to carry the bounce torch and doing it with charisma to spare. Recently, we talked over Zoom. Happy Fat Tuesday.

It seems like you've been involved with New Orleans bounce since you were born. 

Oh, yeah. That's my everything. Blood, sweat, and tears.

Do you have any formative memories of listening to bounce music when you're a kid? 

My dad, he would come home from parties and would be like, I heard that music! I'm like, What music? That bounce bigity bounce bigity! I always loved to dance, do New Orleans dancing, which is bounce dancing—and get in trouble for it, of course. I remember listening to Calliope Ceedy and Kelly Pounchin, people that a lot of people don't really give recognition to. I just always loved their music and I knew I was going to fall into those footsteps and grow from it. 

I was in the backseat riding with my dad on the way somewhere. And I was just like, I'm gonna be a bounce artist. And he was like, Okay. And I was like, I'm gonna be real big, too. I was eight years old. And that was just what it was. In high school, people knew me for knowing every bounce song. If you want to know a bounce song, come find me and I'm gonna tell you what the song is. I’ve loved bounce music since forever. 

When you were listening to bounce growing up, was it a lot of new music or were you digging back into the ‘90s classics? 

It was a lot of new music. It was Dino BTW, it was Vickeelo, it was Supahbadd. There were a lot of new artists that came out when I was in high school, and they're still relevant to this day, but I always go back to Calliope Ceedy, “Mid City,” that was my song right there. That was my song when I was in elementary school. 

What was it about this music that really connected with you from a young age? 

It was just so authentic. Like, they didn't care what they said. I always got in trouble for everything I said—my mama always said, “That mouth will get you somewhere.” I didn't care what I said. I'm still very open, I say how I feel. That's just what the music was to me, it was “girl, she don't care what she says” type of music. So it just all came together for me.

In your own lyrics, how much of your songwriting comes from you just talking shit in your real life? 

See, most of all of it—most all of it just come from a thought. A lot of it comes from, like, What if this happened? What if that happened? Or if a friend wants to tell me something, I build from it. It’s just fun. It’s a different type of creative process for me. 

Do you have any examples of songs where you were hanging out, living your life, and a lyric or a song title popped into your head?

Yeah, my song “Last Night,” that Drake gave a snippet of, I actually was just riding in the car and I was just like, “Last night / I wished upon a chosen star / Then I could fuck your n***a in your car / I know that dick so big because I can see it in the dark / Now let's go.” That's funny! Like, what? Where that came from? That was a real moment like that. 

In those moments, are you trying to get into the booth real fast? 

No, I'm going to my voice memos on my phone. I just go to my voice memos and I'm like, Let me hurry up. Because I'm that type of person, I have to get to something before I forget it. So I hurry up and then I go to my notes and I build it from there. 

You got any heat in your voice notes right now? Unreleased? 

Hell yeah. I have all type of stuff up in there. 

So when you finally go to the studio, you got ammo? 

Yeah. Lately I've been liking to write in the studio, I don't know why. The producer gives me a beat, and I just build from it. I like making music that has a storyline to it. If you listen to my music, a lot of my music sounds like I'm telling a story because I like to make sense. I like to make it be visual, if that makes sense. 

And your cousin is Hot Boy Ronald. Have you considered doing a collaboration or working together in any way? 

Yeah, we have. We talked about it a few times. We just both be so busy, so either one of us has to get in the studio and send something, or we both have to link up and go to the studio. But that's coming. 

“In Here,” how did that track come about? 

I was on my way to the studio and my producer, Tank, I know he was tired of me coming to the studio and having no music ready. On my way to the studio, it just popped in my head and I liked it. So I went to record with Tank, but Tank—every bounce producer is different. Me and him, we didn't have the same vibe on the song. So I went to Slash and me and Slash were having fun with it and built it from there. 

When you say every bounce producer is different, is there something you're looking for when you're in the room with them? 

If I'm looking for a crazy, “I want to make the club shake down all night” type of vibe, it’s Slash, ‘cause he loops the beat a lot. He's versatile, too, but that's what I would typically go to him for. Tank is like “Mirror,” it has that bounce feeling, but I'm rapping a lot on there, type of thing. Dee Day, I'm kind of rapping more than anything, with a bounce mix. I go to who I think the song will fit, basically. 

If you were to make a full-length, would that be a goal, to combine these different pockets of the sound into one? 

Yeah, trying to make it into one, ‘cause all of it is one sound, but people don't understand that bounce music has different sounds. So that's really what I was kind of trying to give off in my EP, a mix of different versions of bounce. You had “Text,” it was kind of like that vibe, but you know it's bounce music. Then you had “Never Hard,” it’s like a dancing song, it makes you want to get up and dance and rock out. Those different versions of bounce music.

There was a point when you took a break from music, right? 

Yeah. 

How long ago was that? 

I dropped my song, originally my song was called “MIRROR,” but it's now called “2 Shots.” I dropped that song on August the 15th, 2023. A year prior to that, in 2022, I stopped doing music for a whole year. I just wasn't feeling it anymore. I just was like, fuck this shit, honestly. At that moment, that's how I was feeling. But yeah, 2022, I took a whole year off. 

And did that help you? What helped you recharge and get back into the mode to make stuff?

Honestly, it was just time. I had to do some self healing. I had to mentally be ready, because I had dropped the song “Last Night,” but it was because everybody kept on telling me, Heaven drop music, Heaven drop music, because they love my music so much. But I was just like, I don't want to drop music and then drop one song and then drop another song ten months later. I don't want to just do it because people want me to do it. 

What helped me recharge was basically taking my time. I just told myself, when I come back, I'm coming hard. I'm coming different and I'm gonna be ready—mentally, physically, emotionally. I had got a job because I had stopped working for months, so I got me a new job, started forgiving people for what they did, and just loving myself and telling myself that this is what I want to do. 

Having a career in music, there's so many ebbs and flows. You seem like you're in a really good place now, but I can definitely relate to that feeling of just wanting to stop making music. It’s inspiring to see you come out of that other end and you're firing on all cylinders. 

Thank you.  

Are there any people right now that you kind of want to model your career after? I think I saw somewhere that Nicki Minaj was an early influence. 

Oh yeah, Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj when I was younger, when I was growing up, I was a diehard, oh my gosh, they used to call me Haven Minaj. Like, that's how bad it was. I was so bad, but yes, Nicki Minaj was a huge impact. That's how I first started rapping. My teacher, she would always be like, She rap every Nicki Minaj song! Her name was Ms. Marcel. Shout out to Ms. Marcel. Ms. Marcel was my biggest cheerleader. I would go to school rapping all Nicki Minaj's lyrics and that's how I built my own rap career. 

New Orleans bounce seems like it's always kind of coming in and out of visibility in the wider world. Are you interested in taking the sound outside of the South or outside of America?

Hell yeah. I'm going to take this to Mars. I'm taking it to Mars. I'm already taking it outside of my city. I feel like if I can go from New Orleans, which is down south, and bring it way up to the DMV area, why wouldn’t I be able to bring it to Paris? It’s just the whole thing of being consistent and building that fan base up. 

Does the music go over well in Atlanta? 

Oh, yeah. I think it goes over well everywhere because everybody love to shake their ass and everybody love bounce music. Like, people love bounce music. It don't matter where you go, somebody is going to love bounce music. I believe it's crossing over well. I went to Coalition DJs last night, I performed for them, it's a whole room of DJs, and every single one of them gave me a ten. And they were just like, you got it. Keep going. I don't have anything to tell you, from stage presence to the performance to the music. 

Your generation of New Orleans bounce, what are you bringing new to the table? 

Well, I know I'm bringing back the original bounce sound with my different flavor. I'm bringing in a space that shows people, especially girls around my age, it's possible. You know what I'm saying? I believe that I'm really just setting up. I'm making everybody believe in themself again. I know this because in my DMs, every day I'm getting messages like, Oh my God, seeing you inspires me, seeing you keeps me going. Seeing you, it pushed me to be better. So I believe I'm just, one day at a time, making my genre music feel more confident and I'm taking it further. 

Who has better food, Atlanta or New Orleans? 

Oh, come on, that's not a question. That's not a question. New Orleans has the best food in the world. And let me tell you, a lot of people, they overrate stuff—we really not overrated. But I can tell you the truth. You need to let somebody cook for you. Like, the stores don't have all the best food, to me, because I'm from there. So I would get somebody to cook the food for you, but we have the best food for sure.

 KISS (Keep It Short & Sweet) is out now. OnlyHeaven on Instagram