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Queen Naija has put every aspect of her life front and center.

Since her rise from YouTube to stardom and various EP releases, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter has not only shared her personal life with the world but the highs and lows that come with it. Relationships, heartbreak, happiness, motherhood. There isn’t a moment Queen hasn’t had in life that didn’t feel like the perfect scenario for songwriting purposes.

After years, Naija’s debut album missunderstood is out Friday (October 30) after the release of her self-titled EP. With the success of the EP, Naija wanted to immediately capitalize with a new release. The only problem is, she couldn’t stop writing.

“This process was a lot of trial and error. Actually, that was going to be my album name,” she reveals to us. “But, I wanted it to resonate mote. I thought missunderstood was more personal and that was a last-minute title change. I had Trial & Error for a long time and I went to bed one night, woke up and said, ‘Yeah, missunderstood — that’s the album name.”

She continued, “I made enough songs to make three albums. My first batch of songs, its good music but it was me more so trying to find my sound. And you can tell I was trying to find my sound. There was pop here, there was … me doing a rock lane. I said, ‘No Queen, it needs to be cohesive.’ I was trying to prove myself too quick, I can do this, I can do that. ‘Stay in one lane, make your mark and then venture out. You can’t confuse people on your debut album.’”

As an artist who has lived out her relationships in the public eye, she understands that being transparent is key. She’s been vocal about her ex speaking out about her relationship. In a recently uploaded video to her YouTube channel with over 4.76 million subscribers, she spoke out about the drama and questioning her role in the ending of one long-term relationship and the beginning of another.

“I gotta think of it like this,” she said. “In life, there’s always gonna be a different problem. You’re never going to lose your problems but you’ll only have better problems. My problem used to be, I had to scrape up change for a meal. Now my problem is, strangers, people I don’t know talking about me on the internet. It is mentally damaging sometimes but if you build yourself up to have tough skin? And that’s your smallest problem? You’re blessed.”

Watch her full interview with KG Smooth up top. Missunderstood has features from Mulatto (“Bitter”), Lil Durk (“Lie To Me”), Kiana Ledé, Lucky DayeJacquees and more.

 

Queen Naija Explains ‘missunderstood’ Title, Dealing With Haters, Drama & More [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]  was originally published on myhoustonmajic.com