Bia Talks Working With ‘Legendary’ Timbaland & Busta Rhymes: ‘It’s Literally So Surreal’

July 29, 2023 E Jazz Reporter

Entertainment

The rapper sat down with Billboard News to discuss collaborating with the two industry veterans on music.

Bia‘s career is just getting started. Despite having two albums under her belt — 2020’s For Certain and this year’s Really Her — she’s already had some major veterans in rap taking notice, something that she says is “surreal” to experience.

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The rapper worked with Timbaland on recent single “I’m That Bitch” and Busta Rhymes on last month’s “Beach Ball,” and spoke about both collaboration on the lastest installment of Billboard News.

“Timbaland is so legendary, like he dropped so many gems and to just be in the same room with someone like that who has that type of catalog, you can just learn from them,” she said. “Aaliyah is actually one of my favorite artists of all time, so to even be in the room with him, just to see what he thinks of my music. I got to play him my album and he loved it. It’s literally so surreal, all of the people I look up to the most always embrace me, show me so much love and helped me become the artist I am today. I feel blessed to be here.”

As for the collaboration with Busta, Bia revealed that she was approached with the opportunity because he specifically had her in mind for the guest spot. “Me and Busta did this song months ago, he called me up, he’s like ‘Listen Bia, I’ve got this song. You gotta do this part. It’s only your voice that’s gotta this part,’ so I went to studio right away, I did it. And to perform with Busta during Hip-Hop 50…this is crazy. It’s unreal.”

Following the release of “I’m That Bitch,” the track hit the top 40 on Billboard‘s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, peaking at No. 27. The song spent a total of 90 weeks on the chart.

Watch Bia’s full interview with Billboard News in the video above.

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