Bia had a heartfelt moment with Wale at the 2022 BET Awards Sunday night (June 26), and now the two are thinking about hitting the studio together.
Bia — who was nominated for best collaboration with the Nicki Minaj-assisted remix of “Whole Lotta Money” — overheard Wale say on the red carpet, “Look at Bia, look at Bia right now. This is one of the future of hip-hop right here. Me and [J.] Cole was on the phone talking about her a couple of months ago when ‘London’ dropped. And we were talking so highly of her — as an MC, as a songwriter,” he tells Billboard about Bia and Cole’s “London” collaboration, which peaked at No. 12 on Billboard‘s Rap Digital Song Sales chart.
“That means so much to me because you’re one of the coldest ever to do it,” she replies to the DMV MC. “It just means so much, I’m so happy to hear that!”
And a collaboration between Bia and Wale might not be too far off. “It’s inevitable, it’s inevitable, it’s inevitable,” Wale says, clasping his hands with hers, while she yelled, “We need to!” and suggested the two link up.
Bia’s already been in the studio lately, putting in the work on her debut studio album, which she says will include “a lot of fusion music.”
“I love just dipping into different genres and bringing them together,” she says. The 30-year-old Afro-Puerto Rican MC elaborated by adding that she’s currently working on a dembow single that’s prime for a summertime vibe, which she exclusively played a snippet of for Billboard. The follow-up project to 2020’s For Certain will also include “a little bit of rap, a little bit of R&B … maybe a little bit of Afrobeats,” teases Bia.
Additional reporting by Neena Rouhani.