Rico Nasty, whose career began in the mid-2010s, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area known for her genre-bending style that fuses hip-hop with punk, metal, and pop-inflected melodies. Born Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly in New York City in 1997 and raised in Largo, Maryland, she started recording as a teenager and began releasing music independently on SoundCloud while still in high school, cultivating a distinct sound built on aggressive delivery, screamed hooks, and vibrant, cartoonish energy.

Her breakthrough came with the 2018 hit "Smack a Bitch," a viral single that showcased her signature "sugar trap"–turned–rage-rap style and earned widespread critical acclaim. That same year, she released the mixtape Nasty and signed with Atlantic Records, following it with Anger Management (2019), a joint project with producer Kenny Beats that further cemented her reputation as one of hip-hop's most unpredictable and boundary-pushing voices.