Before Slayyyter was making pop anthems, selling out big city venues and landing on the charts, she was just a teenager in St. Louis, Missouri with a crush on a fictional stoner.
The “Crank” singer revealed the very ’90s inspiration behind her stage name during her debut appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, where she explained that her moniker traces back to Ron Slater, the perpetually laid-back character played by Rory Cochrane in Richard Linklater’s 1993 cult classic Dazed and Confused.
“I thought he was so cool in high school. I kind of had a crush on him,” Slayyyter admits as Meyers pulled up a photo of Cochrane’s character. “So, that was the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of that choice.”
Naturally, that infatuation translated into a very cool stage name — a name that is becoming rightfully well-known. Slayyyter is gearing up to enter the next phase of her career, as she has announced that her name album, Wor$t Man in America, is arriving on Dec. 4.
The forthcoming set already has two songs out: “Brand New Chanel$,” which gave Slayyyter her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 98, and “Crank 2.” The album will serve as a follow-up to this year’s WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, which hit No. 22 on the Billboard 200.
In an interview with People, the pop provocateur revealed that she made WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA with the possibility that it could be her final album in mind. “I’m going to treat this like it’s the last album I’ll ever make,” she recalled, explaining that she wanted to create something that she could be proud to leave behind. But her plans changed after the album’s release — and after she signed with Columbia Records through its RECORDS imprint. “Maybe I’ll make more albums,” she said. “I am a drama queen.”
She was even more candid about that head space in a Rolling Stone interview, describing the project as a “last-ditch effort” and saying she considered making it her “one more album” before potentially going back to school.
With the success of this rollout, it doesn’t seem like Slayyyter is stopping anytime soon. She recently wrapped the North American leg of her Wor$t Girl in the World tour with back-to-back sold-out shows in New York City. She performed at Terminal 5 on Oct. 3 before heading to Brooklyn Paramount on Oct. 4 for the tour’s second sold-out New York finale.
On Monday (Oct. 5), she continued the celebration with a Spotify event at Brooklyn’s Market Hotel, where she performed fan favorites including “Dance…” and “Beat Up Chanel$,” along with some unreleased tracks from the newly announced Wor$t Man in America.
Watch the interview clip below.
This story originally appeared on Billboard
