[Shortiie Raw](https://www.instagram.com/shortiieraw/) is a hidden gem in Toronto, and she’s here to put her city on the map. Falling somewhere in the midst of R&B and hip-hop, the rising star arrives on the scene demanding attention, sporting a lovable, contagious personality and relentless bars. With the ability to speak Portuguese and Spanish fluently, the Canadian recording artist has been creating music since the young age of 13, working with everyone from Jose Guapo to Molly Brazy. She states, “I’ve been doing my thing, trying to break through with this music scene in Toronto. It's a bit hard due to lack of resources that we have, of course.”
Most recently unleashing her newest EP titled _Pree Diss_, Shortiie is here to represent for all the independent artists in the world—proving hard work, consistency, and dedication will take you farther than your wildest dreams. When it comes to her lyrics, she makes sure they’re filled with substance, inspired directly by real life experiences.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Shortiie via FaceTime to discuss her upbringing in Toronto, biggest influences, her ethnic background, how she got her name, inspo behind _Pree Diss_, recording process, love for fashion, hobbies, and more!
**Being from Toronto, what was the household like growing up?**
My household was not bad, to be honest. It's based off your environment, Toronto is what you make it. If you look for the trouble, then it's gonna come find you. It's a very good place to live at. Food-wise, we're very multicultural. We have black people eating Asian food on the regular. Toronto itself is a great city to live in but because of the genre of music we do, it's a bit more difficult to break through as artists. We're multicultural so everybody has their own type of preferences they choose to listen to, so it's a bit more difficult here.
**Biggest influences coming up?**
For the men's side, I like that hardcore rap. I was listening to more like D-Block, Fabulous, stuff like that. In regards to the female artists now, of course I grew up on Nicki Minaj. I grew up on Lil Kim. Those are a few of my biggest influences as well.
**You speak Portuguese and Spanish fluently. You said you were born in Portugal?**
Yes, born in Lisbon, Portugal. My parents felt that when we are under their roof we must speak the native language and when we’re outside, we can speak whatever language we want. I came to Canada when I was 6 years old. Coming here was a bit difficult because once again, I'm a black girl. Everybody automatically thought "oh, you're Jamaican. You're African or something.” No, that wasn't my case. I’d get bullied a lot for it because kids didn't understand. You're black, how do you not speak English? \[laughs\] It was very troublesome, but I got through it. Eventually, I started making music and started introducing people to my culture. More people from my country started coming over here so “okay wow, we're actually cool with it now. Tell me, what's this in your language?” I'll say “oh, this is how you say it.” It's pretty dope.
**Talk about how that plays into your artistry as well and your music.**
My latest project _Pree Diss,_ as you can hear, it's a very upbeat and happy music. As opposed to my previous project, it was a bit more sad and depressing. In these upcoming projects I’ll be dropping, I want to incorporate more of my culture in it, that way people could understand where I'm coming from. Our beats slap! \[laughs\]
**At what point did you realize you could do music for a living?**
To be honest, as soon as I was done with high school. You know what, that's it I'm done. It's not like I didn't want to continue with my education, it’s more of a fact that wow, nobody really has broken barriers in my city as of yet. I know it's a challenge as well, but I want to be one of the people to try that. I want to do something different. When I seen the amount of support I got from people close and some internationally that I have never met it motivated me. Oh yeah, and the show money and free accommodations.
**What was the inspiration behind your name?**
None really. Out of all my friends. I'm the shortest one. That's where Shortiie came from. For Raw Raw, we used to call each other our nicknames when we’re younger. We’d call each other by the last two letters of each other's names, it was some crazy stuff. Let's say your name is Shirley, your nickname would be Ley Ley. My name’s Sandra so they would call me Rara.
[**_Pree Diss_ EP**](https://music.apple.com/us/album/1542827305?app=music&at=1l3vpUI&cId=none&ct=LFV_bc6c1c06ab5839bc3214aceb992931f1&itscg=30440&itsct=catchall_p1&lId=22723093&ls=1&sr=1&src=Linkfire&uo=4) **out now, how are you feeling?**
I'm happy my fans are even listening to it. I've been gone for two years. I haven't dropped no music, I haven't given them no updates. I literally said “you know what, I'm gonna drop it and we'll go from there.” I'm independent, I do this with no team. It's me by myself and my creative director. At this point, I'm getting a lot of great feedback. Some of them love it, some of them of course like the other project more. At the end of the day, they're my fans so they like anything I put out.
**What’s the meaning behind _Pree Diss_?**
Being an artist, I always have a lot of bigger artists get some inspo from my page. Pree Diss means “watch this” in Jamaican Patois. People love to see what I’m up to anyways so I like to give them something to watch, hear, and talk about. That’s raw.
**How do you get prepared to record?**
When I pull up to the studio, first thing I need is a fruit bowl because I only like fruit. Another thing I need is a bottle of Henny and some weed. Those are my studio essentials. When I'm in the booth, it depends on my mood on that day. There's no particular way I write my songs, there's no strategy to it. I make my engineer JesseYonge play me something, then I go in or sometimes we'll find beats off of YouTube and catch a vibe. To be honest, that's how I get prepped.
**What fruit do you like?**
My favorite is strawberries, cantaloupes. I definitely love mangoes.
**What are your fashion inspirations?**
My fashion inspirations are mostly Cardi B. It's one thing for the music but fashion-wise, she’s been killing it. I’d say Rihanna’s my #1, Cardi B is my #2. #3, the Queen B, Beyonce because she just slays. It doesn't even matter if she looks bad, Beyonce slays. There's no if’s, and’s or but’s.
**What are your favorite brands?**
I'm the type of person that I don't really look at designers. I mostly like to look and help local fashion brands. For instance right now, I'm rocking my girl’s brand called Angelinabrand. She makes her own custom clothing. I like to support local people. That's where I really spend my coins, I try to help them. Designer brands now I like a lot of them based on the designs, I lean more towards Fendi, Dior and Balenciaga. Occasionally some Off-White or Bape if it’ streetwear. But I like pushing people that do it from scratch to be honest. I respect the grind.
**What are your hobbies outside of music?**
Outside of music, I like to do my own nails. I like to do my hair. I love to go get tattoos. COVID got me fucked up right now because I can't even go get none, but those are my main hobbies. Of course writing music. Watching a lot of Netflix because I'm terrible. \[laughs\] I like thrillers, I'm a scary movie girl. I like a lot of drama.
**What would you be doing if you weren't doing music?**
If I wasn't into music, I’d be doing art. I do like to draw. I was supposed to be taking an architecture course as well, but I didn't go through with that. Aside from music, if I really had to stop and focus, I’d be an architect.
**What can we expect music-wise?**
I'm dropping a lot of new music videos. I want to be consistent with the projects I drop. The goal this year is to release as much music as I can, to have my fans really in tune with what I'm doing. Because every song of mine is a mood. I'm not going to say I have a particular sound, but I want my fans to have different types of songs to listen to for different types of moods we have.
**How important is social media for your career?**
At this time, social media is very important simply because everybody’s at home. These are the times where artists are really supposed to be entertaining their fans and helping people get by. But now, fans can't even go to your concert, events, or have a way to see you in person. It's important to be very active on social media I guess, especially for your fans. I’m not that active on Social Media. I know they want more, I gotta stop teasing them...I’m aiming to be more consistent this year though.
**What’re you most excited for in the new year?**
Hopefully COVID being over. More achievements. If anything, getting more opportunities to work with creative people. More money, more income.
