In politics, they say you can’t be successful without stepping over a few dead bodies. The meaning? That anyone at the “top” of their game had to do a few questionable things (or fuck a few people over) to get there.

In Hollywood, the implication is more often about climbing the ladder by sleeping with a few bodies, or at least sucking up to them. For self-made pop star Slayyyter, the game of inauthenticity to get ahead was never worth it—ultimately shaping one of the most “unbothered” and “unaffected” careers in music. 

Today, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of her Slayyyter mixtape, not to mention her birthday (which she spent performing a live show in London), everyone’s favorite semi-unhinged pop girly is releasing her first track of 2024—”No Comma”—about finding success on your own (and shaking your tits). 

Mathias Rosenzweig: Firstly, happy birthday! You spent it in London, how was that? 

Slayyyter: Thank you! Yeah, I love British people. I love walking around there—I feel like Amanda Bynes in What a Girl Wants. 

MR: What did you do after you performed? 

S: I went to this unofficial after-party that someone put on for the show. It was amazing. We just hung out. I took shots with fans. It was really fun. I feel like I’m usually working on my birthday, and not at a show that’s centered around me, like I’m usually at a festival or something. 

MR: Were you wearing the real dress from ‘Uptown Girls’ for your birthday? The one Britney Murphey wore? 

S: Oh gosh, don’t even get me started on this dress. It’s a whole thing. So it’s ready-to-wear Blumarine 2002, of which there are only a handful. They’re so hard to find. But the one she wears in the movie was a runway sample and the straps are different. No one knows where that one is. It was like, sold at an auction years ago. But I will find it one day. But I went on a journey and actually found this one. A girl was nice enough to lend it to me. I found this Tiktok where she thrifted that dress at Melrose Flea Market, which is so crazy. 

MR: I want to talk about the new song. My dyslexic ass has been saying “no coma” for like two, like two days. But it’s “No Comma.”

S: Well, I also don’t want anyone to go into a coma. But yes it’s “No Comma.” It’s like, period. Full stop. 

MR: A lot of the song is about being successful on your own. That said, you’re also a really collaborative person. How do you balance the two? 

I like to collaborate when it’s a very natural, organic thing, like, I feel like there’s certain songs that come about, and to me, they feel so fun because it’s not like this forced collaboration vibe, like it’s just kind of a natural thing of everyone coming together on a song. I’m collaborative with my producers that I work with as well. It’s more so just like, I don’t collaborate with a lot of other artists. I’m just shy, and I get weird about it.

But also this song, it’s so funny. I feel like, lyrically, it’s so all over the place. But it’s really about my experiences in the music industry. Like the first verse is about being an artist, and then it switches and I’m talking about my tits. 

MR: I was going to specifically ask you about the inspiration behind the line “If you want to get picked, then you better suck dick.” 

Sometimes I feel like, I hate the dicksuckery of the music industry. I hate schmoozing. I’m not a schmoozer. I would have never been a good business person or whatever. I don’t like schmoozing. I don’t like kissing ass. I don’t like sucking up to people because I would rather someone hate me and not give me a spot on a playlist rather than be fake for a second. 

MR: I do see a lot of artists sucking up to whoever the “new, hot, young” girl is in the industry just to be relevant or adhere to what’s “now.”

S: I feel like people get worried about what’s hot right now, and I’ve always wanted to operate off of being a very genuine person. When I die one day, I don’t want anyone to turn around and say I was a disingenuous person. Also, some collabs do come from a place where it’s not even the artists themselves making the decisions. Sometimes it’s an A&R, right, who’s like “You guys are going to have a big summer song.” But that’s not exciting to me. But everyone is going to do what they need to do. There is no judgment from me at all, it’s just playing a game, and there’s nothing wrong with paying. It’s just not a game I personally want to play. 

MR: Can you tell me a bit about the vinyl you released? 

So I did a vinyl of this mixtape back when I originally released the project. I didn’t do many though, so I feel like this project is kind of like the cult fan favorite of my work. The original vinyls sold out, and I never made them again, because it’s really expensive to get vinyls done. But I would see people selling them on eBay and just couldn’t believe people wanted them so much. So for the five-year anniversary, I wanted to package it differently. The original one was just a sleeve but this one’s a gatefold that opens up. 

MR: The live shows you’ve done this week have been the first time you’ve performed the entire mixtape in recent years. What was that like? 

S: Oh, I loved it. I forgot how fun a lot of those songs are. They don’t really fit into my new world as much, but you know, every time an artist makes a project you move on a bit. So you can only fit so many songs on a set list, and I’ve phased a lot of these ones out. But I do love them so much. It was just a bunch of throwbacks. Like a throwback party with everyone who was there for the first project and still appreciates it today.