Kaash Paige, a 19-year-old out of Dallas’s south side, knows her way around a double meaning. More than a pro-capitalist flex, “Kaash” is in fact an acronym spelling out the singer-songwriter’s moral code: “Kill All Arrogance Stop Hatred. “I don’t like arrogant people,” she explains. “I like people who treat you how they want to be treated. Because I grew up in an environment where, if you didn’t wear Jordans or this [or that], you weren’t good enough. I used to hate myself because my mom didn’t want me to wear any of that.”

Paige’s musical lexicon carries hidden meanings as well: Her song “Orange Sweater” invokes both a beloved keepsake and a longtime inspiration: Frank Ocean. “When I hear [Ocean], the color I think about is orange. Channel Orange was timeless, so I wanted to bring back that vibe,” she says, referring to Ocean’s 2012 debut—released when Paige was in middle school. Like Ocean, Paige underpins her love songs with a certain ambivalence: Tell you that I love you just to make you stay / You tell me I’m toxic but you love me that way, she confesses on “Heartbreaker.”

But when it came to representing her sexuality, Paige (eventually) took a more direct lyrical route. “When I first made love songs, I tried to keep the word ‘girl’ out of it. I was like, I don’t think my momma wants to mess with that,” she says. “[But then] I just did it—I put everything [out there]. My mom heard it, and she was kind of like, ‘Woah…’ But I’m like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, man. It’s music. It’s already out. This is me.’”

This article appears in the pages of V126, available for purchase now.