The Real Reason Chanel West Coast Says Her Music Has Changed

Chanel West Coast has a work ethic like no other. She hosts MTV's Ridiculousness alongside Rob Dyrdek and Sterling "Steelo" Brim, and she has built a great TV career thanks to her bubbly personality and contagious laugh. But this has proven to be a double-edged sword for Chanel and she's worried that her MTV career has detracted from her music career.

Despite this worry, Chanel has put these concerns aside and continued to make music. In fact, in October 2020, she released her album, America's Sweetheart, and the album was a huge hit. Not only that, but the album was a major departure from her usual work. For example, it's much more political than her previous tracks. The album was a chance for Chanel to share the real, more gritty, side of her story. When discussing this, the "White Picket Fence" singer compared herself to Taylor Swift.

This remarkable change in Chanel's music was something many listeners noticed and she actually gave an answer for this. Here's what she said.

Chanel West Coast explained how her music changed while speaking on Angela Yee's Lip Service. Chanel chatted with Yee on Oct. 20, 2020, right before America's Sweetheart came out. (The album dropped on Oct. 22.) "The music sounds different now," Yee said of Chanel's new songs. "What is this new sound from Chanel West Coast?"

"Well, I'm singing a lot more," Chanel responded. "That's definitely part of my new sound. A lot of people don't know, the reason I started rapping... I've done music my whole life but I didn't know how to write a 'singing' song. I didn't know where to begin with these melodies. And I've always [written] poetry since I was a little girl." Chanel explained how rapping felt more natural to her, but the journey has been hard. "I've had a lot of resistance as a rapper." So Chanel said producers encouraged her to try singing and her music took on a different sound.

Chanel addressed her new sound with The Source in December 2020 and explained the change came with maturity. "I think in the past with my mixed tapes, I had a very rushing energy and it was always like, I need to, I need to hurry up and get this out," Chanel said. "I need to beat this person to the punch and she's gonna drop out before me. I was always stressing over the wrong things. It's about... taking your time and going with the flow."