interviews
'Give Me One Margarita' Rapper 'That Chick Angel' Explains How She Teamed Up With 'CasaDiMusic' To Create TikTok's Song Of The Summer
TikTok's song of the summer is here and it's all about the effects of drinking too many margaritas. The song, titled "One Margarita", began as a freestyle by actress, comedian and podcaster Angel Laketa Moore, better known online as "That Chick Angel," who was inspired by a viral clip of controversial evangelist Sister Cindy preaching against promiscuity to LSU students.
Producers CasaDiMusic and Steve Terrell saw something special in the freestyle and added a beat, which quickly went viral, inspiring hundreds of thousands of uses on TikTok so far and wracking up over 2 million streams on Spotify in just a month. We spoke with Angel, Steve and Carl to learn how the song came to be and what makes "One Margarita" the song of the summer.
Q: What is the 'One Margarita' song?
Angel: The One Margarita song is the hottest song of the summer. Hands down. No exceptions. No other words need to be added. It was a song that was created by the three of us based on me freestyling on my podcast, Here's the Thing, with my friend Kevin Fredericks AKA KevOnStage. The song was taken to a whole 'nother level when it was remixed by producers, as well as listed artists on the song, Carl Dixon, known as CasaDiMusic and Steve Terrell, known online as Official Steve Terrell.
Q: The song started as a freestyle verse on your podcast. How did that come about? Why did you start freestyling that day?
A: Our podcast is a pop culture podcast and at the time Sister Cindy's clip of her preaching or doing her free speech outside of LSU about abstinence was going viral. I know what her mission is and I understand what her mission is, however, what she was saying, I don't think was resonating the way she thought. The way it resonated with me was it inspired me. I was like, "ooh, this sounds like an old gutta trap song about like, "I'mma bust it open for you if I start drinking" and when I freestyled it, I was kind of channeling like, a juvenile, more of a down south New Orleans type of bounce.
Carl: I initially saw the clip of her freestyling to the drum beat that KevOnStage was doing. Steve and I do remixes pretty often, most recently the "Bombastic Side Eye" remix and the Beyonce "Honestly My Husband" remix, so this one, we saw and thought, "This is the next hot thing." The comments we saw on the top were like, "this is the song of the summer." I showed it to Steve, said "this is the next one," we went back and forth on it and the inspiration was New Orleans bounce. We put that up on IG, TikTok, a shorter and longer version and they both slowly fed off each other.
I hit Angel up immediately because I knew it was going to be something, we didn't want to wait on it. I think the success we're seeing now is because all three of us decided we're gonna give it a chance.
@casadimusic Replying to @maple.browne.queen One Margarita may be the song of the summer @That Chick Angel @kevonstage #remix #onemargarita #casadimusic ♬ One Margarita Angel Laketa x Casa Di Steve Terrell – CasaDi
Q: Angel, were you aware of Steve and Carl's work before this or is this the first time you all linked up?
A: I was aware of other songs that they had done, not knowing that it was attributed to them. Like everybody had heard the Beyonce remix. Like, they had stars like Halle Bailey using that sound as well as "Bombastic Side Eye." I think that's the crazy thing about TikTok and social media, a lot of times sounds are created that people are using like crazy. I've had my own sounds go crazy and no one knows that I was the voice behind it.
People are now knowing who did this. They know that this was a collaboration between the three of us because it's gone on past being just a trending TikTok sound. It is now a for-real song on Spotify that has been streamed over a million times, it is a for-real charting song on iTunes that's in the top 10 of all U.S. hip-hop songs on iTunes. It has gone past being a meme, which we appreciate a meme. But it has now gone outside of the world of social media, which we've all been working in for a minute now.
In four days, it went from them adding the beat to my freestyle to it being a song that people could actually stream on streaming platforms, and now it's like… It's a hit.
Q: Do you have a background in rap or freestyling?
A: I've been freestyling since I was about 12 years old. To be honest, I'm just goofy, so nobody would actually take me seriously as a rapper. It wasn't like I was setting out in the world like, "I'm about to blaze these bars and tear up these tracks," That was not what I was doing in life. But truly, I have been freestyling since I was really young, so I can usually kind of hear [the bars] before it's coming out of my mouth.
I watched her Sister Cindy's video first and I was like, "this is some Gutta something." I can hear something gutta instead of what she's doing, I hear something else. So yeah, it was spinning in my head. I could kind of hear it. But I still didn't know exactly how it was gonna come out.
@juststrong Margarita song on repeat this monday 🫡 #meme #viralmeme #givemeonemargarita #capcut #songofthesummer #themargaritasong ♬ One Margarita Angel Laketa x Casa Di Steve Terrell – CasaDi
Q: Is this the first time you've gone viral?
A: Not my first time going viral. You take it back to when I was pregnant with my twins, I have four sons and my middle set of sons are twins. Me nor my husband were expecting it and so I was at the doctor's office by myself when I found out that we had twins. So I drove to his job and I showed him the ultrasound and he ended up going viral because he kept attributing us having twins to his super sperm.
That was back when WorldStarHipHop was really big. That video went everywhere. I think it ended up on TV and one of those big publications, Vogue or somebody really big that I would never expect. That was nine years ago. That was probably my first viral video and that thing still resurfaces.
Q: Did you know about Sister Cindy before her viral "One Margarita" clip?
A: I had never seen Sister Cindy before, but I know Sister Cindy, I know people like this. I am from Kentucky, where people will yell to you about the Lord and the Bible. It's not gonna be the softest message. So no, I wasn't aware of her before, but we have developed such a kinship, me and her. This morning we were DMing each other and talking, she is so happy about the success, she actually DM'd me to congratulate us on the million streams that we hit.
She realizes that our messages are completely different and that we have two different outlooks on things. But while I know a lot of people probably don't see Sister Cindy in the greatest of light, I have learned that she has a very sweet spirit. We have a lot of things in common. So it was great, we might actually do an Instagram live together because she was like, "I wanna show people how you can handle disagreements with grace and have like a funny conversation and banter." And I was like, "Let's do an Instagram live, Sister Cindy." I was like, "Absolutely."
Q: Sister Cindy put out her own version of the "One Margarita" song with a very different message than yours. What do you think of Sister Cindy's version?
A: I thought it was so interesting. I love that she involved her daughter. Besides the song doing well, that has been a little cherry on top. She's been an absolute pleasure to actually get to know. She's actually a very sweet woman.
sistercindyforreal
One Margarita: Sis. Cindy Version ft. @Justina Adams Track-PRiS 🎶 🚀 @That Chick Angel, inspiration🥰 lyrics- @sistercindy edits @Ladybugal2914 #onemargarita #honomo #sistercindy #honomorevolution #JesusisLord #margaritasong #margaritaserman #margarita ♬ original sound – Sister Cindy
Q: The song has been shared so many times at this point. Who was the most surprising person to share it?
A: Lizzo. She also crowned it the song of the summer, the first time she used it, that is what she called it. I'm like, "No, Lizzo knows how to make a hit. One thing Lizzo knows to do, she knows how to play that doggone flute." She makes some great underwear garments. So if she says it's the song of the summer, then it's the song of the summer.
@lizzo the song of the summer😮💨😮💨😮💨
♬ One Margarita Angel Laketa x Casa Di Steve Terrell – CasaDi
Q: What is it about the song that you think attracts people to it?
A:One, it is just fun. You have the counting element, which you know, is easy for people to follow. It makes it really, really catchy. It's actually quite relatable.You know, I'm a wife. I've been a wife for 16 years. I know me. When I have a couple of drinks, I become more amorous. I become more vulgar in the text messages that I send to my husband.
I think everybody can relate to, "yeah, let me get a little tequila in my body and we gonna do a few things." So there is a relatability to it. Then there's the comedic element of it that I think draws people in, which is what people want in the summer. They wanna be able to be free, they wanna be able to have fun. And then the beat that these two gentlemen put underneath it. People are twerking. White girls is twerking, white boys is twerking, Black girls, everybody's trying to get their cheeks to clap. This song allows that from minute one all the way to the two-minute mark.
@didntmakethecut0 Give us all the margaritas @Superior Grill Restaurants ♬ One Margarita Angel Laketa x Casa Di Steve Terrell – CasaDi
Q: What have you learned from this whole experience of going viral and has it changed your approach to making content?
A: What I've learned through this happening is that possibilities are endless to what I can do. The fact of the matter is that just because no one saw me as a rapper or as a musical artist, didn't mean that I didn't have the skillset or the talent to do it. So the possibilities are endless.
I have always loved music. I have had quite a few writing groups in my life. I am a Black girl. I've been in singing groups galore. So I don't know, there's no telling what this chapter of my life will be like, what doors this has opened, but I'm not gonna try to define it. I don't want anybody to consider me as a musician. Whatever door I decide to go through will be the door I'm supposed to go through. So I'm excited to see what that ends up being in the end.
A special thank you to Angel Laketa Moore aka That Chick Angel, Steve Terrell and Carl Dixon. You can follow That Chick Angel on YouTube at That Chick Angel TV, where she uploads her podcast Here's the Thing every Wednesday. You can also follow Carl Dixon @CasaDiMusic_ on TikTok and Steve Terrell on TikTok @steveterrellevo. You can also listen to "One Margarita" on Spotify.