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Qveen Herby is the true definition of a spiritual baddie, and we need her energy at all times.

If you follow her on Instagram, you know what type of time she’s on. The Nebraska native first got her start as one half of pop duo Karmin (alongside her husband Nick), before rebranding as Qveen Herby in 2017. She originally blew up on Youtube for her insane Busta Rhymes cover, showing the world she can rap on par with the GOAT.

From being signed to a major label to now being completely independent, Qveen Herby tapped into her feminine energy and is now living in her purpose: blessing the world with meaningful and impactful music that speaks volumes to how we can all take care of ourselves in this crazy world.

Fast forward to today, Qveen Herby is so excited to be announcing her Alchemist Tour, kicking off on Halloween in Los Angeles.

On the 70th episode of Shirley’s Temple, I caught up with Qveen Herby to discuss how she turned into the spiritual baddie she is today!

I love your Qveen Herby podcast. I don’t know how many people are like me that strive to be at your level, it’s just very inspiring. I feel like you’ve healed yourself.

Shirley, that means a lot to me. This year by the way, has been astrologically fucked. We just started retrograde today. Kill me now. It’s such a process. We were chatting before this about getting older. You have at least 3 years left until scientists say you even know who you are. People don’t know who they are until 35, at a minimum, and that’s why it’s fucked up that people are like “oh, what are you gonna do for the rest of your life?” — when you’re 19! That’s stressful. 

I remember going to career counselors at UCLA religiously trying to figure that shit out. I saw that your guidance counselor said music wasn’t a job. What is going through your head then? That shatters people’s dreams.

I follow this dude called Dan Koe, who’s a business guy. His email list, which is free, he puts you on so much game. But he was literally explaining about how there’s people in the world that don’t think the internet is legit still, and there’s people that understand that the internet is now everything. And the gap of that, it’s gonna take another 10 or 20 years before everybody’s like, “oh shit, AI took my job.” So no, I feel bad for these guidance counselors. I feel bad for the 19-year-olds that are going through this terrible pressure, and their parents don’t understand either. That generation’s still kind of… MySpace? Of course you didn’t know. But look what you did, already. And you’re just getting started! So young. 

How was Lollapalooza? 

It was so much fun. It was a bucket list type thing for me, because Lollapalooza is the biggest besides Coachella, those are the two big girls. And it was mind melting, just stepping out on stage with these gigantic cameras. I was 30 feet tall on these megatrons. And thousands of new people that have never heard of me. 

I love discovering someone new at a festival. I remember I used to go to Coachella and be put on so many fire artists.

Right?! If you’re a festi girl … 

I used to be, I’m not anymore. I’m tapped out, but continue. 

Because it does happen. You do get tired. I always say it’s like camping, but glamorous, but you do need band aids. It’s extreme. For me, I go for research, because this is my job now. I’m a touring artist. I’m like “maybe I’ll tour” a year ago. I sold out the Teragram 3 nights in a row. We went from 0 to 2000 people, fuck! 

Who handles all your…?

I don’t even technically have a manager anymore. We hire people that we love, and we only work with people that we love. It might take you some time to find them too, caveat. Being an entertainer is hard. You gotta put it all out there. I was on my period at Lollapalooza: aw fuck! I need to tell somebody. It’s weird, in your green room alone. There’s no bathroom, you’re like ahh. You need people around you to make you feel safe. When we touched down at the airport, there was people waiting with autographs. 

Did that feel like Karmin days?

It totally did. 

Was it lit? Or was it like, oh shit!

You know what? I am annoyed by them, because a lot of times I know they’re not my fans. They’re just trying to get autographs to sell. It’s that deep. But I’m not mad because well, this is a creative way to make money. So I say, name one of my songs. I’ll give you an autograph for every song of mine that you can name. So bad. Maybe that’s rude, but I was trying to have fun. They usually appreciate it.

We’re also talking to the girl who started selling her chewed gum. 

Period. 

What’s your favorite drug? 

I would say LSD was the most game=changing, For me, and it was a very controlled environment. I’m here for a spiritual experience. 

Were you in nature?

Yes, of course.

The fact that you know. You already know. 

I researched the shit out of it first, and found whatever reputable source. I wrote myself a bunch of questions beforehand. By the time you’re in the experience, you’re just laughing. None of this is real, these questions don’t exist. It was beautiful. 

You’re my spiritual cheerleader, how’d you get here?

It really has been a lot of me sitting alone in a room and being really honest with myself. That’s really all it is. We have so many things to distract us. When you get alone in a room, it’s almost more scary to be alone and to be quiet, that’s all there is. When I started meditating, I could not even do 5 minutes. Everything is invading on my brain. This is why I started my Patreon. On Patreon, I can at least talk to my babes for 5 minute intervals. 

You started meditating on your Patreon? 

I started posting meditations where I’m like hey bitch, listen bitch. You are incredible. We’re gonna sit here together in silence and talk about your inner child. Maybe we should go visit her. Let’s go, close your eyes. 

How’d you make peace with your inner child? I block out my trauma, like years of my life. 

That’s because you’re a miracle. Your body is literally protecting you. It’s amazing that this happens, but then it’s a bit of a struggle to uncover what it is. It’s deep. Definitely, some of these substances: if you start treating them like healing. If you start getting curious. 

How do you make peace with the trauma? Lola Monroe told me about shadow work. 

I love that term, because they’re just shadows. You have to shine light on it. Is it even there? And if it is there, then you can encounter it and be like okay well, maybe this ugly part of me isn’t so ugly. Maybe my mess is my message. That’s what Robin Roberts said. She said “make your mess, your message.” All the things that we were made fun of for, are special. I’ve learned being a music artist, the shape of my nose and my weird bone structure, all of that stuff is important for my art. I used to want to look like everybody else, especially doing rap music and being in hip-hop. I feel so much pressure to look a certain way and act a certain way. Hold on, I’m just me. 

That’s the worst part, when I hear how the label tries to change you. 

No, the cringy things about you make you so magic. That’s the first thing you have to understand. I think the world is starting to understand this on a huge scale.

How the fuck do you rap as fast as Busta Rhymes? Put me on game.

Listen, I think it’s because I’m from Nebraska. Here’s the tea. Nebraska people are always picked to be news anchors because our diction and our pronunciation is so accurate. We have neutral accents. 

I didn’t know that about Nebraska.

Isn’t it funny? Okay, I guess that makes sense. But nobody else came out of Nebraska doing this. I also went to music school at Berklee in Boston, so I learned digga digga digga digga digga. The rhythm thing. I’m trying to understand it too. Why did this happen? I could have posted that cover all those years ago and had nothing happen. But the world said “yes, we want this retro looking bitch.”

How many subscribers did you get overnight?

Overnight was 13K, which was a lot at that time. I got an email notification for each one. I woke up like I need to delete my email account. Overnight, can you imagine 13K emails? “YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.” Do you know what else I did? I used to email every single new subscriber and say something personal about their page. By the time we blew up, my phone number was on the website, so I was getting calls from Jermaine Dupri on my cell phone.

You had Q-Tip and Jermaine call you. 

Q-Tip! The best. I really wanted to go in the studio with both of them, but it got so big so fast. I need to sign a record deal, I need the bag. We were broke college kids, so we signed to LA Reid. 

That’s a blessing. Do you know how many people LA Reid has looked out for?

Iconic people. It was an amazing 5 years of my life. I was on planes every day.

But I saw that took a lot out of you. 

Took a lot out of me. To the point where no, she’s not Karmin anymore. She’s Qveen Herby now. You transform. You start doing that work on yourself. On the tour bus, I’d read spiritual books. Maybe I need to step into my feminine power and say what I want to say, away from all this team and all these people. And it was scary. When you’re signed and you’re somewhat famous, you don’t want to leave the label. That’s crazy. When I did, a lot of my team was like, “we’re out.
Ooh, whoops. But we still did it. My baby Nick, he stuck with me.

They spent $150K on Facebook ads?

Oh my God, this happens all the time. Labels are great banks if you can get them to focus and if you have somebody over there who’s young and hungry and loves you. Which I did, shout out to Joe Carozza. He’s now the head of everything at Universal Republic, incredible. He helped us get SNL. Imagine doing Saturday Night Live as a YouTube girl, it was so fast. But it was unforgettable. Questlove called me the other day about that, because he’s working on some project. Dude, yes. Whatever it is, yes.

I had lunch next to Questlove, legendary. These are people that know who they are. 

And they have maintained authenticity. I’m really grateful that I met him so early in my career. 

When did you meet him?

Roc-A-Fella.

Did you meet Jay-Z?

I did meet Jay-Z. Oh my God, so crazy. Rocawear called Karmin, my old band. We keep talking about my old life. [laughs] Rocawear called us in to do a Jay-Z cover song for their new campaign. We got so many jeans and t-shirts, I’m like woo! It was sick, and his team is also mostly women and so amazing. It was a great experience.

How was it meeting him? 

He is so grounded. All the super famous people that I thought a certain way about them, they were so much more still. They have a calmness and a groundedness that’s hard to describe. They know that they’re meant to be there, and you feel safe around them.

The Game changed his Twitter handle to Karmin. Did that happen?

I still don’t understand. How did I get here? The Game early on, before we signed. So there’s this dance, what happens when an artist blows up — and they’re not signed, they’re independent. Everybody’s on their dick. “We gotta do something. Sign to me. Give me your publishing.” There’s this mad dash. I’m sure all the TikTok artists that have been blowing up the last couple years have been completely clobbered with offers, and it’s very exciting. It’s like the dating phase, but you can’t go too long. You have to eventually sign to somebody, then everybody disappears into the shadows, which is tragic. I got to sit down with Kanye. We never got a deal memo, but he’s like “G.O.O.D. Music! We just signed Big Sean.” It was so early. 

How did he find you? 

YouTube, same thing. He was working on the Watch The Throne with Jay-Z at the Tribeca Grand in New York. We sat with him in the lobby, Jay-Z was still upstairs doing something. This is surreal.

Do you get nervous?

Oh, I was so nervous. Are you kidding? I remember playing Kanye one of our demos on my laptop, and he was singing the melody back to me. Bro, this is a lot. He’s like “Yeah, I’d get in and I’d fuck with the drums.” I’m like yep, that’s fine. Iconic. But The Game was so sweet. When we first popped off, he changed his profile picture to our dorky ass. Is this happening? He said “everybody follow Karmin.”

Why don’t we have no kids yet? 

We have to talk about this. How insane is it when you hit a certain age? This is for my babes who are listening that are of the birthing age. Wow, I really haven’t had any fantasies about children. 

But you would be the most amazing mother.

Thank you, and that’s one of the hardest things to confront. Because yeah, I would slay this shit. But I also would probably self-sacrifice a little bit too much. I’d probably give up my entire life for this child, and I’m not ready to do that. I’m in my selfish era. The best self love, selfish era. I also come from a family with adoption, my husband also has adopted kids in his family. I’m down for that, so it’s no pressure for me. You’ve met people in your life that you’re like: this person is not my blood relative, but they’re my family. I truly feel that that’s true. We’re all one, all that shit. It’s true, so I’m not in any rush. Have you ever watched a birthing video? My vagina is not interested. 

What’s your love language?

My love language is acts of service. I like when people do things for me. It’s giving queen. Did you wash the dishes babe? I love it.

When did you know you were healed?

Well, I’m definitely not done yet. I’m starting to understand, you’re never really done. That’s the point. If you get really into this shit, we could talk about aliens, but also what happens to your soul when you die? Apparently you keep going, forever.

How’d you make peace with death?

I read the Book of the Dead, the Tibetan book, which literally gives you the process of what happens when you die. I’m nowhere near where I could be with the comfort of it, but it is a beautiful process. My grandfather passed recently, my mom was there with him and she said it was one of the most profound experiences of her life. Watching him cross over essentially. There’s people that are professionals at this now, I believe they’re called death doulas. So fascinating to me. I’ve always been into the witchy stuff. 

How do you feel about giving birth? 

So that astrologer told me I may have died in childbirth in a past life, which is why no thanks. It happened a lot back in the day. Back in the day, people did not make it very long, especially giving birth. Haven’t you seen Bridgerton? Just kidding. 

 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Shirley’s Temple