Lyrica Anderson, 31, has been releasing EPs, mixtapes and albums for years before Bad Hair Day came along — but this time, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter is actually telling “a story.” The Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood star’s latest album isn’t a collection of random tracks that Lyrica just so happened to be in the mood to make, but rather follows a narrative of “true stories,” which Lyrica EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife after dropping Bad Hair Day in August. From her split with A1 to finding romance with someone new, Lyrica drew on many real experiences as she pieced together a record while entering a turning point in her life.
“I feel like every girl and every person could relate to the whole project as far as like, what they’ve probably been through in relationships,” Lyrica explained. The VH1 star even took an actual conversation that she had from a past relationship and turned it into track eight on the album, “Girls Have Fun Interlude,” which was a heart-to-heart that paved way to her letting loose and having fun — just like the boys do — in “Girls Have Fun.”
“[The conversation in “Girls Have Fun Interlude”] was actually recorded on the show [Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood]. I was talking to the person I was in a relationship with,” Lyrica explained. “And I was saying, ‘You know, you don’t get it…you’re not making me feel the way you used to…you’re going to lose me, basically.’ This is before I moved out. But I was crying, because I was really upset. And then we decided to put [the conversation] before [“Girls Have Fun”] because it’s like, now it’s my time to do me.”
Moving along the timeline of the album, there’s “Marriott,” in which Lyrica sings about staying at the Marriott Hotel after leaving the home that she lived in with A1 (which Lyrica EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife about in April). Then, a plot twist happened in Lyrica’s love life — which inspired her to make track three on the album. “I moved and I met someone else and I was like confused now because I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m like, ending that [relationship] but I met someone else I’m feeling, but it’s like, ‘What do I do with this?,'” Lyrica recalled, as she explained the message behind her song “Plot Twist.” Up until that point, Lyrica said she “hadn’t really dated anyone” because she’d “been in a relationship with the same person for so long.”
No matter the backstory behind each track, “every song was a piece of an emotion recording it — every song is special to me, [it] means something,” Lyrica explained. She gave examples, too: “Act A Fool” is a “strength record,” while “Notice Me” is more vulnerable, sung about someone who’s going to “forget what [they] had all this time” after being in a relationship for “so long.” And then there’s “Brain,” which is a “double entendre” in which Lyrica is asking her lover to “stimulate” her brain and is “the opposite of what it sounds like.”
As you can see, Lyrica did not hold back on her emotions on this album. “The whole album is truth,” she said. And that vulnerability is exactly what inspired the album’s name: “Bad Hair Day is kind of like when you wake up and you’re trying to do your hair and you’re just like, saying you’re trying to get a particular style, and it’s just not working out. That can be the start of a messed up day. And you’re kind of like, ‘I’m irritated, my hair is not coming out right.'” So, sometimes you have to let go and let your hair “down,” which — metaphorically speaking — is what Lyrica did in this project.
Watch the rest of Lyrica’s interview with HollywoodLife above to learn more about her experience shooting the “Girls Have Fun” music video, where she stands with A1 now, and more!