Loe Shimmy unlocks new flows on his next album

Loe Shimmy is determined to make 2026 his biggest year yet.

“Summertime coming up, it's time to take that over,” Shimmy said when he stopped by The FADER offices with his crew in mid-June. “We want to take over the fall, winter, summer, all that.”

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After landing one of the best songs on Habibti by Drake, Shimmy kept his momentum up with a new single “Body Dangerous” the following week. It’s the first offering from his upcoming album Pretty Girlz Run The World, which he characterizes as more oriented to his female fans, though he assures me there will still be harder hitting tracks for the club. Shimmy’s recording process prioritizes volume – he likes to make hundreds of songs, then curate an album tracklist after – but lately he’s been more dialed in on song structures and challenging himself to try different beats and find new pockets.

The new music he previewed at The FADER offices seems to follow in the vein of Rockstar Junkie tracks “Angel Reese” and “Private Party.” “Too Exotic” was born out of a recording session on vacation in Guatemala, while “Five Star Freak” was produced by Tay Keith, who passed away just weeks after Shimmy’s visit. I was especially partial to Shimmy’s verses on the Spanish guitar-inflected “Not A Love Song” and his skyscraping falsetto on a song called “Soul Taker.”

The FADER caught up with Loe Shimmy to chat about challenging himself musically and his new album Pretty Girlz Run The World.

The FADER: Talk to me about when you first started putting together the material for your upcoming album.
Loe Shimmy: I came up with the idea of Pretty Girlz Run The World when I made the [title track] last fall. I had said it in a song before that, and I was telling my boys in the studio, I was telling the engineer, “bruh, the tape should be called Pretty Girlz Run The World.” Dedicate this one to the girls. And ever since then, that’s just what I’ve been on. Real life, because we in that mode for real – so just put it in the music.

Once you had the title, was there older music that fit the theme or were you starting with a blank slate?
A couple songs on there like “Mafia Ties” I recorded before. Mostly it’s just new music. Once we came up with the idea, I got straight to work, you know what I'm saying? But I got a few songs in there that just matched the theme that I made prior.

You were recording in Miami right? Were you working with a lot of new producers or mostly the people you’ve been working with?
Yeah a lot of it was recorded in Skyami. I worked with a lot of new people and with the same people I got. But I wanted to get challenged, make different vibes, different pieces. We're coming different on this one for sure. But yeah, it's a lot of people involved.

What do you feel like is changing or evolving from Rockstar Junkie to the upcoming project?
The sound is crazy. It’s got a lot of different flows on it like my other tapes, but a smooth sound. Girls gonna love it – the world gonna love it. Different beats got me flowing different. Unlocking new flows.

Were there any particular songs that you were having difficulty finishing?
Yeah it is a couple songs that I had recorded and I go over the structure and fix them up, make them perfect. Just listening to them every day in the car like, I could change this right here, make this better, change it to be like this.
A lot of structuring, a lot of structuring. A lot of songs that we made perfect, that we took from a 7 to a 10. It's a part of the art, you know? You see something messed up on the painting, you wanna fix it a little bit and make it perfect.

When you’re evaluating your own music, what makes you decide I want to edit this as opposed to saying maybe the song isn’t all the way there?
I got an ear for it for real, and if you keep listening, you'll see the errors. Like okay, this could be better, my voice could be turned up here. It’s just the ear, you gotta have that ear for this shit and you gotta love it.

Do you feel like you’re rapping more or singing more on the new project?
For sure I'm coming melodic this time, for sure. I’m rapping a little bit… for sure it’s got different flows, shit they can turn up to. Shit for the club, stuff for the pretty girls, just for them to feel good. When you happy, sad, mad, turnt up, geeked up, it's everything on there.

What are your studio essentials?
1942 for the girls. Skittles for sure, all different types of Skittles. Regular, wild berries, sour, every flavor. I gotta have my Skittles – that’s how I go to the moon. That’s about it. Engineer, snacks. Some hot tea. Some Doritos – all different variety of chips. Chef in the kitchen, chef cooking two meals a day. Just a comfort zone where I could just create 100%

When did you know that the new album was finished?
I've just been recording, recording, recording, recording, recording, recording, recording, recording. You just gotta keep recording till you got a lot of good music, like a lot of music. To the point where it’s too much songs, you gotta dumb it down. That’s the hardest part, trying to dumb it down 'cuz it’s too much music. So that’s really when I knew.