Would you say there's something that you know now that you wish you knew when you first started?
I would tell myself to take advantage of every moment and stop overthinking yourself. Stop criticizing yourself because eventually, that's self-sabotaging. Stop running away from the things that you don't want to do because those are things that are going to propel you forward. I wrote Forever the Moment when I was 19, I first started writing music when I was like 18, and now I'm 21. So, you know, I'm definitely learning a lot of things along the way because I'm growing as a woman and growing as a person.
If and when the opportunity presents itself to have a management team, would you want one?
I definitely would want a management team if the time was right, and the situation was the right situation. It's all about the right situation. People who understand me and who are not going to try to control me, or try to have me conform to some type of standard that they think that I should conform to. People fuck with Zepkins because Zepkins is a character, that's who she is. She's a character. I'm also a person, which people will get to know more about as I continue on.
On top of music, you also created ZEPSTARZ. So do you find that your creativity when it comes to designing clothing inspires your music or vice versa?
I wouldn't say that my creativity for clothes inspires music, but I definitely feel like my music inspires that because it's just like what else can I do? And you guys haven't really seen anything that I've been working on right now. But you guys will see it and it's nothing like you guys have seen before.
Who did you create your clothing for?
I don't want to say boy or girl, but truthfully sexy girls who are just bold. Who just don't really care, who love to show off their body, love to show skin, and don't really give a fuck what nobody thinks.
If there's anything that you've created that you think, "This is Zepkins, this is the direction that I am going in from now on," what would that be?
I feel like that would definitely be a song. Well, we can just say the project Forever the Moment. Forever the Moment is definitely where Zepkins is going. I feel like that is such a small, small aspect of me as a person. It's my project, so I listen to it, I critique it, everything.
I feel like you can do anything you want, you know yourself. Any direction that you go in, you're just gonna put that Zepkins twist on it to and make it you.
That's very true, I definitely feel the same way. That's how I want to display my art. I don't want to just sit here and feel like I have to conform to something. The biggest thing for me is not conforming to anybody's standards. Of course, I can sit here and be a bad bitch in a 40-inch weave all day, it's obvious, but I don't want to do that. That's not what I want to do. I want to wear a bald cap with crystals all over my head.
Well, why not?
Why not? If not me then who?
No one, no one's doing it. Have you always found that you've been this confident in yourself?
No, I wouldn't say that I was always confident with myself. I feel like I dealt with insecurity for a really long time. People would point out my insecurities and they would try to bully me. So it became a point that my mom took me out of school so I could further my transition and things like that. I was in eighth grade and when that happened, I just really stopped giving a fuck about anything that anybody had to say. My family, my brother, my mom, my grandma, I didn't give fuck about nobody. And if you have a problem, then what's the problem? But it came to a point that I still wasn't confident in myself and I still did not believe in myself. But to be honest with you, when I started making my music, it wasn't for anybody else. It was for me, I was talking to me. So that's what really made me confident and I'm still a work in progress. I don't think any of us are 100% confident. It's a work in process, a day-to-day thing, but I push myself every day. Zepkins is who pushes Naomi.
If you could have anyone featured on one of your tracks or wearing your designs, who would it be?
Girl...we already know the answer– Nicki of course! I would love to work with Nicki, of course, she's one of my biggest inspirations. I feel like out of the new girls, I love Doja. I love the direction that Doja is going. I feel like she just is very aware of herself and knows exactly who she is, she's like a chameleon. So I'm here with both of them. They're like chameleons. I would love to see my pieces on Amanda Lepore, Lil' Kim, or Cardi B.
So everything you do is otherworldly and has this intergalactic beauty. What does planet Zepkins look like?
Planet Zepkins is full of little rhinestones all over. The ground is filled with crystals. The girls are walking around with big titties. You know? People are just happy, carefree living their life, blasting Forever the Moment from dusk to dawn. And you know, we just livin' our life. We're sipping a peach bellini on the beach with our titties out.