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As Chanel West Coast prepares to welcome her baby girl with boyfriend Tom Fenison, 30, into the world, she’s also preparing to welcome a new era of her music. In an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife, the 33-year-old rapper and media personality revealed she plans to “tone it down” when it comes to her lyrics because she wants to create art her child can enjoy. “I mean, you know, I know that there’s some people out there who have kids and still make a lot of ratchet stuff, but I was like, ‘Let’s tone it down a little bit,’” she explained. “I want my kids to be able to listen to my music one day and be proud and not be like, ‘Whoa, what was my mom talking about?’ It’s so funny because I already am just so much more conscious about the subject matter of what I’m talking about. It’s just like that motherly instinct, I guess you could say. That’s definitely influenced the change and what I’m writing about now.”
Chanel’s pregnancy has not only changed the music she plans to release, but when she will release it as well. “It’s funny because I was planning to release an album this summer that I was started working on last year, then I found out about the pregnancy and you know, usually when you release the album, you want to be able to tour and do all of the promo for it,” she noted. “So with my like, high-risk situation, I felt like it was better to kind of put that on hold for now.” Chanel’s “high-risk situation” happens to be a bicornuate uterus, which means it’s heart-shaped. Having an abnormally formed uterus can cause irregular bleeding and painful periods, miscarriages, or even premature birth.
The Ridiculousness star said she’s certainly relaxed her schedule — which includes canceling several performances — due to her high-risk pregnancy, and she has found the silver lining in it all. “The beauty is that I have all of this like time to record,” she cheerfully stated, before describing her evolving music once more. “I already got the party records on lock, you know, we already got all of that vibe. And now I want to just make some like deeper, more thoughtful music that just is really inspirational for other mothers to listen to. So it’ll be a little bit more deep subject matters,” Chanel, who released a music video with ill Nicky on June 2, gushed.
“That’s actually even the more serious song too,” she said about her and ill Nicky’s collaboration, “Time&Space”. She added, “The lyrics mean a lot to me. If you listen to it, you know, I’m just kind of talking about my struggles throughout my career and how music has been there for me.”
Chanel announced her pregnancy at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted on June 2, the same day the “Time&Space” video was released. Her subtle baby belly could be seen under the gorgeous mini floral dress she stunned in that night. “I’m just praying for a happy, healthy baby,” she told E! News on the carpet.
The “I Want You” singer shared the gender of her baby, who is due in November, on June 19 with an adorable video of Dom opening an umbrella that showered him with pink confetti. “We’re having a baby girl!!!” she captioned her post. “Love you @domfenison thank you for coming into my life and loving me the way you do. I know you will be the best Dad in the world!” Chanel and Dom have known each other for years but only got together romantically at the start of 2022 after Dom starred in Chanel’s “Vinyl” music video, which was released on Valentine’s Day.