In 2012, Honey C, formerly known as Honey Cocaine did an interview with HNHH promoting her newest release, "90s Gold". She appeared both confident and comfortable in front of the camera, dripping with gold jewelry and neon green nails, answering questions with ease. She was finishing up the final show of Tyga’s “Careless World Tour” in Montreal at the time of the interview, and her carefree, suave attitude was indicative of how she was feeling at the time. She was enjoying being on tour, partying, and being young, all the while getting her very first taste of the limelight. It seemed as though she was poised for stardom. However, shortly after 2015, Honey Cocaine essentially fell off of the hip hop radar entirely.
What happened, and where is she now? First, we trace her rise to prominence (or rather, virality), and then, we see what she's currently up to.
Tyga Affiliation
Honey Cocaine became a recognizable face among hip-hop blogs and the burgeoning social media scene back in 2011, when she was discovered by Tyga. As the story goes, Tyga became interested in Honey Cocaine after she recorded and posted short clips of herself rapping on YouTube. According to an interview, Tyga saw Cocaine’s YouTube videos and then reached out to her on Twitter. She said although she was surprised at first, she “felt it coming.” Honey Cocaine’s first major appearance with Tyga happened in September of 2011 when he released his song “Heisman,” which she was featured on.
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It seemed as though the track was an instant hit, and fans were impressed by the duo’s chemistry. Tyga appeared to be the major push behind Honey Cocaine’s musical debut, dropping her first single “I Don’t Give A Fuck” in November 2011. On the track, Cocaine expressed how little she cared about the opinions of others, which resonated with fans, who respected her message of body positivity and loved that she didn’t care about what anyone else thought. This attitude continued into her first mixtape Fuck Yo Feelings Vol. 1, which was released a few months later in February 2012.
Cocaine got the call to go on tour with Tyga during her last semester of high school, and she sacrificed her diploma to pursue her music career. At the time, there was a lot of talk of Honey Cocaine being signed to Tyga’s label Last Kings, with the name even appearing in her YouTube video descriptions. To fans, it appeared to be a done deal. However, it seems a fight during Tyga’s 2012 tour changed everything.
Shooting On Tour
On March 19th, 2012, after a show in Omaha, Nebraska, a fight broke out. Tyga’s van was shot in a drive-by, which left Honey Cocaine with a bullet wound to the arm. Thankfully, her injuries weren’t severe and she quickly recovered. She appeared with Tyga on more music following the shooting but it seems that this event might have squashed the possibility of Cocaine being signed to Tyga’s label, as the deal between her and Last Kings never went public.
Like A Drug EP
In October 2014, Honey Cocaine released her mixtape Like A Drug, which many consider her best and most focused work. The mixtape featured fellow Toronto artist Tory Lanez, as well as other artists including T-Rell, Snow Tha Product, Chris Constanine, and Kirko Bangz.
Honey Cocaine did another interview with HNHH in December 2014 to discuss the success of Like A Drug. In the interview with HNHH, she says that she will “always, always be on good terms with Tyga even though I’m not signed to him. The deal just never came up, but, no I have so much love for him because he taught me a lot, he showed me the ropes, he gave me a lot of good advice I will take to the grave with me, and just strengthened me mentally and prepared me for the industry.”
Honey Cocaine also discussed her 2015 plans in the same interview, saying, “I have a really dope project that I’m working on. It’s kind of like an EP, but it has a couple chapters, so throughout the year the fans will see it come to life, so it’s just one big project. I want to touch on things that, you know, substance-wise I’ve never really touched on before.” According to the interview, Honey Cocaine wanted to branch out a bit when it came to musical style. While most of her previous releases had been her characteristic hard-hitting and trendy sound, The Gift Rap had more of an R&B influence and was more upbeat. This new style was not received as well by fans, leaving The Gift Rap with minimal public praise.
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Hiatus And Depression
Honey Cocaine went silent after releasing The Gift Rap, taking a break for about three years where she didn’t release a project. During this time, Honey Cocaine decided to drop the latter part of her name, going by Honey C, which is how she’s known currently.
Honey C cites her depression as the main reason she took such a huge break between 2015 and 2018, when she finally returned to music and released her last project to date, Wildfire. Honey C revealed in an interview with XXL that she felt suffocated and lonely in LA, where it seemed everyone was superficial and only concerned about materialistic things. Since she was so independent from such a young age, Honey C felt like she didn’t have anyone to confide in about her mental health issues. She found herself so lonely and depressed in Los Angeles that she decided to return to her roots in Toronto. She said that when she took her major break from music, she was going through a transitional period, something which is reflected directly in Wildfire.
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Wildfire was released by 1801 Records, although the affiliation seems short-lived. 1801 Records is a small, relatively new music label based in New Jersey that’s managed by two music industry veterans, Karriem “K-Mack” Mack and Billy Jones, who have worked with huge celebrities like Brandy, Beyonce, Missy Elliot, and Madonna. Currently, 1801 has a short roster of artists like Coi Leray, Journee, Lonnie Moore, and 88-Keys. The label made multiple promotional posts on behalf of Wildfire in 2018, leading up to the release of the album, but since then, the company has not made any updates about their relationship with Honey C. It’s generally unclear the extent of the partnership Honey C had with 1801, but nothing was ever announced publicly and there are no signs that they still have a relationship presently.
New Music And YouTube Maintenance
In August 2019, Honey C teased that she was still working on Like A Drug 2, which, she said at the time, would release “soon.” In a video titled, “EVERYONE PLEASE WATCH!!!!!”, Honey C asked fans to buy her old projects on SoundClick in order to raise funds for the new project. She promised that any income from SoundClick would support the project and that she wouldn’t let her fans down. The day after she posted that video, she released a snippet of a new track on her YouTube channel called “DJ Turn It Up.” It’s been nearly two years since the snippet was posted, and she still hasn’t released any other tracks or announcements since.
Honey C has, however, still been somewhat active on her YouTube channel, where she plays games like Grand Theft Auto and Gears Of War. Her comments are full of fans asking when she’ll return to the rap game, and wondering whether or not she quit music for good. For now, it seems like those questions may not be answered anytime soon, as Honey C has not clarified whether Like A Drug 2 is still slated to be released on any of her social platforms.
Her Instagram is still somewhat active-- but even there, the postings are sparse-- she seemingly posts only a few times a year, dropping in to give fans a selfie or a quick video. Her last Instagram post, a selfie, is dated July 25 2020, with Honey C showing off her pearly whites, sans her trademark braces. Even the comments on this last selfie are littered with questions from fans about when Honey C will return to her music, “so we’re never getting new music?” one fan asked, as recent as last week. Her Twitter page is also still alive, but her last Tweet was about 7 months ago, in June 2020, reading, “I died and I guess I’m back.” The tweet leaves much in the way of speculation as far as its meaning-- but without any sort of follow-up since then, it's hard to really say if this was hinting at a musical comeback or something entirely unrelated.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDE07nUppS8
Clearly, Honey C is taking another break from music post-Wildfire. If her social media accounts are any indication of what she’s up to, it’s likely that she has stepped back from the spotlight to do her own thing. It’s possible that Honey C is going through some personal issues that she hasn’t yet spoken out about, similar to the ones that she struggled with before dropping her most recent album. Hopefully, Honey C will make a return to music sometime soon and enlighten her fans on what’s been going on behind the scenes.
HNHH reached out to Honey C’s management for a comment on her whereabouts and her current musical or business pursuits, but we have not heard back.
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