Tnick/Merle Cooper
Hennessy begins her recently released EP, Maybe I’m Oversharing with a voice memo she recorded on New Year’s Day this year. The soft-spoken spends a little over two minutes admitting her flaws and bouts with depression and anxiety. At the same time, she questions those who criticize her for a moment of weakness, wrongfully assuming it’s connected to laziness or insufficiency in her life. By the end of the voice memo, Hennessy finds solace in her attempts to overcome her mental health struggles and a moment to explain herself and overshare a bit about her life, something the voice memo allows her to do.
Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Hennessy dove headfirst into a music career in 2020 with her debut single “1-800-SLIDE.” Since then, she’s used music as a medium to find her voice and recover from life’s ups and downs. Her debut EP Time Revealed, released in 2022, exhibits this the best as its six songs document the crushing rise and fall of a relationship that, in the end, was “all for nothing” as the project’s lead single details.
With later singles like “I’ll Be” and “Forever & A Day” in her back pocket, in addition to Maybe I’m Oversharing, it’s now clear that Hennessy has not only accepted but embraced the healing nature of music. Keeping that in mind, it makes sense why the singer ditched her therapist after their last encounter, something she poignantly details in “Therapy Session” on Maybe I’m Oversharing.
Days removed from the release of Maybe I’m Oversharing, as well as Virgo men-bashing freestyle on the New York-based platform On The Radio, Uproxx spent some time with Hennessy where she unveiled her love for Brandy, concerns for teleporting into the future, and her hope to heal with her music.
What is your earliest memory of music?
I think probably Sunday cleaning with my mom. She would always play old-school R&B and my brother would play rap in his room. That’s how I acquired my music taste.
Who inspired you to take music seriously?
I think myself. I was in the hospital in a coma for so long and when I woke up, I was like, “Damn, if I died, I really didn’t do all the things I wanted to fully commit to in life and one of them was music.” In elementary, middle, and high school, I did all the talent shows. I did America’s Got Talent and The X Factor, my mom brought me to them. I knew if I would’ve died, I wouldn’t have died fulfilled because I didn’t pursue music. So when I left, like literally soon as I got healthy — not even when I got healthy because I was still kinda limping because of the surgery — I went to LA and I went to Atlanta to record.
Do you know how to play an instrument? If so, which one? If not, which instrument do you want to learn how to play?
I want to learn how to play the bass. I love it on all my songs, like every record, I have to have live bass on it. So it’s like if I’m having live bass on all my records, I want to be able to go on stage and actually perform with it.
What was your first job?
My first job was at the Boys & Girls Club. I was working with kids, I was like 14.
What is your most prized possession?
Definitely my hard drive. I’m done for if it’s gone.
What is your biggest fear?
I think dying before I accomplish everything that I want to do. I think because I have come close to death already, I really want to accomplish everything that I want to do because I know it’s possible.
Who is on your R&B/rap/afrobeats Mt. Rushmore?
Brandy, PartyNextDoor, Lauryn Hill, and Jhené Aiko.
Brandy is the vocal God, a layering queen, and my favorite R&B artist of all time. PartyNextDoor is the originator of trap R&B rnb, and without PND, we wouldn’t have a bunch of our favorite R&B male artists who were, of course, influenced by him. Plus, his production and pen are crazy. Lauryn Hill gave us one of the best albums of all time, and she was able to blend hip-hop and R&B so well, I’m heavily inspired by her. Finally, Jhené Aiko is one of the pioneers of this modern R&B sound for women. I feel like people don’t give her enough credit. She really created a subgenre in R&B for all the soft-toned singing girls. People have one idea of what R&B should sound like – with crazy runs, belting, and all – not knowing the beauty of the genre is that R&B can come in all types of forms and tones. I think we need to start giving Jhené her flowers.
You get 24 hours to yourself to do anything you want, with unlimited resources: What are you doing? And spare no details!
I’ll stay in Rhode Island. I’m eating mad crab legs. I’m going to Wonderland and I’m paying somebody’s college tuition at the strip club. I’m buying my car that I sold, I’m buying back my 1970 Buick. I’m buying all my friends things that they always wanted. I’m paying my friends’ student loans back as well. I’m buying my mom a crib, I’ll pay it in cash. I’m gonna tell everybody to meet me at the mall and I’ll buy them whatever they want. I’ll go to a grocery store like Stop & Shop or Shaws and pay for people’s groceries. I’ll go to AS220, find an artist who is in high school and wants to become a singer just like me and give them bread to start their music career. I think I’m just naturally a humanitarian so I want to give people things if I had unlimited resources. I don’t know what I would do personally besides eat crab legs. I think I’ll be fulfilled with that and getting my mama crib.
What are your three most used emojis?
.
What’s a feature you need to secure before you die?
If you could appear in a future season of a current TV show, which one would it be and why?
Rick And Morty because I want to do voice acting. I feel like I’m awkward on camera, but when there are no cameras around, I’m able to actually showcase my personality. So if I was a voice actor, I just know it’d be fire. I have the voice for it. It’ll be fun too and I love Rick And Morty.
Which celebrity do you admire or respect for their personality and why?
Cardi B. She shows her personality a lot. She’s really just unapologetically her.
Share your opinion on something no one could ever change your mind about.
Virgo men are not good people and Young Thug is the most influential artist of our generation. No one can ever change that for me either.
What is the best song you’ve ever heard in your life and what do you love about it?
“Put That On Everything” by Brandy. It’s my favorite love song.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform, and what’s a city you’re excited to perform in for the first time?
Bangor, Maine is my favorite city to perform in. I want to perform in Toronto really badly, they have a really great R&B scene.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location where it would be held.
It’s gonna be in Providence, RI. It’ll be fire to bring a music festival to Rhode Island. I like how artists have festivals in their hometowns. Jack Harlow just announced he’s doing one, I like how Tyler The Creator does it, and I like that J. Cole and Drake have their own too. So it’ll definitely be in my hometown. It’ll be me, Kehlani, SZA, Young Thug, Cash Cobain, and Drake of course. I gotta bring Drake to Rhode Island, Drake has to experience Rhode Island.
What would you be doing now if it weren’t for music?
I would be an Africana Studies professor at a university because I think that’s what I want to do when I’m like 60 years old.
If you could see five years into the future or go five years into the past, which one would you pick and why?
I think I’m too scared to see the future. What if I don’t f*ck with it? What if I die so now I just see black? Like I’m dead so I wasted the five years for nothing. I think I’ll go to the past to relive some moments, just to get that feeling again.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
You should’ve never dated that man.
It’s 2050. The world hasn’t ended, and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
I went to Brockton for Luke Bar’s listening party for his “Flawless” single and one of the guys that owns the venue came up to me and said Time Revealed was one of the best projects he’d listened to that year because he was going through something dark. I told him I just dropped a three-pack, but I didn’t tell him the names of the songs. I told him that if you liked Time Revealed, you’ll like this one because this one is me being more vulnerable and expressing my mental health. He’s like it’s crazy because a lot of people don’t talk about therapy when it comes to mental health and I told him I have a song on the project called “Therapy Session.” So I just want my music to heal people because every time people DM me or tell me my music just helped them, it makes me feel better and like I have a purpose outside of just releasing music. It makes life worth living.
Maybe I’m Oversharing is out now via Pousome Records. Find out more information here.
