Vayda (rapper)

Vayda is an American rapper and record producer. After starting her rap career in 2021, she released the mixtapes Breeze and Forrest Gump in 2023.

Career
Vayda was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia. Her father is a former rapper who was part of a hip hop group. As a child, she learned to play piano by ear. After receiving a subscription to the production software FruityLoops in high school, she was inspired by mashups on Soulection to become a record producer. She produced remixes that she posted on SoundCloud as well as beats that she sold on Twitter.

Vayda started producing music professionally in 2019 and started rapping in 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic. She released her extended play, VV, in 2022. In 2023, she released the mixtape Breeze, her EP Shade, and performed as an opening act for Veeze. Pitchfork named Breeze as one of the best rap albums of 2023 and Vayda's song "Jenner" as one of the best rap songs of 2023. Her mixtape, Forrest Gump, was released on December 8, 2023, with her song "Hood Zendaya" released as its lead single in November 2023.

Musical style
Vayda's songs have been described as trap music, particularly plugg and drill, and dance music. Her songs are often sped-up and around two minutes in length. She has stated that she "barely [has] any songs that reach two minutes". For BET, Paul Meara wrote that her lyrics were "whisper-quiet" and "snarky" and compared her sound to "FKA Twigs mixed with early 2010's and modern-day Jersey club". For Pitchfork, Alphonse Pierre wrote that her songs were "lush hybrids of ASMR R&B and airy rap" that were typically "not much longer than a minute". DeAsia Paige, for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, described her voice as "soft and squeaky" and her beats as "sped-up". Jordan Darville of The Fader wrote that Vayda sounded "effortlessly cool" in her music. Tirhakah Love of The Cut wrote that her songs were sample-heavy and "two-to-three-minute short stories, where she mows over snakes attempting to test her backbone".