Meet Arie, a Miami Singer and Rapper Whose New Single Just Might Blow Up

Miami singer and rapper Arie might be on the verge of breaking out with her new single, "I Want Your Friend," which has the makings of an obnoxiously catchy summer banger. It begins with the beat — a trap beat built around a whimsical, whistle-worthy woodwind sample — and fully grabs the listener's attention with the opening  line, "I want your friend/I need his number." If we've learned anything from wildly popular hits such as Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," it's that the hook is more than an earworm — it's also a premise, the foundation of a theme, the rug that ties the room together.

Arie (full name Ariel Scott) was born and raised in Miami, moving with her family from Liberty City to Miami Gardens to Miramar. At 25 years old, she's an up-and-coming artist aligned with some of the biggest names in South Florida hip-hop; among other accomplishments, she sings the chorus on Trina's single "I Just Wanna." Lyrically, she's as nasty as the notoriously explicit hip-hop duo City Girls and has an equally fun flow, but she tells New Times she identifies more as a singer than a rapper.

Arie also prides herself on telling it like it is. She's a straight shooter, and she's not shy about her high aspirations for "I Want Your Friend." 

"DJs are interested in the song, and it's getting picked up on Spotify playlists," she says. "Give it some time. I think the song is going to blow up because it's not like anything you've ever heard. The beat is different; what I'm saying is different. I think it's going to catch people's attention when they hear it."

"I Want Your Friend" started coming together when Arie was digging through beats, and one by producers Bigg D and Lamb caught her ear. She recalls, "My mom was in the studio with me and she said, 'Ew, I hate this beat. What would you even say on this beat?' I started playing around, saying, 'I want your friend,' because that was a situation that actually happened. I freestyled the song in the studio, and then we went back and cleaned it up."

That's right: The song is inspired by a real-life "cock-blocking" incident at a Miami nightclub. "There were some guys in the club that were really cute; they looked like the type of guys I like," she says. "I was trying to make eye contact with this one guy, and he was trying to make eye contact with me, but his friend was so annoying. I'm like, Move — I don't even want to talk to you; I want to talk to your friend. But he made sure I couldn't get through. It was the most annoying thing ever."

Drawing from personal experience is Arie's modus operandi as a songwriter, and her lyrics get right to the point. "I don't cut corners; I don't paraphrase," she says. "If you listen to more of my music, you'll see."

We'll have to wait to hear more. As a Mastermind Music Group signee, she's working on her debut album, which is set to drop this year. Meanwhile, don't be surprised if in the next few months Arie comes rapping through your car radio speakers, "Damn, you fine/Tell your boy, move to the side."