Nicole Richie Is Here to Save the Bees

Nicole Richie Is Here to Save the Bees—One Rap Song at a Time

Nicole Richie struts into the L.A. offices of MDDN wearing a bedazzled headband, a floor-length mock-neck velvet gown, and bright-pink eyeshadow. She tells the label founders—her husband, Joel Madden, and his twin brother, Benji—that she would like to make a trap record about environmentalism. "This is a new genre," she says confidently. "This is parent trap. Conscious trap. Music with a message."

"My name is Nikki Fre$h," she reveals. "A new voice has landed, and it raps."

So goes the opening scene of Nikki Fre$h, a short-form series that Richie created and produced for Quibi, the mobile streaming service that launched on April 6. Like she's done in many of her past projects, Richie plays a heightened version of herself; in this case, it's a debut rap artist with a deep passion for gardening, clean water, and saving the bees. Alongside the series, Richie plans to release an online album featuring tracks like "Drip Drip," which she worked on with her husband and singer-songwriter Sarah Hudson. (Hudson has collaborated with Dua Lipa and Katy Perry.)

The show—a comedy—is about "being at one with the garden, being at one with the universe, understanding that we, like everything else, are living and have to be here and need water and attention," Richie tells me.

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