Mexican-American rapper and singer Claudia Alexendra Madriz Meza, better known as Snow tha Product, switches between hardened, fast-paced rhymes and bright melodic hooks with an emphasis on the former. Easily mistaken for a drug reference, Meza’s performing alias was inspired instead by the Disney character Snow White and the artist’s desire to prevent her musical and personal lives from blurring into one another. Active since the late 2000s, she made her proper full-length debut with Unorthodox (2011), and has steadily expanded her following with a large volume of output highlighted by a Latin Platinum collaboration with Bizarrap and her second proper album, To Anywhere (2022).
Born in San Jose and raised in San Diego, Snow appeared as Claudia White on “Alguien,” a 2009 single by Latin pop artist Jaime Kohen, before basing herself out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For several years she was an underground artist, releasing numerous mixtapes with Tech N9ne and Ty Dolla $ign among her featured guests. In 2013, two years after the release of her low-key album debut Unorthodox, she went aboveground and started issuing material for major-label Atlantic. Singles such as “Play,” “Doing Fine,” and “Hola” alternated between pop-oriented material and more aggressive, lighter-hearted tracks tailored for club play. In 2016, Atlantic released an eight-track EP, Half Way There..., Pt. 1.
From there, Snow had additional success with a series of singles and featured appearances. The viral breakup anthem “Waste of Time” and “Nuestra Cancion, Pt. 2″ both showcased a smoother and more pop-friendly side of her style in 2017. The next year, she continued with trap-styled singles “Help a Bitch Out (featuring O.T. Genasis),” “Dale Gas,” and “Today I Decided,” as well as the more lighthearted “Goin’ Off” and “Myself (featuring DRAM).” Snow ended that year by contributing to several tracks to the VIBE HIGHER mixtape with Castro Escobar, Lex the Great, Jandro, and others. Snow maintained her steady rate of output over the next few years. In 2021, she achieved her greatest commercial success yet, contributing to Bizarrap’s collaboration series with a track — formally titled “Snow tha Product: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 39” — that earned an RIAA Latin Platinum certification. The following October, mere months after the song was officially awarded, Snow returned with another full-length, To Anywhere, with Lauren Jauregui, Rotimi, and Juicy J providing input. Only a few weeks after the album’s release, Snow made a high-profile appearance on the Top 20 Billboard 200 hit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, partnering with E-40 on “La Vida.” ~ Andy Kellman