Keke Palmer Spills the Tea on Her 'Virgo Tendencies'

Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and more are all set to perform at MTV's annual Video Music Awards this Sunday, but all of our eyes are this year's host, Keke Palmer.

Since it dropped late last night, we have not stopped bopping to Palmer's flirty new EP, Virgo Tendencies Part 1. The sexually fluid actor, singer, and humanitarian (who just turned 27-years-old on Wednesday) talks with PRIDE about her latest body of work, creating music in quarantine, and her recently announced role in Disney's upcoming reboot of The Proud Family. 

PRIDE: Tell us about your new EP. 

Keke Palmer: I created it with Tasha Catour, who produced all the songs on the project, and A-Lex, an artist who also wrote and produced. We've been working together for the past three or four years and we're all three Virgos, which is why it's so crazy that this project is Virgo Tendencies. It came out of a song called "Virgo Tendencies" and it just accumulated over time, then quarantine hit, and I had to split it into two parts. The first half is representative of the energy I felt like I was needing at the beginning of quarantine. It's almost escapism, something light-hearted and fun, making me think of how I'm gonna be once this is over and get back to "normalcy." That's what that was. Some of the other songs that came about, later on, felt like part two, which is more of my reflective moment that I had during quarantine. 

Both of these projects came out of me really having the time to focus solely on the music and put my thoughts into what I wanted to say. I'm really proud of how it came about because I feel like there's music on there but there's also this overall thread of humor, just some of the other sides of myself. I'm excited for people to hear. 

What are virgo tendencies? 

Perfectionist. We can be a little bit neurotic. We're workaholics. And we're very straight up and honest. We don't want any confusion! But we're very sensitive, people don't realize that. Whenever we say stuff, we're not trying to fight anybody, we just want to be real and get it out of the way because it makes us uncomfortable. 

I think I'm a Virgo to a tee. I'm really, really, really a Virgo. I really relate. 

You just got cast in Disney's Proud Family reboot. What can you tell us about your character, Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins. 

I'm super excited about it, especially because I get to represent a character that hopefully shows you can be activated and passionate about things early on. The Proud Family has a way of teaching you and sending many positive messages, I think that's why we all loved it, but in a very cool and lowkey way. I'm excited to get to play this character in this way on the show. It kinda reminds me of Good Times, the Michael character, and how he was always so ready to talk about what's going on.

Palmer's new EP, Virgo Tendencies Part 1, is out now! Catch her hosting the VMAs this Sunday at 8pm on MTV!