The latest RuPaul’s Drag Race queen to sashay away was Lana Ja’Rae, but she didn’t leave without a battle on the mainstage.

Ja’Rae and Sam Star had one of the best lip syncs of the season, and while Ja’Rae proved once again why she’s this season’s lip sync assassin, she told Shadow and Act that she knew it was her time.

“It was very hard, I will say,” she said in a recent exit interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “I just knew there was no way I was coming out of it alive, regardless of what I could do. You see the girls don’t pass more than four lip-syncs on Drag Race. It has never happened. I was like, maybe there’s a chance. Maybe there’s a chance I could be the first queen to do it. I was like…if I did that, I just know the fans would’ve read me for filth. So I was like, ‘Please, for the sake of me and my career, don’t let me do that.’ I wouldn’t be able to stomach that.”

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A fitting final performance

Ja’Rae said that she was glad to go out on music that she usually performs back home in New York.

“All my lip syncs songs before had been mid-tempo, slower and not really upbeat. And this [lip sync song, ‘Illusion’ by Dua Lipa] is some type of upbeat music, the type of music I perform back home in New York City,” she said. “I’m known for doing all that crazy stuff. So I was very happy to do a song or go out on a song that I typically perform. I was just very happy to just go out there and give the judges a show. To me, this performance is showing my gratitude for the competition [and] showing my love for the competition.”

“I feel this was my performance [to say] my goodbye because I knew I wasn’t going to survive,” she continued. “So I was like, let me just go out there and have a good time and smile and go out with my head up and just enjoy it and enjoy this moment. So this all went into the last time and just really gave them hell, and I feel like I did that.”

From superfan to star

Ja’Rae said that she’s a superfan of Drag Race, even after being on the show.

“I’m such a fan of Drag Race and going on the show, I’m still a fan of Drag Race. I still love Drag Race. I wouldn’t change anything in the world to my journey,” she said. I would have loved to make it to the top, but I feel like everything happened the way it’s supposed to happen. I’m happy that the people who are continuing the competition are slaying and…getting their flowers because they deserve it just as much as I [do].”

“I feel like my journey was more about teaching myself because I’m still so young and I have so much room to grow,” she continued. “I feel like this journey was just me learning and realizing that there is so much room for me to grow and there are places for me to grow and understand that I can do more than I thought.”

“I feel like, going into Drag Race, I put myself into a box of being this fashion queen, this performer, and I feel like there’s so many more things I can do. I’ve learned that I’m funny, I can make people laugh, which I never thought that people would actually laugh at me in drag. I took it too seriously,” she continued. “I learned that drag is not that serious. It should be fun. …I feel like I was too stressed out. My anxiety was too high the entire time. If I could go back, I would just tell myself to breathe and calm down because it’s really not that serious.”

The roast that changed everything

One of the moments Ja’Rae showed her potential for growth was during the Villains’ Roast, in which she surprised even herself with how much she crushed the challenge. Even still, she said she was nervous about her chances going into the challenge and admitted that nobody, not even herself, expected to do well. But, like everyone else, she was shocked with how easy the roast came to her.

“Normally people go in with the roast [with] pre-written things. I wrote everything there. So everything I came up with I wrote there. I was very scared because I was like, ‘Oh my God. I don’t know if they’re going to like my jokes because I don’t know if I’m funny like that,'” she said. “And I think it was just more about just like me delivering the jokes and being confident in the jokes that sold them so well. And I feel like that moment specifically has helped me so much in like my career past Drag Race.”

“I’m so comfortable on a mic now. I’m not scared to talk, I just really am myself more. I feel like that roast moment allowed me to bring more of Braylon into Lana, whereas before I was trying to keep them both separated so much,” she continued. “Now they really just blend together really well. And I’m just there to have a good time now. That moment really changed me for the better. I feel like I needed that roast. I found my voice in that moment…and I will be so appreciative of that moment. I never thought I would say I like a roast, but I love a roast now.”

The truth behind ‘Auntie Grandma’

Speaking of roasting, many fans have been questioning the joke of calling Lexi Love, who is only 34 years old, “Auntie Grandma.” The edit makes it look like Ja’Rae and Jewels Sparkles came up with the nickname. But Ja’Rae revealed the real person behind the “Auntie Grandma” nickname for Lexi Love, and it’s not the younger members of the cast.

“We didn’t come up with Auntie Grandma. The person who came up with Auntie Grandma is Auntie Grandma herself, Lexi. Lexi told us to call her Auntie Grandma. And I think it’s funny that all these people are giving us backlash [for calling] her Auntie Grandma when it was her idea, but also none of us actually think that she’s a grandma,” said Ja’Rae. “That was just a silly little thing. I don’t think you can even be a grandma until you’re, like 75, honestly. But yeah, it was all silly games and she came up with it and I’m mad she doesn’t say anything about it because everyone thinks we’re being mean to people who are over the age of 30. I’m like, ‘No, it’s not us, it’s Lexi!'”

What’s next for Lana Ja’Rae?

As for what’s next on the horizon, Ja’Rae said she’s ready to take on the fashion world.

“I want to be the face of the Black drag queen in fashion. I feel like that hasn’t been a thing yet, really,” she said. “I want to walk in fashion shows, just being as beautiful as possible and…just exuding my beauty and sharing that with the world.”

“I also love talking to people now, which I didn’t expect to because I always hate talking. [But] I want to do a podcast, I want to reach as many people as possible. I want to share my story with as many people as possible because I feel like there’s beauty in resilience and never giving up and I feel like that’s just a good message,” she added. “My message is just to scream positivity, to be as happy as possible in this dark world. So I want to share my positivity with all people in the world, like traveling, doing shows, meeting all my fans, all my supporters, because if you support me during the season, you are real because it has not been an easy journey. If you support me, you deserve to be loved by me 10 times over. I want to make sure I can share that love with everybody [who] loves me, because I appreciate them so much.”

Leaving proud

Ja’Rae said that at the end of the day, she’s happy she’s been able to make herself and the people she loves proud.

“I’m very happy with what I showcased. I hope it made people proud. I mean, at the end of the day, I wanted to make my family proud and hopefully, they are. That was my goal,” she said. “I can say that I made myself proud, which is something that I haven’t done in all 22 years of my life, so I’m very content with my journey.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Fridays at 8/7c on MTV.

Lana Ja'Rae

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