Kitty Pryde - DAISY Rage (self-released)
One thing you have to give Kitty Pryde (who is actually just going by Kitty now, out of respect to the X-Men fans of the world) is that she knows what the fuck she's doing. Since her sudden rise to fame on the strength of her video for "Okay Cupid," which went viral last spring, the 19 year old redheaded rapper from Daytona Beach, Florida, has been called a lot of things--but one accusation no one can make stick is that she's not self-aware. However, it seems like most of the hate she gets is based on the idea that she doesn't know who she is or what she's doing. People point out facts about her--specifically, that she's a teenage white girl who got famous on the internet--as if they are damning in and of themselves. Her race and gender are enough to convince a lot of people that she should be lumped in with other white female rappers that aren't taken seriously by the hip hop massive--such as Kreayshawn, the California rapper whose "Gucci Gucci" video went viral almost exactly a year before "Okay Cupid." In the wake of Kreayshawn's inability to follow up her first hit, taking a year and a half to finally release an album that flopped dramatically upon its eventual arrival, the precedent had definitely been set. However, despite her initial burst of fame happening in much the same manner that Kreayshawn's did, Kitty's career has taken a completely different trajectory since.
It's been around nine months, give or take a week or two, since the video for "Okay Cupid" blew up on the internet, eventually scoring notice in a New York Times article. Since then, in half the time it took Kreayshawn to assemble a debut album, Kitty has released Haha I'm Sorry, a five-song EP featuring beats created by California-based cloud-rap producer Beautiful Lou. That EP spawned another viral video hit in Kitty's collaboration with notorious hip hop oddball Riff Raff, "Orion's Belt." Now, the new year brings another, longer EP, the eight-song DAISY Rage (the title is an homage to De La Soul's first album, 3 Feet High And Rising). And while Haha I'm Sorry seemed more like a release thrown together quickly just to prove that she could do it, DAISY Rage is a strong statement of purpose. This EP is where Kitty proves to detractors and fans alike that she's not just a rapper--she's a GOOD rapper.
For those who were paying attention, though, the evidence has always been there. Going back to The Lizzie McGuire Experience--the first EP she ever uploaded to her bandcamp, which was nearly six months old by the time anyone had ever heard of her--Kitty demonstrated an aptitude for lyrically gifted narratives about the vagaries and vicissitudes of life as a teenage girl. Her propensity for self-deprecation was reminiscent from day one of MC Paul Barman, the nerdy Jewish kid from North Carolina who did a couple of great records with Prince Paul back in the early 2000s before dropping out of sight (presumably to take some high-paying office job). And while Kitty's early beats were typically jacked from more famous rappers (MF Doom, Nicki Minaj), she managed to produce at least one really great track even before anyone had heard of her: "Thanks Kathryn Obvious," a poorly mixed track with vocals recorded on a laptop inside a closet that nonetheless is full of outstanding lyrics. Inbetween references to ex-boyfriends and kids in her social circle that no one who doesn't know her could possibly get (a reflection of the fact that Kitty's rap career originates in attempts to make her friends laugh) comes this memorable passage: "I've been hot since grade school soccer. When the coach tried to put me on the bench I fuckin' shot her. No, I'm just kidding--I'm a lawyer's daughter. I'm not a badass, I'm not awesome. I'm a little ginger wuss, I'm Bubbles, I'm not Blossom." While for some, Kitty's unwillingness to stick to any conventional narrative about the intrinsic "realness" of hip hop is a problem, those who have looked beyond her lack of street cred have found a relatable everywoman whose willingness to make herself the butt of her own jokes make listeners want to root for her.
And all of that was true even before DAISY Rage. Last month, Kitty told hiphopdx.com that all of her previous releases were written and recorded in a hurry. "I used to not really put a whole lot of thought into my music. With my old songs, I would just sit down and do them right off my head and not really worry about what they said," she said at one point, while at another point admitting that her verse for "Orion's Belt" was composed and recorded over the course of eight minutes. Her earlier songs still featured a lot of great lines--in particular, the chorus of Haha I'm Sorry's "Smiledog.jpg" ("You say, 'This little white girl is ruining hip hop.' I say, 'Damn right!' and take a lick off a ring-pop and smile") stands as the best possible retort to Kitty's haters--but on DAISY Rage, she made a conscious effort to get serious. "I want people to know that I can do something that’s worth listening to," she told The Daily Beast's Melissa Leon. The lyrical styles in evidence on DAISY Rage demonstrate that when Kitty lives up to her full potential, her music is well beyond merely listenable.
"Dead Island," which has a video and therefore probably counts as the first single if anything does, is one of the standout tracks here. Named for a video game and featuring a line from the game's theme song, this track has the same sort of cloud rap sound that Beautiful Lou used for a lot of her previous productions--hazy synth lines, not-so-heavy beats, indistinct samples of female vocals pieced together into an underlying melody--over which Kitty drops some incredible lyrics about wanting to be taken seriously as a rapper. The self-deprecation still shows up at times ("Wiz is black and yellow, and I'm white and fucking terrible"), but more often she's dropping killer lines about how she wants to drop killer lines. "I just wanna be like Doom with it," she says at one point. "I wanna kill a beat and resuscitate it in two minutes." Later, she references the widespread confusion her music causes with a slew of 50-cent words and internal rhymes: "You're unable to discern if I'm the wunderkind or underdog, so fuck it all, I'm the wonderwall, I'm the one to call, I'm a slab of muscle under fat, I'm in battle like a thundercat--I'm a thunderkitty. What a shitty little pun." But the best part of this song is the amazing dis she drops into the second verse: "You don't know why all the boys flock to me? Bitch, draw your eyebrows on, then talk to me." If it weren't for the fact that the vocals are slightly too low in the mix, this track would be perfect. As it is, it's a damn sight better than good enough.
"RREAM," which shows up towards the end of the EP, is even better than that. Produced by GRANT, this track sounds nothing like the cloud rap stylings that Kitty was originally known for. Driven by a rumbling keyboard line seemingly designed to crush subwoofers, though all I can tell you for sure is that it makes my laptop speakers rattle if I turn the track up too loud, this one hits hard, which is appropriate for a track that repurposes the chorus to Wu-Tang Clan's "CREAM" for a song about stress rash. The lyrics directly address Kitty's tendency to be confrontational with the haters that bug her on tumblr and facebook, and to continue to seek wider recognition for her music even though the attention just draws even more hate. "I don't really mind the politics and stress," she says. "I wanna be the trending topic, the pound key, even though I break out when they hound me." That line's been quoted a lot in articles about her, but I'm more stoked about the internal rhymes and metaphorical transitions she drops into the first verse, bringing up the topic of stress rash in an ingeniously roundabout manner: "Nylon magazine saying I hold the mic wrong--smile glad like I wanna be in your Nikon's viewfinder. I'm the white ball in the corner pocket--scratch the bumps on my skin, like, rash rules everything around me." I'm not sure the rhyme scheme is even apparent when you see it written down separately from hearing the song, but the way it jumps out at you once you hear it is part of the track's brilliance.
Really, I could quote lines from this record all day. 19 year old white girl or not, Kitty's lyrical prowess is more significant than many of the hottest rappers in the game today--I'd certainly bet on her in a competition with ASAP Rocky, for starters. But there's more to Kitty than her rhyme skills. One thing I have to give her credit for is that her songs all seem to have a coherent narrative, which contrasts Kitty with the sort of rappers who place emphasis on skills but just dish out unconnected punchlines in songs that aren't really about much of anything. The fact that she doesn't act tough or put on any false persona allows her to connect with an audience that doesn't usually find much to relate to in the world of hip hop, and rap songs from the perspective of a teenage girl are unusual enough to come across as fresh to anyone willing to give them a chance. One of the most fun songs here is "Scout Finch Bitch," which opens with a verse from Bay Area rapper Antwon. After dropping a bunch of typically thugged-out lyrics about drugs and street beef, he ends his verse by proclaiming, "I got weed on me. I got cocaine on me. I'm on probation," as Kitty emits mortified giggles and mumbles, "No, stop, you're gonna get me in trouble." When she starts rapping, her first words are, "No mom, don't listen to 'twon. No one has cocaine on 'em and I never do anything wrong," then explaining to the fans listening to the track that her mom lurks her tumblr and bugs out about references to sex, drugs, or any other topics potentially frightening to parents. But by the second verse, she's just talking about driving around with her friends smoking cigarettes and singing along to Nicki Minaj, before ending the track by saying, "Scout's honor, Mama! I never get in trouble, Mom, I love ya!" It's certainly not what hip hop purists would consider "keeping it real," but by acknowledging the obvious and totally reasonable concern that her parents should feel about their teenage daughter suddenly having a high-profile rap career, Kitty is letting us in on the literal truth of her life. Which is a lot more "real" than it would be if she tried to rap about the same sort of stuff that Antwon is talking about in his guest verse.
Kitty's tendency to giggle on her tracks should also be mentioned here. That tendency has been present in her music ever since she started out, and it's the sort of thing that is obviously going to turn some people off. Once you get used to it, though, it's endearing, especially since it's often used as another, more subtle form of humorous self-deprecation. For example, on "No Offense!!!!!!" there's a false ending after the second chorus. When the music drops out, Kitty is giggling, but then, during the second or two of silence before the beat kicks back in, you can hear her mumble "Oh godddd" in a mortified yet muffled tone; she's almost surely got a hand over her face as she says this. It's a great way to simultaneously make a wry comment on the intrinsically embarrassing elements of making a record and having to listen to oneself on tape over and over, and also to reference the song's subject, a dorky rap wannabe that Kitty continually dismisses on the track's chorus, calling him "fool's gold" and "cubic zirconium."
Embarrassment plays a big role in "Skrillionaire" also, but it's only Kitty who is getting shamed on this tune about unrequited love and wetting the bed. Inbetween choruses based around the 100% gold line "Why you wanna fuckin' undercut me, like I'm Skrillex hair?" Kitty repeatedly brings up her problems with bedwetting, ending the song by repeating "Why am I your dirty little secret? Is it because of all the undies that I peed in?" It's impressive that she's willing to publicly admit that she's had problems with bedwetting, and even more impressive that she goes into detail about it in a video explanation of the song's lyrics on rapgenius.com. Apparently it's a common problem for girls her age--who knew? (I assume all of my female readers are rolling their eyes right now at my ignorance. Sorry y'all.) It's a bummer that Mike Finito recycles the beat he used for Heems's track "I Want It Bad" for "Skrillionaire," but since DAISY Rage is a free mixtape, I'm assuming both Heems and Kitty knew it was happening and that Finito wasn't pulling a Ryan Tedder or anything. Regardless, Kitty's excellent lyrics on this track are more than enough to distinguish it from the Heems track in question.
A few of these songs aren't entirely new--"Hittin' Lixxx," which ends the EP, has been available as a free stand-alone track on Kitty's bandcamp for months now, and "Ay Shawty 3.0" is a new version of a song previously released on Haha I'm Sorry. "Hittin Lixxx" works well as a final track on this EP, though, and while the previous version of "Ay Shawty" had better production--Beautiful Lou's phased, swelling string loop is much more distinctive than Hot Sugar's somewhat generic cloud/trap beat--Lakutis's guest verse on the track redeems any musical shortcomings. And opening track "Unfollowed" contains a particularly brilliant chorus, on which Kitty simultaneously engages in and comments upon a typical pattern people play out in unhealthy relationships--complaining to friends, then getting mad at your friends for telling you that you deserve to be treated better and should quit wasting your time with someone who'd treat you badly. "So what then? Should I just blubber to my friends and let them say 'Fuck men!' By that, they mean you--how rude! Fuck them, right?" is how Kitty puts it. It's a succinct and depressingly accurate description of this phenomenon.
While I've been a fan of Kitty Pryde since I first saw the "Okay Cupid" video last spring, I can admit that her previous releases were somewhat spotty--for every "Orion's Belt,""Thanks Kathryn Obvious," and "Ay Shawty 2.0" on her earlier EPs, there was an equal amount of half-formed ideas and silly novelties. That is not true of DAISY Rage. The beats she rhymes over show that she has good taste in collaborators and understands the need for variety in her music, and her lyrics prove that she has solid rhyme skills, even if she doesn't fit the standard profile of a badass MC. If Kitty's goal was to prove that she could make a record that is good all the way through, she succeeded with flying colors. If the people investing energy in hating Kitty based on who she is and what she looks like actually give her music an honest listen, they might be surprised at what they find. Regardless, though, this is one rapping white girl with staying power. I'm going to be listening to this record for a long time.