There’s nothing more polarizing in Hip Hop than the subject of race, just check the reactions to Macklemore’s Grammy wins in the rap categories back in January. Adding a particular wrench to the divisive topic is the addition of gender into the conversation. Artists like Iggy Azalea, Kreayshawn, and Kitty Pryde have started conversations about Hip Hop’s perceived misogyny and the genre’s race relations.
With that said, rapper, Boyfriend might take the conversation a little further with videos like “Cherokee” and “Period Rap,” but it’s her video for “Swanky” that has people catching on to what she’s been doing. It features a front-lawn paradise, with lawn mowers, friends BBQing, and a hose that isn’t used provocatively.
The track itself has wordplay for days. Lines like, “Most of the green is herbal,” “Got swank like Hillary,” and “No playboy bunny, eating my Trix,” merit further listens, past the traditionally strange aesthetics of grandma-glasses and blouses hanging from a clothing line.
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The rapper – currently based in New Orleans, by way of Nashville, Tennessee – understands the expected Kitty Pryde comparisons due to the newly released video. “It’s inevitable. I have no problem with that. Obviously it’s probably just because we both have vaginas and just because we’re both white…If anything I try to think of it as an advantage. If I were a black man then I would just be in this other sea of people trying to do this, but for better or worse, people are going to immediately pluck me out and say, ‘Hey, here’s where you fall in the spectrum between Iggy Azalea and Kitty and Kreayshawn,’ and they’re going to, like, lump us in this category and talk about us that way.”
The contagiously produced track deals specifically with her lack of financial means and how they influence her fashion choices, “I’m a twenty something year-old. I don’t make very much money. I’m gonna rap about that. That’s what the song is about, looking fresh even though you don’t have tons of dollars.” Boyfriend admits, “I know that everyone my age shops at thrift stores. I don’t think I’m this indie individual for doing that. Lord knows, the Macklemore comparisons have already comes as well.”
