D.A.I.S.Y. Rage EP

★★★★★
Kitty
22:46 min • Self Released • January 2013
Little Bastard reviews
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The following review is written by my inner 13 year old girl. (We’ve all got one, haven’t we?!)

Every few years, an artist comes along with a style so unique its almost impossible to describe them. Kitty (formerly known as Kitty Pryde) is one of those artists. Hailing from her bedroom as an internet sensation when her first video ‘Ok Cupid’ went viral, Kitty has gone from working in Claire’s Accessories in her native Daytona to living in New York as a rapper with her music producer bf in just under a year. Not bad for someone who was accused of ruining hip hop.

Opener ‘Unfollowed’ is the best introduction to Kitty I could have hoped for. Spitting faster than most male rappers nowadays seem to be able to manage, with lyrics about stalking a hot guy on tumblr that couldn’t be more current and authentic if they tried. Before the song’s even finished two lyrics have struck a cord:

I only start shit when I get Bacardi and I’m brave

is one – all thrown away in Kitty’s conversational, garbled manner, as though she’s ranting to you down the phone (all of these are positives for me, by the way). It’s almost as though she’s going through everything in her head, in that speed of light way that we talk to ourselves, but she’s allowing us to listen in, so we know we’re not alone.

I wanna hold your hand and look outlandish together and perpetuate propaganda

Much of Kitty’s flair comes from her simply being herself. It’s a little bit like setting your teenage diary to music, but not only is there something really fresh about that, it also makes it much easier to identify with than songs about blunts and bitches. (For me, anyway.)

The military stomp of ‘Dead <3 Island’ with its garbled spit of

And I love NY coz there’s so many bridges
to jump off

followed by a reference to ‘The Jump Off’ by Lil Kim, is a perfect example of how intelligent Kitty really is. Taking a line more introspective and secret-diary-worthy than any mainstream rapper could comprehend, but throwing in a hip hop reference, only strengthens her point and reminds the hip hop purists of her musical background. ‘Ay Shawty 3.0’, featuring rapper Lakutis, is a remix of a song previously featured on her first EP, ‘Haha I’m Sorry’, and this version, as well as having a new collaboration in the form of rapper Lakutis, it also has some new lyrics, and the same chilled out, future hip hop soundscape as the rest of the EP.

‘$krillionaire’ contains one of the best lyrics I’ve heard in years –

(“Why you wanna fucking undercut me like I’m skrillex hair?”)

– as well as referencing Travie McCoy and his song ‘Millionaire’, she also drops in a music geek reference and namechecks All American Rejects and their song ‘Dirty Little Secret’ (I think I could count on one hand the people reading this review that would know that song!) and I couldn’t adore her any more than I do for it. ‘Scout Finch Bitch’, feating rapper Antwon, is an adorable track, with Kitty trying to convince her mum that her badboy bf (Antwon, for the purposes of the track) doesn’t really carry and consume illegal substances. It’s one of the most inventive rap tracks I’ve heard since ‘The Irony Of It All’, from The Streets debut, Original Pirate Material, and totally encapsulates the tongue in cheek humour that makes Kitty’s music so great in the first place.

Being independent will always give an artist an edge, and because of this Kitty is able to take more risks musically as, essentially, it really doesn’t matter. This means the beats she raps to are far more interesting than you’d expect, and ‘R.R.E.A.M.’ is a prime example of that. Grimey and harsh in contrast to the dream pop and future hip hop of the other tracks, it’s all bass and no knickers, it’s as gangsta as it is distorted mess. True to form, instead of rapping as though she’s Lil Kim, the title stands for Rash Rules Everything Around Me, and the lyrics deal with the anxiety rash that she gets from being in the public eye, with the sarcastic swag line

Getting drowsy,
Bena Benadryl y’all

The nicest thing about Kitty as a rapper is that none of this unique style is premeditated. She originally started out rapping about how bad she was at rapping, because she knew it got a rise out of people. What’s grown out of that is the fact that she can rap – and the haters just expose themselves for their own prejudice about the genre in the first place. The closest person I can compare her to is English rapper Speech Debelle, who’s mumbled rap style had one reviewer liken her to Vicky Pollard, a harsh but not altogether untrue comparison. Kitty is bound to be an acquired taste, but I devoured every beat and lyric on this EP, so much so that I bought her two previous EPs straight afterwards. They’re all great … but I’d start with ‘D.A.I.S.Y. Rage’, it’s easily the best.

The Internet is a wonderful tool for growth and knowledge, but it also gives people a voice that they would never normally have one, and that voice can be heard around the world at the touch of a button. And just as it’s given this young girl the chance to shake up hip hop from her bedroom, it’s also given people the chance to publicly trash her for doing so! Regardless, people are talking about her, and that can only be a good thing.

All of Kitty’s EP’s are available to download from jokersintrousers.bandcamp.com for a very reasonable price.