Tkay Maidza channels the spirit of the Kardashians and Kim Possible in her new brag rap “Kim” featuring Yung Baby Tate
Tkay Maidza has two famous Kims on her mind: Kim Kardashian and fictional cartoon teenage crime fighter Kim Possible. The eccentric chorus refrain from her new single "Kim"– "Bitch I'm Kim" – doesn't give away the link between the two apart from success in their respective endeavours. And maybe, that's enough.
The track is the first to be released ahead of the third (and final) volume of her mixtape/EP trilogy Last Year Was Weird. It's cut from the same brag rap cloth as last year's "Shook", with the harpsichord-laden bubblegum boom bap recalling Mike WiLL Made-It's work on Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. An earthquake sub bass feels designed to make a festival crowd jump – whenever that may be.
Tkay casts Atlanta rapper Yung Baby Tate as Possible's sidekick "Shego" on the song, adding a quick, but fiery verse of braggadocio. The two are almost the same age, and share the same genre-flow-flexibility that makes them contemporaries across the ditch. On the track, Tkay doesn't mind if Australia hasn't embraced her – if anything, she relishes the underdog complex it grants ("I've been going hard, I ain't slept / They don't even know I'm a threat"). The substance of both the song and the video scream Y2K futurism, and share that era's vision of endless upward mobility and success, individually and societally.
Tkay is a pop rap star of her own creation; she's already managed to reframe her career from the EDM beats of her debut album toward internationally recognised, forward-thinking hip-hop. "Kim" is just her first victory lap.
Watch Tkay Maidza and Yung Baby Tate's video for new song "Kim" below:
Written by Josh Martin, a Melbourne-based freelance music and media writer with words in MTV Australia, NME, Junkee, Crikey, etc. Follow him on Twitter @joshmartjourn.
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