New Ypsilanti competition to characteristic hip-hop and rap from Ypsi, Flint, Detroit, and California

This story is a part of a sequence about arts and tradition in Washtenaw County. It’s made potential by the Ann Arbor Artwork Heart, the Ann Arbor Summer season Pageant, Vacation spot Ann Arbor, Larry and Lucie Nisson, and the College Musical Society.

On Jan. 27, Ypsilanti’s Regal Beagle will host Audacity Fest, an evening of hip-hop, rap, and alt-rap, that includes artists from as close by as Ypsilanti and so far as California. THOT SQUAD, the Flint-based hip-hop artist who collaborated with the Ypsilanti Artwork Incubator to arrange the occasion, says it was initially “supposed to only be a live performance,” however the artists on the invoice “all simply say the stuff we need to say and it is very audacious” – ergo Audacity Fest.
 
We not too long ago received on the telephone with THOT SQUAD to speak about their model, influences, and targets, in addition to what audiences can count on from Audacity Fest. Our dialog has been edited for readability and size.
 
Q: What are you able to inform me concerning the performers showing at Audacity Fest?
 
A: Rob Apollo, who’s from Detroit — he has loads of good punchlines. It is very like, “Did he simply say that? He simply mentioned that! What’s goin’ — Ahhh!” I do not know the way you are gonna kind that in a quote.

Rob Apollo.
DAMAG3 is a trans performer and rapper from California. She’s flying from California to return do the present. Truly, she informed me about Rob Apollo some time again in Detroit. And I used to be like, “That is the time for us all to return collectively!” However she makes loads of music that is simply in your face: “We’re talking fact to energy. That is how issues actually are. We’re not sugarcoating something.”

DAMAG3.
So then there’s Heavenly Jones. She is a local of Ypsilanti. She makes music that is a little bit bit lighter, so she’s opening it up. She’s getting all people launched to what is going on on. She’s our native lady. She brings the folks out. She will get the folks excited.

Heavenly Jones.
Then there’s the DJ. Her title is Problematic Black Hottie. She may be very lady-centric within the music that she performs. I really feel like I have been to events the place they’ll play actually solely males. And I am like, that is imagined to be a celebration. Ain’t we imagined to be dancing? We aren’t supposed to only be sitting right here bobbing our heads. Like, why are we listening to J. Cole proper now? So she was the right choose for this occasion as a result of we needed it to be a giant occasion and we needed it to be [a] lots-of-energy, going-crazy kind of factor.

Problematic Black Hottie. 
Q: You will be acting at Audacity Fest, too. How would you describe your music to somebody who’s by no means heard you?
 
A: It is music to stop your job and throw rocks at cops to. It is various Black music, so it has that hip-hop and funk type of really feel, but additionally it is very sturdy, very in your face. I might say that I’ve the sting of Rico Nasty and the intercourse enchantment of Megan Thee Stallion — like, wrap that each one into one and that is what I am doing.
 
Q: In your bio for the Audacity Fest Fb web page, you talked about that a few of your influences are intercourse staff and single mothers. Are you able to inform me about that?
 
A: Yeah. I feel that oftentimes ladies who usually are not simply “Oh my gosh, I’ve a husband and my life is ideal and I am a housewife,” or “I am a company gal,” get tossed to the facet. These are people who find themselves typically regarded down upon and it is like, no, these are superb, good, sturdy people and people are the those who I need to make music for. I need to make music for individuals who may often be thought-about on the skin or [are] often regarded down on — like, no, we’re uplifting proper now.
 
Q: Who’re your different influences?
 
A: I actually love Missy Elliott, André 3000, Bob the Drag Queen. Who else can I say? Just about any drag queen. Individuals who began on the skin, who began being bizarre, and the world was like, “Oh, yeah — this bizarre stuff? We like this bizarre stuff.”
 
Q: What are your targets for the long run? What are you hoping to do?
 
A: My objective for the long run is to change into an icon. I actually suppose I could be as massive as Lil Nas X — after which develop larger than that — to the place I am not simply doing music and world excursions and stuff. I’ve a level in theater. I need to be in movie, Broadway. I need to be at Trend Week and I need to have clothes strains and I simply need my title to be simply throughout super-star.
 
Q: What else are you trying ahead to about Audacity Fest?
 
A: I am simply actually excited to see folks get free. Once you stroll in, I need you to neglect your job stressing you out, your youngsters stressing you out, capitalism stressing you out, worldwide disturbances stressing you out. I need folks to be in there and every thing that’s exterior of you, that’s being a hindrance in your thoughts or a heavy weight in your shoulders, I need that to only disappear and be within the second and we’re dancing and we’re shaking ass and we’re yelling and simply being free.
 
Audacity Fest will kick off at 8 p.m. Jan. 27 on the Regal Beagle, 817 E. Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti. Tickets are out there right here or on the door.

Natalia Holtzman is a contract author primarily based in Ann Arbor. Her work has appeared in publications such because the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Los Angeles Evaluation of Books, Literary Hub, The Thousands and thousands, and others.

Pictures courtesy of THOT SQUAD.

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