White girl rappers are a tough sell. Ask Uffie, Kreayshawn, and Iggy Azalea. But Kitty Pryde, a Daytona Beach native, is different. Rapping about Justin Bieber, bad-boy crushes, and Bud Light and lime, she gets plenty of hate, but critics love her too. With major acclaim from publications such as Vice, Fader, and even the New York Times, she might just be the next big thing.
We spoke to Pryde over the phone. And when we dialed her number, a voice came over the line telling us to "enjoy this ringback tone while you wait to be connected." We hoped it would be Bieber's latest single, "Boyfriend." But we should have expected more from Pryde, who always seems to keep us guessing.
New Times: By the way, I like your classical music ringback tone. It's very classy.
Kitty Pryde: Aw, it was an accident. [Laughs.]
When I heard it going off, I thought it was going to be a Justin Bieber song.
Oh God. It used to be Talking Heads. But then it expired, and they won't let me take off the classical one unless I buy another one. So I'm just trying to decide.
You've embraced stuff like Tumblr. And Vice even called your music "Tumblr Wave." Is the way you communicate and release your music really important to you?
People make it out to be like this part of my life that I'm always online, always on my blog. But it's really not true at all. So people kind of blew my whole Tumblr thing out of proportion. And people really are not about Tumblr Wave. The big hip-hop heads are really upset at that name and [they're saying], "I can't believe this is becoming a genre." And I'm like, "Well, sorry." I think it's important with my music. But it's not like my life revolves around Tumblr like everyone says it does.
People are connecting with you likely because you don't try to pretend to be somebody you aren't. You are very forward, and you communicate the way girls your age communicate.
I mean, I hope so. That's kind of the point. I think that the one thing that's making people really upset is that I'm not a conventional rapper. When I'm called a rapper, people get mad and say, "She's not a rapper." And I'm like, "Well, why can't I be?" I mean, I thought the whole point of hip-hop was keeping it real. And I don't really have drugs and sex to be talking about, so I just kinda talk about having crushes on boys, and I thought that was keeping it real. I hope people can relate to it.
Your age is a bit of a mystery. Everybody can agree you're probably under 21. I'm not even gonna ask, because I think I know the answer and you're not gonna tell me anyway. Do you think that's half the fun of it?
That's all of the fun of it. I think it's hilarious because, I mean, it's really obvious. And everybody knows that everything that happens in my life, I write it down on my blog. It's somewhere on the Internet. I'm definitely way under 21. So, yeah, I'm not secretly some adult performance artist or anything.
A lot of people think you're as young as 13.
Oh my God, that's ridiculous.
You write all your own material, right?
Oh, of course, yeah. I wish someone would ask me, because I want everyone to know. If it sucks, it's because I'm personally sucking. And if you hate it, it's all me. There's nobody revising my lyrics or anything. I literally just write them all myself. It's not like there's some big media conglomerate behind me.
