One big problem the diverse city of Miami faces during the holidays: How do you include all your friends — regardless of religious background — into the celebrations?
Well, Miami/Brooklyn duo Basside has a solution: getting "Lit" for the holidays, whether it's Christmas or Hanukkah. Yes, the rapping duo has delivered the holiday song you never knew you needed with the help of Hand Job Academy, whose members are best known for unapologetically singing about their periods in a song titled "Shark Week."
Basside has had a pretty busy 2016. In April, the duo released "Rich Healthy Girls," a tongue-in-cheek ode to yoga and juice cleanses. It has also performed regularly in Miami and Brooklyn this year, with last week's Art Basel mayhem being a particular busy week for the ladies. However, the packed schedule seemed to pay off when Miami royalty Gloria Estefan saw them perform at the feminist strip club installation Goddessphere last week — and they have the Instagram pic to prove it.
New Times spoke to Linda Attias, AKA Que Linda, about Basside's collaboration with Hand Job Academy, keeping that rich healthy girl diet after the holidays, and if the world will finally be blessed with a full-length Basside album.
New Times: Thank you for finally giving the world the Christmas and Hanukkah song it needs right now. How does one go about getting "lit" for the holidays?
Que Linda: We're really happy we could finally bring the two holidays together. We kind of realized that [Christmas] trees get "lit" up, as well as menorahs, as well as us — the song just made sense. I like that "lit" has so much room for interpretation. Some people get lit drinking eggnog or RumChata with the fam. I get lit drinking Manischewitz and singing Hanukkah songs. Or like Ash Wednesday says in the song, she gets "lit like a Bunsen."
How did Basside team up with Hand Job Academy on the track? Any future collaborations in the works?"If we can just keep it in our pants, by next year, we should have an album."
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A friend of mine showed me a HJA video a while back and said he knew these girls that rap and I should check them out. I immediately sent the video to [Caro Loka] and told her I wanted to work with them. They have a different style than we do but a lot of the same energy. Since then, I met them, chilled with them, and would always vaguely say, "You know, we should really work on stuff together." Caro and I came up with the hook for the song one weekend when she was in town, and I knew we didn't have a lot of time to make this happen. I saw Clara shortly after and sang it to her because I was excited about it and asked her if her and Ash would want to jump on it. They said yes, so we called our mutual friend and producer Brad [AKA Theosyn] who produced our last song, "Rich Healthy Girls," and the rest was easy.
There will definitely be future collaborations. We've got a solid crew of females up here [in Brooklyn] and in Miami making music. The plan is to start some sort of all-girl collective where we can all work together, perform together, and push each other up.
Basside was everywhere this Art Basel. What did you enjoy most about the week?
Are you serious? Did you look at our Instagram? Gloria and Emilio Estefan were front and center of our performance at Goddessphere. They are so influential and inspiring and important to us; it really felt like a dream. It was one of the most magical shows we've ever played. The installation was incredible, the other performers were amazing, and everything about it was perfect. That same day we also played two other shows: one at Girls Room/Dream Grl, a super cute '90s girly pink art installation at a gallery near Wynwood, and we played late night with [Otto von Schirach] at a really cool spot called the Bridge.
Aside from performing, practicing, and deciding what to wear, we had a lot of fun dancing at White Room — I mean, 1306 — on Friday and Saturday night. I know there were crazier parties on the beach, but at the end of the day, we just wanna be around our real Miami homies.
Can we expect new music — maybe an album — next year from Basside?
Yes, new music is on its way. Living in two different cities makes it hard to do a lot at once. It's a little bit limiting but not enough to ever get us to quit. Due to how much time we get together, we usually drop one song at time. But we're working on a lot of new stuff, and if we can just keep it in our pants, by next year, we should have an album.
After eating all that lechón and latkes during the holidays, do you plan to go back on the rich healthy girl diet?
Yes! Duh! But for the record, latkes are gluten-free.
