“Welcome to Miami, no bras, no panties.”
That must have been the line Carolina Villalba, dressed loudly in a tiny neon-green bathing suit, dropped on the unsuspecting tourists from Atlanta lounging on South Beach. It's exactly the sentiment she and Linda Attias represent with their rap duo
“The whole inspiration for the video was to make it Miami as fuck,” Villalba, AKA Caro Loca, says. “Loca” and Attias, AKA “Que Linda,” appear gyrating in barely there neon bathing suits, pouring frothy Champagne over their clapping asses, getting down and dirty in the sand with said Atlantian tourists, driving slow down Collins Avenue, and
They filmed the whole video in one weekend with the help of friends Sally Hunter, Karina Melendez, and Anna Marie Riley. They were styled by Attias' sister Sarah, which goes in line with the rapper's familial history. After all, the whole
“[Debbie] would be like, 'OK, you guys can come to the show, but don't get crazy, and don't get inspired,” Villalba remembers. At the time, she and Attias were underaged and had to sneak into venues with fake IDs or escorts. “Next thing you know, we got crazy. We got inspired.”
The pair started freestyling catchy hooks as their party pregame ritual, and before long, those hooks and chants found their way onto beats produced by their buddy DJ Maneuvers. To this day, all their tracks are produced by Maneuvers, who you may know from the beloved Miami weekly party Chocolate Sunday.
“We've never been perfectionist kind of people,” Attias says. “I feel like the whole vibe of bass music is a lot of that call and response. You want it to feel more
“If there's a genre for our music,
“We dance so much onstage, and we're such a performance,” Attias says. “We make people feel comfortable enough that they can move around. We're not just one of those, 'I'm going to stand and watch you
“We bring the Miami with us, wherever we are,” Villalba says. “Even if we're in NYC in freezing weather, we wear bikinis. We make it tropical. That's our shit. We're tropical bass
Basside is an energetic style so contagious, it's been asked to open for bass gods Otto Von Schirach and 2 Live Crew – and that was at the very start of the project, some years ago. The duo have only honed their craft, albeit still a purposeful hot mess, and the “QLCL” video is only the beginning. Art Basel partiers can catch the duo performing alongside Crywolf and Virgo at the Nakid Magazine Issue III Launch Party on Friday night at Libertine, a rare chance to see the girls while Attias is in town.
“We're really excited actually,” Attias says. “I'm a fan of Nakid Magazine. It's our style — a little raunchy, a little not-too-perfect.”
“Some high-class stuff,”
Things are looking up for Miami bass. What with the supersuccessful United States of Bass party featuring Uncle Luke and DJ Laz and recent reunion tours from 2 Live Crew, there seems to be a real Miami Bass resurgence in the air. Basside is ready to ride that wave, and these tiny bass titans have the closet full of neon bikinis to prove it.
“I feel like right now more than ever, people are getting really excited about it,” Attias says. “This is us saying we're going to bring it back and take it seriously. So far, we haven't tried that hard, and we've gotten a real good response from people. We're just like, 'What if we try really hard? What could happen then?'”
