Bktherula Has a Skibidi Toilet in Her House
Welcome to mixed feelings’ Hyperspecific, a profile series of increasingly intimate questions in which we ask our favorite artists, characters, musicians, and the like to unveil their innermost selves — their weird existential musings.
This summer, I saw something at the Bktherula show that I’ll never forget: a fan, arm stretched toward the stage, filming on an old Nintendo DS…in the middle of a mosh pit. It was an apt symbol for Bk’s fandom, a group of exceedingly fashionable individuals who felt (and feel!) at once nostalgic and hyper-online.
Bk was in town to promote the release of Lucy, the Atlanta-based rapper’s 4th studio album. The album’s title is yet another Bktherula-type amalgamation of the present and the past: “Lucy is a movie with Scarlett Johnansson in it; in the movie she’s the first woman in the world to have access to 100% of her brain. And then there’s Lucy, the Saint, who was one of the first women to gain popularity…It all kind of goes back to being the first.”
Bk’s only 23, which was shocking to me, until I remembered that the rapper has been sharing music to SoundCloud since age 13, and started gaining a following shortly after. Now, she has dozens of songs under her belt, and a handful more musical collaborations with heavy-hitters like Denzel Curry, Coi Leray, and Rico Nasty.
Bk said it herself: Lucy is a transitional album, and she’s growing into her own. Read the rest of her Hyperspecific below.
LEVEL I
Something you’re always hoping people bring up in conversation.
Clothes, maybe. I’m really digging Carol Christian Poell right now. I think I’m kind of interested in the mystery of the designer right now. There isn’t a single picture on the internet of the designer. I don’t think he has an Instagram. Or he might, but it’s hidden. He doesn’t have any social media. There’s these shoes and they drip on the bottom. It’s really, really cool. I’m really into those.
What’s a positive trait people always tell you?
I would say a lot of people say that I’m very nice and very welcoming. So I would say that I agree.
One destructive trait you know you possess and wish you didn’t.
I feel like I’m just too humble, but it’s kind of destructive in the end a little bit. Sometimes you take [on] more than you should and I think that’s something I need to work on. Sometimes I need to be a little hard on people instead of being super nice.
Honestly, I feel like I’ve grown and matured so much. All of my features, “Still In The Paint” with Denzel [Curry] honestly put me into a whole other realm, and it opened the door for a lot of new features. I’m about to drop something with Coi Leray and G Herbo, so that’s pretty fire. I think it’s just putting me into a great realm. I’m growing, my music is maturing.
If a bodega were to name a dish after you, what would it be? (Be specific.)
Okay, this is corny, but the B-C-A: bacon, cream cheese, avocado. That’s it. Best thing you could ever have. You dip the bacon into the cream cheese, you take a bite and then you cut a slice of avocado and you eat it, no bread.
One song that makes you feel understood.
There’s a song called “I Can’t Handle Change.” It’s the most insane song. I’ve cried to it thousands of times. It makes me feel understood. It makes me feel like they put their whole emotions in it instead of dwindling down their thoughts for a song or what people might like.
A song of mine? “DROPWHENIDROP” It’s actually the intro to my album, Lucy. That song makes me feel understood 1000% because it’s got a little bit of ego into it, but at the same time there’s humility in it.
“I know that you flop when you think that I flopped, but I still come out on top” — favorite lyric for sure, because it’s so real. And then I dropped the song, and then I watched my words happen, and it just felt great.
Something you think is wildly underrated.
Massages, man, I’m not going to lie. People don’t really understand. Lymphatic massage, to be exact. That can really change your whole life.
The spots that say “massage” with a $50 next to it…Those are the spots you go to. The random low-key spots in Atlanta are the places that are going to give you that perfect pressure.
LEVEL II
A movie/tv show you watch when you want to self-soothe.
Victorious. [I watch it] whenever I need to go to sleep, say if I’m in a hotel out of the country, or honestly just anywhere other than home. It really does help bring me back home. And that could be the nostalgia to be honest. I fuck with Jade. I really liked her hair. I liked the black and the teal and all the random colors that she did. It kind of inspired me, not going to lie.
What is your problematic favorite artist, actor, dead or alive?
Ice King from Adventure Time. He’s mad sweet and down to earth if you really get to know him. Even Finn be cool with him. Everyone’s still cool with Ice King. He was a very cool person and his name was Simon. Then, he got turned into the Ice King because the crown makes him do weird things. So technically it’s not even him. Problematic fav, 100%.
What is the first fandom you lost yourself in?
Black Mirror. I was on Reddit a lot. I still am on Reddit, but because of Black Mirror, I was trying to do deep dives on each episode. “Playtest” broke my mind insanely. It’s basically about this guy who’s running low on money. He’s in Europe, he’s trying to travel the world, and he found this flyer that said if he joined a game he could get mad bread off of it. Obviously I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t watched it. But the end of the episode blew my mind. I wouldn’t be able to guess the ending from the beginning.
What is something you bought recently after LOTS of research?
It’s that little lip peel-off stain thing. It keeps your lips lined through the entire day without you having to touch it up. I actually have it on now. I did a lot of research on TikTok to be exact. It got me right, for sure. 1000%.
A fictional world you want to live in and why?
Roku City, 1000%.
Random thing in your home that always requires explanation?
I have this toy, well, I have a whole toy collection, and there’s this one toy that’s actually a toilet. Everyone would walk into my house and be like, “BK, what is that?”
If you press a little flusher, it makes a noise. But at the bottom of the toilet, there’s a little button that you press, and a little head pops out of the toilet and it has a creepy face. It’s a Skibidi toilet toy. I honestly just bought that toy at Target because lately I’ve been obsessed with toilets. I actually have another toy that requires explanation and it’s a golden toilet and it has a guy sitting on the toilet, using the toilet, and, I don’t know. I like toilets, I guess.
LEVEL III
What’s an anecdote you usually tell to describe how you were as a kid?
I don’t really think things through all the time. When I was younger, I was in the shower. I was super kiddish and I noticed something flying around. So I’m like, “Okay, maybe a fly.” It turns out it was a wasp. So then I’m like, all right, everything’s cool. I open the shower — I’m definitely losing my mind — and the wasp proceeds to sting me. So I open the door, I have a hardwood floor, I’m soaking wet, and I just start running. And then of course, I slip. Literally fell on the back of my head. So I had a concussion, on top of being stung by a wasp. And things like that still happen to me to this day, it doesn’t change.
What is your lowkey hell and actual heaven?
Hell: Fashion week. It feels like one continuous day. It’s fun with all your friends and then you get to experience all the cool brands, but then you be outside ‘til 5:00 AM, you go back home, you sleep for two hours and you wake up great breakfast and go to another show. It’s definitely hell, to be honest, it feels like a continuous day that never ends.
Heaven: Honestly, just my bed. My bed with my cat next to me, and watching a show, and just eating my mom’s food.
I have four cats, but I have one cat that lives in my room and her name is Sardine. I have two cats that live in my brother’s room, and then I have another cat that lives in my mom’s room. There’s Sardine, there’s Finn, Salmon, and Red.
What’s your favorite, if you had to request your mom’s best dish, what would it be?
Picadillo for sure. It’s a Cuban dish. It’s ground beef with white rice, but it’s seasoned to a T and it has capers and olives in it. You can chop a fucking banana and just put it in the rice. I swear it goes hand-in-hand. It’s insane.
What is your most unhinged coping mechanism?
Fidget spinners. I mean, it’s not really unhinged, but it really helps me to this day. I actually have one at my Airbnb right now.
5. What is one random thing you hate so much for no apparent reason?
Holes, I hate holes. I don’t like holes. Not “hoes.” H-O-L-E-S. Too many holes in one area. I need to itch my skin, it makes it crawl. Honestly, the three little cameras on the back of the iPhone might be doing something to me, too.
6. How do you exit a party?
I’d be like, “be safe, y’all boys.” Literally, if you heard it, you heard it. If you didn’t, you didn’t.
7. How you wanna go (either un-seriously or seriously).
I don’t want to leave this earth with unfinished business. I want to get everything done, and I want to go [from] old age, or something like that. I don’t want to go [from] any health issues. I just want to go peacefully, maybe next to my cat, and just watching some type of show or something that makes me happy. I just want to go very naturally without any pain.
MF: Would you let your cat eat your body?
I would, but I don’t know if she would. I feel like she loves me so much. She would fight that little cat instinct, don’t you think?