On a hot August day, on a loading dock in a Davenport parking lot, Blvck Bunnie — the fresh-faced and foul-mouthed rapper behind Flint, MI-based hip-hop project THOT SQUAD — performed for her first Iowa audience. And, like any good GWAR concert or Rocky Horror Picture screening, some people knew what was coming and others had no idea.
“It was fantastic,” Bunnie said of her first of two sets at Alternating Currents. “I did not know what to expect from Davenport. People from online will be like, come to Iowa, come to Iowa. And I'm like, I don't even — do people know who I am in Iowa? And then when they opened up the [doors] ... it's like 150 people!”
THOT SQUAD attracted one of Alternating Currents’ biggest crowds, with many desperate to see their favorite online obsession in real life. One young couple home-printed “Davenport, IA / Summer of Thot” t-shirts for the occasion while another fan fashioned their own “FAFO” sleeveless tank. Parents even brought their kids — though that's not THOT SQUAD's target demo.
“We'll get people who are like, ‘Well, I'm 47 and I'm a mom. I don't think I'm gonna fit in,’” Bunnie said. “Everyone in my crowd is 47 and a mom. When I was in Indianapolis, there was a 72-year-old grandma there, and she was right in the front. She was having the time of her life.”
Bunnie says people of all stripes come out to THOT SQUAD shows for catharsis. Much of her music is an embodiment of her own confidence, glee and sometimes anger (a la "BSTFU"). And she's not afraid to "go there." Want to abandon your boyfriend? She's got a song for that. Think your hair looks good? Let her stroke that ego with “That’s My Hair.” And when it comes to a roast battle, it's best not to get on her bad side. On "BSTFU," Bunnie goes for the throat, or, rather, head: "I still got my edges, all your baby hairs is gone / Get that four head [forehead] a two-way, let E.T. phone home."
Starting THOT SQUAD
During the pandemic, all Bunnie wanted from her sound tech boyfriend (now husband), Benny Ari, was a “City Girl beat.” She cited Zack Fox’s 2019 surprise smash “Jesus Is The One (I Got Depression)" as a major inspiration.
“I want to just be a one hit wonder,” Bunnie said of her initial concept for THOT SQUAD. “Like a TikTok flash-bang, and then I'm gonna go back to living my life.”
But she needed Ari, who preferred to keep the studio reserved for his professional clients, to agree to engineer her idea. It took major convincing, but eventually the two came together for THOT SQUAD’s first single, the crude and playful “SUPER SOAKER,” which premiered January 2022.
Four months later, Bunnie secured a pretty daunting first live show: opening for raunchy rap luminary CupcakKe in Pontiac, MI. But she had a problem: she needed 30 minutes of material.
“We have four songs,” Bunnie said of that time. “So we did songs that wasn't released yet. We did songs that only had one verse. We did a twerk competition in the middle. ... And the crowd absolutely ate it up, absolutely adored it.”
That first performance as THOT SQUAD was both a milestone and a turning point for the project: it proved her comedy catharthis rap concept could work. The show instantly grew THOT SQUAD’s Instagram follower count by hundreds, and Bunnie realized her joke wasn’t a joke. She remembers the aftermath as she waited for Ari in the green room.
“I'm sitting in the basement with my sister and my friends, and we're like, 'That was so amazing. That was crazy.' And then Ben finally comes down and we just look each other. We start crying and then we hug. There's a picture of it in our living room with us just hugging and crying on that day, and we were like, 'Oh no — this is real. This can be a real thing that we do.' And it's been like that ever since."
If Bunnie is the beating heart of THOT SQUAD, Ari is its circulatory system. He serves as DJ, beat maker, audio mixer, management, videographer and more.
Making videos people want to watch
These days, it takes a lot to truly tickle the amygdala. But THOT SQUAD may very well have cracked the code. The duo's music and comedic videos, which have generated millions of views on YouTube alone, stand out for being just as silly as their source material. Ari's video editing skills level up scenes shot in places as unglamorous as the bathroom into high art. Their unserious but well-crafted DIY videos are the stuff memes are made of.
“I love that our style is distinct.” Bunnie said, “You can scroll all day and you'll know which one is a THOT SQUAD [video]. It might look stupid, right? But we take time and care into making it look stupid.”
Where from here?
After giving folks a preview at Alternating Currents, THOT SQUAD released a new single, “C U Later,” Sept. 18. Blvck Bunnie can also be heard in Dispatch, a video game from the creators of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, which became available to gamers on Oct. 22.
In Dispatch, players work a 9-to-5 office job as a sort of air traffic controller for a Suicide Squad-style team of anti-heroes. It’s not a fighting game, but rather an exercise in resource management. Players juggle multiple fires, both figurative and literal, across a large city, by choosing what hero will attend to what incident and when. Bunnie’s character, Prism, is, not surprisingly, a wise-cracking popstar from Flint, MI, and is described by developers as “The Diva."
Bunnie, like her in-game avatar, is a firecracker with palpable swagger that can fill an oil tankard. Like actors Zack Fox and Awkwafina, who found early success as goofy rappers but grew to become reliable comedic voices in film and TV, Blvck Bunnie's name could soon become a household one. Whether that's for her THOT SQUAD persona, her musical abilities, her comedic skills or her acting chops, we'll just have to see.
