FEATURE:
Spotlight
the magnificent Flyana Boss have a growing and loyal fanbase. They are a Hip-Hop duo from Los Angeles consisting of Bobbi LaNea Taylor and Folayan Omi Kunerede. The duo signed to Atlantic Records in 2021. Maybe not as known and played in the U.K. and other countries as they should be, I want to bring in some interviews from Flyana Boss. There are a lot of interviews with Flyana Boss to choose from! Their name derives from the fact that they wanted to use a famous name. Halle Berry was the first I think. They then decided on Diana Ross and adapted that to get to Flayana Boss. The viral success of You Wish took them to new levels. They have famous fans in Missy Elliott and Megan Thee Stallion. Their latest single, Candyman, is another gem. I hope that there is an E.P. or album later this year. I will start with an interview from Ones to Watch. Last year was a big and dizzying one for Bobbi LaNea Taylor and Folayan Omi Kunerede:
“They’ve collected well-earned accolades, with “You Wish” hitting #1 on the US Spotify Viral 100 chart and countless celebrities, including Timbaland and Lupita Nyong’o, acknowledging them as peers. But the most profound, immeasurable accolade is the solace they’ve provided young Black girls too stunned by shame to live in the fullest expression of their awkward color. With pointed ear tips and fluorescent braids, they’re platforming weird in a way I wish little me got to witness but beams with pride knowing the generation ushering in is.
Sitting across from the two fairies come alive, there’s an impenetrable vibration between the two, a magnetism that heightens in charge when they’re together. With synchronized responses and mirroring astrology, the secret ingredient to their inevitable stardom is home-cooked love. With blinding smiles and eyes full of wonder, they keep the inner children within each other safe and leave everyone around them drunk with giggles.
We had the honor of discussing everything with the duo destined for stardom, from braiding their own hair to running around Drake’s house (pending Aubrey’s approval, of course.)
Ones To Watch: Congratulations on how big of a moment you guys are having right now! Have you gotten the time to breathe it all in?
Folayan: It really went from 0-100. I haven’t had my big cry moment yet and I’m a big crier. I’m waiting, like when is it going to happen?
Bobbi: Yeah, we’re both big criers. I’ve had a couple baby cries here and there, but I want that one that’s like, “THANK GOD I FINALLY DID WHAT I CAME ON EARTH TO DO.”
On your knees, ripping off your shirt, Ray J style.
Bobbi: Exactly. That hasn’t happened yet but I’m sure it will.
You’re taking over in a way that I think is important particularly for Black girls to witness, because you’re not pretending to be anything other than yourselves. And now you got the girls talking bout Kanekalon! What role does your hair play in your sense of expression?
Folayan: We both braid our own hair! Like we’ll just take two days off and be like, “We’re braiding our hair.”
Bobbi: A big part of our life is braiding our hair. We both feel a lack of self when our hair isn’t done. Like when neither of us is ready to change our hair we’re like, “Ugh, I hate myself.”
My brain shut off after you said that you braid your own hair.
Folayan: Yeah, my mom had a braiding salon when I was little! She had me doing other people's hair when I was like, 14 or 15?
Bobbi: I was a silk press girl for a long time. I didn’t know what to do with my curls.
It’s giving Kamala.
Bobbi: Exactly! It wasn’t until I started to accept my curls that I had to figure out how to do my hair. But I always had a knack for braiding, I used to braid my niece’s hair and my doll’s hair. I’m better at doing my own hair than anyone else, though.
Folayan: She can cornrow her own hair! I haven’t unlocked that skill yet. I’m not a parter. Like even when I do my own hair, I just grab.
Bobbi: I’m a big parter, parting is very important to me. This is where we differ.
Describe your “weird girl” style, who are some of your OG pioneers?
Bobbi: Our aesthetic is weird Black girls who are cute and rap.
Folayan: Missy Elliott was a big influence for sure, for both of us. Also Lizzo.
Bobbi: Tierra Whack was a big inspiration for us too. Rico Nasty, Doja Cat.
Missy Elliott shouted you guys out, didn’t she?
Folayan: WOW! Wow.
Bobbi: We haven’t fully sat in it. It’s so crazy and outrageous. Someone tweeted her a video of us and Missy replied “Fun!” and we both lost it”.
Big names already in the U.S., Flyana Boss have tour dates around North America. I hope that there is an opportunity for them to come to the U.K. soon. Teen Vogue chatted with Flyana Boss last year about their TikTok fame and rise to prominence. An act that everyone needs to watch for this year. They are going to go on to bigger and better things. They are definitely a hungry and ambitious duo. Make sure that you connect with them and listen back to the amazing music they have put out so far:
“Flyana Boss are plotting world domination. “We want to create a whole Flyana Boss world,” the pair tell Teen Vogue over brunch in L.A., joined by their videographer Evan Blum, who brings to life their instantly-iconic running video format. With the recent virality of their single “You Wish” on TikTok, that shouldn’t be too hard.
Bobbi LaNea and Folayan, who make up the hip-hop duo Flyana Boss, exude Black girl joy. Sitting at an outdoor table at Bacari in Sherman Oaks, Folayan is wearing her signature elf ears with dangling Cowerie shells and African beaded earrings. She’s giving a pan-African wood nymph vibe in a beige knit crop top, her hair nestled on top of her head in a messy bun and orange wrap with two single braids in the front secured at the bottom with wooden beads and seashells. Her style is effortless.
“What happened to the braids you had yesterday?” asked their publicist after seeing her new 'do. “It’s a wig,” she replied. The multi-faceted performer has become known for her eye-catching hair choices. That all tracks when at the end of brunch Folayan drops the bomb that her mom, a well-known and accomplished hair braider in Dallas, used to braid Erykah Badu’s hair. Folayan would sometimes help.
The yin to each other’s yang, Bobbi LaNea is effortlessly cool in a matching gray knit set, with her signature Herschel fanny pack slung across her chest. “Herschel needs to sponsor us, someone needs to reach out,” LaNea jokes. In a blink-and-you’d-miss homage to one of her inspirations Whoopi Goldberg, LaNea wears a pair of stud earrings with a picture of Ciely from The Color Purple on them. “They’re from Etsy,'' she tells me as I snap a quick picture.
The duo’s unique styles in both fashion and music have become a Flyana Boss calling card. You never know what fashion moments they’ll give, or where the next line in one of their catchy pop-culture reference-filled bars will take you. “When we're writing just us two together, I'll yell out something hard, she’ll yell out something,” LaNea says. “She'll say that's hard, I'll say that's hard, and we'll write it down and put it in the verse.”
That was the same formula used for “You Wish.” Working with up-and-coming producer Marky Style — “He touches everything we work on,” says Folayan — and writer Ellrod, the duo felt safe and heard. Skeptical about working with writers given past experiences with co-writers who didn’t cater to the duo’s vibe, their collaboration with Ellrod was a refreshing experience. “He matched our weird,” Folayan adds.
Their weird has impassioned millions with schoolyard lyrics like “Hello Christ?/I’m ‘bout to sin again/I said I love you to that man but I’m not feelin’ him/I’m made of sugar, spice, kanekalon and cinnamon/Me and my bestie are the same/Like a synonym.” A calling card to Black girls everywhere and a meme in one, this verse and their accompanying running videos haven’t slowed down with their cultural impact. In the few weeks since we sat down in Los Angeles, the pair have since been featured on billboards in Times Square, snagged featured spots on Spotify and Youtube, and let the girls who don’t know in on what kanekalon means (Black girls, we know).
At their truest heart of hearts, Folayan and LaNea are two Black girls living their dreams of making music and inspiring other young Black people to be unapologetically themselves. Born in Dallas and Detroit respectively, they met in L.A. at the Musicians Institute on Hollywood Boulevard. The duo wouldn’t become besties or start making music together until later when Folayan moved to California and they had a reunion that was the creative spark that formed Flyana Boss. Since then, they’ve been a dynamic bestie duo looking to make people laugh and experience intense bouts of joy whenever they listen to their music.
Along with millions of viewers, the duo has already caught the eyes of icons like Lupita Nyong'o recreating the video in Paris, Keke Palmer posting on her Instagram story, and Missy Elliott — who the day before we meet went on a multi-tweet thread defending them against haters who had a problem with the multiple video releases for their single “You Wish.”
“It means a lot. Words can't describe it, you don't even have the words for it, but it means so much because we grew up loving and admiring her,” LaNea says of Elliott’s acknowledgment and support.
This was a part of the catalyst for the video's virality across socials; people hate-shared the videos, complaining about their “repetitiveness.” That’s how I initially found them — they’d been RT’d in my feed by another Black woman clapping back at haters and trolls on the girls' behalf. “Protect Flyana Boss at all costs” has become a rallying cry among Black women online who see these girls as trailblazers, doing what they love and having fun”.
I will wrap up quite soon. There is an interview from Allure that caught my eye. Even though there is a lot of focus around You Wish, Flyana Boss’ other songs are just as compelling and strong. Marking them out as one of the most consistent and astonishing acts in the world. I am really excited to hear and see where they head as we move through this year. In September, Flayana Boss put out the E.P., hello christ? i’m bout to sin again. It is one that I would recommend everyone checks out:
“In the weeks since its Spotify debut, “You Wish” has charted in the Viral 50 playlist both in the USA and globally. And as a result of all this buzz, Flyana Boss's follower count has rapidly grown by hundreds of thousands, allowing them to officially enter the 1-million club on TikTok in July.
Beaming, the music school classmates turned viral rap duo can hardly contain their excitement. “We had this process before where we would tease a song and… see what the reception is like” Folayan says. LaNea chimes in to finish her sentence: “[‘You Wish’] was good from the moment we first teased it, so we knew it was going to do well…”
“But we didn’t know it was going to be like this,” Folayan exclaims. “We didn’t know our whole life would change,” LaNea adds. “TikTok has helped every song we’ve released. ‘You Wish’ is just like an astronaut on its own — it’s just out of this world.”
Since the viral success of “You Wish,” one of two songs featured on their new EP, Make It a Double, LaNea and Folayan have been on a constant swivel between their overflowing DMs, getting recognized on the street, and processing the brand deals that are rolling in.
While the duo’s vivacious performances and subsequent rise to the top might make you think they’re just a couple of extroverts taking over the rap world, the sudden publicity has been an adjustment for LaNea and Folayan, who both admit to being introverts.
“We’re introverts who like to perform, so a lot of this is very performative but in the most unique sense possible; the most authentic sense possible,” Folayan says. “We just balance it out with sleeping a lot or taking naps…”
“Or avoiding socializing,” LaNea adds.
“It’s a weird thing to be an introvert in this industry, but we have each other which is really nice — we give each other grace to just say no sometimes,” Folayan says.
Considering the duo has been performing together for the past four years , their balanced approach seems to be working.
At this point, you might expect me to make a casual mention of the girls’ ages; a throw-in stat used as an adjective to further illustrate just how wow-worthy their sudden rise to the top has been. While LaNea and Folayan undoubtedly have the baby faces of someone you’d expect to still be in school, if not just graduated, the pair is adamant about keeping their ages to themselves. Prior to our chat, their team made it clear that they weren’t looking to discuss their age, and it’s a veil they’ve consistently upheld throughout other interviews and online. The duo has posted a number of videos skirting followers’ questions regarding their age and comments about how young they look”.
There is love for them here in the U.K. NME are among those who have shown a lot of love and respect for the mighty Flyana Boss. They are an act that everyone needs to check out. Do go and spend some time with the music of Flyana Boss:
“You both share a great sense of humour – where does that from?
Folayan: “I’ve been getting my humour from Bobbi.”
LaNea: “Back when we first met, said that somebody told her that she wasn’t funny and I think they’re the biggest liar on the face of the earth. She makes me laugh so much. But I will say I’ve always tried to be funny my whole life. Ever since I was a little kid, humour was a bridge for me, especially connecting to my dad and my brothers. I had to make them laugh to get their admiration and attention and affection.”
You’ve described yourselves as “two weird Black girls”. What’s the weirdest thing about you?
LaNea: “We call ourselves weird because we don’t fit like a stereotypical mould of whatever a Black girl is supposed to be – which I think is every Black girl, but we’re just outwardly projecting. We’re not whatever you think a Black girl should be. But I mean, we both have little quirks. I don’t like cheese. People think that’s weird about me.”
Folayan: “I usually wear my ears of some sort. I don’t have them on today because I left them at home.”
Folayan, where did you get the idea to wear elf ears?
Folayan: “I wanted to wear elf ears for a really long time, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing it. I was like, ‘Is it too weird?’. There was someone that worked at a dispensary with me, they wore elf ears, and they’re a cute Black girl too. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can do it too!’. So they really influenced me to start just wearing them out everywhere. The ears just make me feel like the mystical creature that I feel like inside – and that makes me very happy.”
PHOTO CREDIT: SJ Spreng
Bobbi, you’re always carrying a bag in your videos. What’s in the bag?
LaNea: “I need to get a new bag. Everyone’s like, ‘Y’all got brand deals, why are you still wearing the same dingy bag?’ [laughs] Let’s see. I have hand sanitiser. My wallet. Some Vaseline – I hate to be ashy. Some manuka honey lozenges, keys and a pen. I had a mask in here up until last week. And a scrunchie.”
The Flyana Boss challenge has popped off. Have you ever nearly got kicked out of any locations for filming it?
Folayan: “So L.A. Fitness gym, that was on Hollywood Boulevard. We just decided not to ask for permission, but to ask for forgiveness. We had someone go up to the front desk and distract everyone. Her name is Julie – love Julie – and we just ran through it.”
LaNea: “The whole clip takes 25 seconds so you don’t have to ask for permission because by the time they’re yelling at you, we’re done.”
Folayan: “We went to Disneyland – we thought we were definitely gonna get kicked out. We thought everyone was gonna have a problem with it.”
LaNea: “That’s the only place we didn’t want to get kicked out or banned from because we love Disneyland”.
I am going to end with an interview from COMPLEX. Interviewed before they put out their latest E.P., Flyana Boss spoke about the viral running videos for You Wish, their origin story, and what's next. It is fascinating seeing these future legends take shape. A name that will sit alongside the biggest Hip-Hop names of today. There is no stopping them:
“What is the biggest misconception about you all?
F: I'd say the industry plant one.
BL: Yeah, it's really annoying. Who plants industry plants? What garden is this? We both are from working-class families. We didn't have industry connections. We moved from our towns to L.A. to make our dreams come true, and somehow it happened.
F: Yeah, we met our managers four years ago. And they helped us put out our first song. Yeah, and then they started a JV with Atlantic. We were all just working at it.
Twitter/@rae_vans
What even is an industry plant?
BL: I don't fully know either. And before we got called this, I thought maybe there was such a thing, but it’s not. You plant yourself — the industry can’t plant you.
F: You can have a lot of money and put a lot of money towards your stuff, and it still doesn't go viral, because that's how the algorithm works.
What are you two currently working on?
F: A lot more music. Yeah. That's pretty much it.
BL: We want to go on tour.
F: Real bad… Brand deals are in our DMs.
BL: Yeah, they're percolating manifestation.
Are you all working on an EP or an album of any sort?
F: We're not quite sure. We just know we're gonna have more releases this year.
BL: We want to build the Flyana Boss world. But we’re not sure what form it is — if it's a single project or album, we don't know yet. We're still running.
What would you name your fan base?
BL: We were just talking about this in the car.
F: We want them to name themselves, because that's more authentic. But a couple of names that have crossed our timelines is Bossies, Besties, Fly Girls.
BL: Someone wrote the Sprinters. But we’re not going to run forever.
F: Yeah, my legs can’t.
Is there anything on your bucket list of career goals?
F: Tour.
BL: I want to do the Super Bowl.
What is the most important thing people should know about you right now?
BL: We're best friends in real life. That’s not fake. This is literally the best friend I've ever had in my life. And I'm so grateful to be on this journey with her.
F: I love you so much. We always have this moment when we look into each other’s eyes, and we start crying.
BL: Yeah, we love each other. We love doing this, and we're really grateful for everything that has happened to us recently”.
I can recommend that everyone spends some time with Flyana Boss. They are a name that may be unknown to some. I have not heard them much on U.K. radio. The Los Angeles dup are something very special. Go and follow them on social media and investigate their music. This year is going to be among their busiest yet. Fans around the world keen to see them play. This incredible music force are primed for…
WORLD domination.
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