24-year-old London rapper Ashnikko’s breakthrough punk-rap hit, Stupid, was accompanied by a video of the rising star killing an ex with a bloody ax, featuring his delicate, bloodied elf features, laughter his manic and childish. The YouTube video has 44 million views and counting while the comment above reads How Christian Moms See Billie Eilish.
Blue-haired American Ashnikko (real name Ashton Nicole Casey) is one of the most provocative voices in pop right now, with brilliantly catchy songs rooted in sexual liberation and making bad boyfriends feel like they’re five feet tall. helping young women find ways to feel invincible and broken seems like a small hurdle.
Her unique brand of X-rated but caramel-sweet pop anthems span genres like hip-hop, emo, punk and indie, and her penchant for using cartoonish violence to appeal to the male gaze made her , at age 12. , one of the breakout stars of 2020. millions of monthly Spotify listeners and high-profile admirers like Miley Cyrus (who recorded a TikTok cover of Stupid) and Grimes.
If you thought Miley Cyrus naked in a wrecking ball was controversial, wait until you see Ashnikko dressed as a devil riding a giant red pepper with horns sticking out of her chest in Daisy’s video.
Perhaps pop music has been too good for a while now, prompting Ashnikko to send reporters (male and female) blue sex toys to hype up his next Demidevil mixtape, or brazenly promise that he’ll ” would throw himself off the balcony if “. about “an ex-cheater feels like a rough reset. The fact that Ashnikko raps about male castration in a sweet baby voice is an intriguing juxtaposition, as if a Slim Shady LP-era Eminem had traded all the rage and chainsaws with Gorgeous, Halloween Style Outfits In Ashnikko’s songs, being extravagant isn’t an insult, it’s a term of endearment.
Ashnikko, calling from Zoom with no video, tells me she’s always enjoyed telling weird stories. “I got suspended from school for writing a dirty story about my teacher and passing it around the classroom,” admits the 24-year-old, laughing in that endearing and slightly creepy tone. “Me and my boyfriend used to draw cartoons of naked women and sell them to all the guys. We were 12 year olds selling porn to 12 year olds. It was a funny little side effect. I was a bad kid.”
Raised in a sexually repressed and extremely talkative North Carolina town, Ashnikko says her “fascination” with sex (hearing Lil Kim’s “Suck My…” made her want to rap) was a way of feeling free and owning her pleasure. governed by a limiting force, whether it be the church or the judgment of peers. “I come from a country where you have to get married at 18 just to have sex, which has always been crazy to me,” she adds. “[With my music] I want women to take back their sexuality and not be ashamed of it.”
It’s been a long way to the top. Ashnikko recalls feeling like a stranger as a teenager after her parents suddenly moved to Eastern Europe from their childhood home in North Carolina: “I’m still fighting my parents’ anger because they forced me to go to school in Latvia to go and Estonia, where eg nobody spoke English. It was really difficult for me. It made me an outsider and maybe hampered my social skills, but it also forced me to enjoy myself, to get more and more lost in my imagination.
The artist moved to London alone at the age of 18 with no connections to the music industry. However, she soon “found” herself in a country that has always loved eccentrics with black humor.
Her deep south accent holds a slight eastern European twang as well as a British affectation, but this only adds more color to all of the nutty, Nicki Minaj-esque, alter-egos that litter her songs. Ashnikko released her brilliant debut EP, Sass Pancakes, back in 2017.
The EP is packed full of catchy tracks that will have you singing along from start to finish. From the slow burn ballad “Sass Pancakes” to the energetic anthem “Drink More Water”, there’s something for everyone on this album
If you’re looking for an entertaining and engaging listen that will have you dancing in your seat, then Sass Pancakes is definitely worth checking out.
