Rising LA icon, Baha Bla$t shares a glimpse into her world while releasing a new music video for her single, "BANK THE BANK".
Baha Bla$t dove into the LA underground about two years ago and has fostered a cult following through her music and humorous character. A trash culture star from the get go, Baha Bla$t doesn't have to become anything new. She's genuinely as rare as winning the lotto and she's proud to keep it weird. Who else do you know baptizes their own audience with Mountain Dew?
After releasing previous videos for tracks like "Kool-Aid", it's not surprising that Bla$t stands out as a visionary who's carefully crafted her own image. Her niche fanbase eats it up quicker than a five-layer burrito and "BREAK THE BANK" is just the next chapter to her story. Go ahead indulge yourself, stay trashy, be #bahablessed.
After running across each other at an underground show in LA, we had the opportunity to catch up with Baha Bla$t right before her recent release.
Here's what she had to say:
Q: So you got a new music video coming out on Tuesday?
A: Yeah, it’s called “Break the Bank”.
Q: How long have you been sitting on that for?
A: Probably about two months now. I started going out to Arizona like several months ago and I was filming videos and recording my music out there. I just now got my studio down here in LA, so I haven't been going to Arizona as much, but I filmed it out there.
Q: Are you initially from LA?
A: I wasn’t born out in LA, but I don’t have any other affiliation with Arizona other than making some friends out there and making connections with my music.
Q: How do you usually go about making your music videos?
A: Just this new one was out in AZ, but the one before that I shot out in Los Angeles. I had a friend who was a videographer fly in from Denver. It’s all self directed. All the concepts in all of my videos are written out beforehand by me.
Q: So what’s trash culture to you?
A: Trash culture to me I guess is similar to punk culture but embodying a little more of the trashy, vapid LA air-headed lifestyle. Ya know, think like punk but more Ke$ha.
Q: Did you ever realize you wanted to be an icon for this scene or was it more natural?
A: Honestly, I think that I’ve always been exactly that kind of person and I didn't have to necessarily know that I wanted to be like a public figure for it or anything. It’s kind of the lifestyle I’ve always lived and I’ve always been kind of proud of it. Ya know what I mean, I’m proud to be like, “oh I’m living boujee, but like I’m broke as fuck” (laughs)
Ya know, you can live that lifestyle and have a good time without being rich. I like bringing that into the rap scene because a lot of rap culture is flexing. So I think it’s fun and light-hearted to flex being like a normal person without a whole lot of money and being able to have fun and be trashy; to be really authentic and who you are.
Q: Other than music, you’ve been modeling lately. How’d that come about?
A: Yeah, I never really intended on modeling. I just started modeling very informally and then the more I did it and posted it on Instagram, the more underground clothing lines would see that I’ve modeled for other brands and they’d ask me to model for them.
Then it kind of just turned into a side thing where I would say that modeling is one of the things that I do. I never really meant to do it, but I really enjoy doing it. When I first came to LA, my focus was music but I’d say I do a little bit of everything now.
Q: Do you usually like to market your music on Instagram?
A: I definitely like marketing myself there but overall I really enjoy marketing myself. I like marketing and presenting the character that I want people to see me as, but I’d say that Baha Bla$t isn’t even necessarily the character I’m trying to portray.
Baha Bla$t is the most exaggerated parts of who I actually am, so I like to be able to play up these things that I really do like about myself or things that I do believe or things that are funny and challenge my audience to understand what my character represents because a lot of it’s rooted in humor and irony.
So yeah, I think it’s fun to market myself a certain way on social media and see how people react to it. The cool thing about Baha Bla$t being pretty authentically me, is that I don’t have to worry about becoming someone else.
Q: So how’d you originally get involved in LA’s DIY community?
A: Honestly when I first started making music, it was like 2018 and I actually met Lil B. I signed onto Basedworld records and that was like my first taste of music, like I’d never really even made music before that.
He brought me to a studio and showed me how to make music and that’s where I started my passion for art really, and being different because obviously if the person who introduced me to music was the Based God, then my style of music was going to be weird, wacky and DIY. So yea that kind of set the tone for the type of artist I would become. It was just a really natural thing for me. Coming into LA and being involved in such an against the grain, do it yourself community.
Q: What was that studio experience like with Lil B?
A: It was amazing. It was like five days in Vallejo and he booked a hotel for me and he’d send a car every morning and bring me into the studio. We’d record like all day and then he’d send me back. It was really professional, I mean it was paid for through the label.
He was honestly just a really respectable guy who showed me the ropes and believed in me. A lot of people would like to believe that it was creepy or like there’s some juicy detail about it, but really he was just a good guy and genuinely believed that I had a talent and wanted to see me do something with it.
Q: Nowadays, do you self produce or do you collaborate with other people?
A: I work with other producers, but I have a studio setup at home where I’m tracking my own vocals now and I’m learning how to mix. After I’m done learning how to mix, I’ll probably start learning how to produce. The end goal, definitely for me, is to put out a project without literally anyone’s help at all, but yeah I’m working towards it.
Right now, I have friends who produce for me, like some friends out in AZ or my boyfriend Shawty Gawd. That’s what I’ve been doing lately is using his beats.
Q: What’s it like being able to collaborate with your boyfriend?
A: It’s actually really sick. (laughs) We’ve been working on an EP lately and we have a single that we were going to perform at the show last Friday before it got shut down. Yeah it’s pretty cool being able to feature on each other’s music, especially when we have such a similar style of rap in this underground community.
I think it’s really cool to be able to match each other’s energy or be like, “oh who’s the best rapper or who’s going to kill the other one off this next track”, (laughs) ya know.
Q: Have you crafted a cult following since you started up in 2018?
A: Absolutely, I’m really grateful that people respond as well as they do to it. I think that there’s a very niche audience for me and the people who are supposed to get it, get it and the people who don’t, aren’t supposed to get it. It’s what makes me marketable on the internet, because there’s going to be a lot of people who don’t understand it, think it’s weird and laugh at it or make fun of it and that’s what they’re supposed to do, ya know.
I feel like it makes me an inside joke between me and my fans. There’s definitely like a niche fanbase that’ll send me pictures of them drinking Baja Blast. They’ll hashtag everything #bahablessed and they’re like really living the lifestyle of being baha blessed. There are people who understand it for sure.
Q: Have any of your fans surprised you?
A: Yeah, I mean I had one person send me a picture of themselves with #bahablessed written across their chest in like diablo sauce from Taco Bell. I’ve had another fan send me a picture of her fish. Well actually, she’s not just a fan. Lilly sent me a picture of her fish and said she named them after me. She’s super sweet and supportive and she’s like a big fan though. She’s very supportive of my music and very baha blessed. (laughs)
But yeah, I’ll have other people send me photos of baha blessed written on their bodies and stuff like that, kind of in true Lil B fashion.
Q: When you do shows, do you have any stage antics?
A: Yeah, I did for the show I had in Phoenix a few months ago. I like to baha baptise my audience, so I’ll have a cup of Baja Blast and I’ll bring up people from the audience and pour it on them while they pray at my feet. Ideally as I get bigger and I can put more money into my shows, I’d like to have a full tub of Baja Blast and bing one person from the audience and baptise them entirely in it.
Q: After going to that show on Friday, do you think the LA scene will keep throwing shows?
A: Yeah there’s definitely going to be more underground shows in LA, like there’s no way there’s not. It’s just a punk culture thing, ya know that’s never going to go away. It’s been around forever.
No matter what, no matter how many times they try to tell us not to, I’m sure there’s going to be shows popping up.Ideally, the next time we could try to have one outside so people have more of an option to socially distance or it won’t be as easy to shut it down. I don’t really know. Maybe there will be like tunnel shows or something, but I don’t think the shows are going to stop at all.
Q: Have you been working on anything else lately, outside of shows?
A: Yeah, “BREAK THE BANK” just dropped and you can look forward to a new EP coming soon, I don’t know exactly when. Then I do have another single dropping soon with a surprise artist, an artist I’ve wanted to collaborate with for a long time, so you guys can stay tuned to find out.