Cakes Da Killa describes himself as a “walking contradiction.” There’s a video online of his “hypothetical rap mother” Remy Ma spitting a 6 minute a cappella from a jail cell.
She coughs out the term “nice nasty” (not to be confused with Michel’le’s RnB groove “Nicety“) which pretty much encapsulates what Cakes is all about: He’s a RAP PIÑATA who busts open on stage to reveal a torrent of bitchy verbal arrangements concerning your boyfriend, those that need pay to be gay, and them homophobic hypocrites.
We interrupted Cakes’s busy baking schedule to chatter about poonany power, spirit animals and his favorite bad boy Draco Malfoy.
Read the full Q&A after the jump!
You very recently had to rush off “down under” when Brooke Candy left a spot with LE1F and House of Ladosha on their Australian tour. I will always choose CAKE OVER CANDY any day. How did it feel to fly halfway around the world to fill that spot so suddenly?
When I got the message that I was getting added to the lineup I was at Westgay at a Lil’ Kim Concert so I was just shitting myself. Best night ever! It was kind of hectic but I made it work and had blast in Australia. Cannot wait to go back.
You are coming to Toronto this week to perform at Toronto Pride’s Fit Primpin event. Considering your recent last minute flight to Australia, when you are in a rush, what is your most vital PRIMP to make you look FIT before you run out the front door?
Mascara is so necessary. That’s all a cutie like me really needs.
You have been cited as saying you don’t have any LGBTQ agenda. I would say that you don’t seem interested in discussing sexuality per se, however it seems that if there’s any message that runs through your work it is one that questions gender norms, mainly a desire for acceptance of male femininity. What do you think are the most valuable aspects of feminine energy/power that boys should feel proud to embody?
I think the most valuable aspect of femininity that I am trying to embody as much as I can is the desire to be as pretty as possible. Men don’t really want to be perceived as pretty but as long as I can remember that’s what I wanted everyone to see me as.
Growing up being fat and having low self esteem f*cked that up more. There was even a time in my life when I wouldn’t look into a mirror. Now, I’m able to throw on some mascara and a spanx if needed and say f*ck it, I can be a bad bitch too. I can be pretty too. That was the underlining theme of the video for “Goodie Goodies.” I wanted to see how pretty I could be and how pretty I could make people think I was.
Apart from yourself (obv), who in your opinion is the ILLEST musical act around right now?
I only think someone is ill musically if they write their own material. I always end up finding out that someone has a writer assist who will write an entire song for them and it completely kills me. I don’t care about what clothes a stylist puts on your back. I don’t care about how sexy you look. If you can’t rap, don’t become a rapper!
I read that you are quite the bibliophile. With all “library/reading” references aside, which books have had a powerful effect on you?
I read like all of E. Lynn Harris‘s books. He’s a gay, African American author so I related to a lot of what he wrote about. His autobiography What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? is the only book I can read over and over again. I read a lot of books growing up though; all I did was read and watch TV.
I am reading a book entitled Eating Architecture, which discusses a Renaissance institute called “Company of the Trowel,” where high societal artists would build mini-buildings out of food and then create inedible ruins out of them, so opulent and amazingly indulgent. What I’m getting to is what is your favorite extravagance?
I think my favorite extravagance is lamb. I don’t have to explain that because lamb is everyone’s favorite extravagance. Shoes are another one… Oh, and hats, earrings and collared shirts. I have so many!
We’ll stick with books for one more question: In your song “Keep it Coochie” you make a Harry Potter reference in the use of the term “muggles.” First of all, are you a Harry Potter fan, and if so who is your favorite non-muggle character?
Of course I’m a Harry Potter fan. I read the last book in like one day, cover to cover. Don’t ask me shit about the series though. I drank my memory away after I turned 18. I was really into
Draco though. I love a bad boy and just yesterday finally parted from my Slytherin messenger bag that had my Game Cube in it… Childhood relics.
Yeah, I just bet you’d love to Slytherin to bed with that mischievous snarly twink. My most favourite is Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall as she gives the strongest Hocus Pocus side eye to everyone, muggle or otherwise.
You have a good knowledge of the heritage & structure of rap as well as other forms of African-American music (importantly disco with your Donna Summers Eulogy intro and lyrics concerning the late disco dance TV show Soul Train).
Disco and Soul Train are both outlets from some of my biggest musical inspirations. Hopefully you will see more of that in my new music.
Rap often glorifies the use of guns as symbols of power, whilst disco was about creating non-violent spaces for gay African Americans to dance and get high without the fear of subjugation. How do you feel about an organization like Pink Pistols that promotes the ownership of guns for self-defense in gay communities?
I am 100% against the use of guns, atomic bombs, or any form of destruction regardless if we’re talking about the killing of one person, mass genocide or during war. Violence is not cute!
Now in honour of your song “Quick Fire,” I’ll shoot you some quickies. What is a ‘gully cunt’ (is this a FernGully reference)?
Gully is basically a synonym for hood, ghetto or gutter so I combined that with cunt, something that is soft, delicate and feminine. That’s me in a nutshell: GULLY CUNT.
In your song “Da Good Book” you skank-sample Frank Ocean‘s “Thinking About You.” Why is it that you refer to Frank as “Mother Ocean”?
I call him Mother Ocean as a joke. It’s a nod to the underground vogue ballroom scene where there are parental figures who run houses. I think it’s funny as f*ck.
What are “Snow Bunnies”?
White people. More specially the cute, slim twinks who listen to my music, buy me drinks at my shows and love to make out with me: SNOW BUNNIES.
I’m sure there will be a whole litter of proud fluffy Torontonian Snow Bunnies at your show on Friday, I’ll bring a few heads of lettuce in case they get peckish in the line outside. In your song “Rapid Fire,” you rap: “a bad bad bitch like Topanga.”
Is this a reference to
Topanga Lawrence Matthews from Boy Meets World?
Definitely all about Topanga Matthews who was basically one of my most cherished childhood spirit animals.
Following your first course Easy Bake Oven and your second The Eulogy what is on the menu for Cakes Da Killa’s upcoming third course, avoiding the obvious answer “cake, cake, cake”?
I’m actually debating whether I want to re-release The Eulogy with some remixes since there was only one feature on the original or release a whole new EP called Just Desserts which will serve as an appetizer before the main course: The Manifesto. Decision, decisions, decisions. I’m really torn, help!
You are YA BAKERS MAN. I say do it all: you seem very hungry creatively and the only way to rid hunger pains is to keep serving it up. Your career could be like an elaborate Nouvelle Cuisine experience: small regular portions, each one more exotic and experimental than the last, you know like serving rap beet[root] foam and dehydrated lotus petals. People will totally lap it up!
In the video for “Whistle” [above], you hand-twerk the Blafrican lady’s ass. If I cannot twerk, am I allowed to have someone hand-twerk my ass for me this Friday when you perform?
Haha, I mean honestly if you need some twerk assistance I won’t mind but that was solely for shits and giggles. My home girl Terry Lovette (the bombshell in the video) doesn’t need any help in the twerk department. I just thought it was visually a funny thing to look at.
Would you hate on someone if you saw such acts at Fit Primpin?
I would hate because I only expect twerk pros at Fit Primpin. The power of the twerk should be used for the power of good not evil. I don’t want to see no half stepping.
[photo credit Alana Yolande]
Be the first to comment on "OMG, a Q&A with Cakes Da Killa"