“When you’re tired of your man, give me a call,” raps hip hop’s hottest new star, Young M.A, in her breakout hit OOOUUU.
In between shots of Hennessy, she rhymes about oral sex, throws money in the air and gobbles Chinese food.
It’s not hard to see why women, gay and straight, have found Young M.A irresistible. The young stud rapper rocks long, silky braids and spits rhymes harder than many of her male contemporaries. “Yeah, I’m pretty, but I’m loco,” she says with a cocky grin.
From the OOOUUU video alone, you can tell that she’s genuine. The video is rough and low-budget. There are no special effects. The first fifteen seconds chronicle Young M.A’s pregame with an entourage of studs, a rare occurrence in rap videos where women are always the objects, never the subjects. As soon as the video starts, it’s obvious that you’re not at some flashy party that Young M.A staged just to look rich.
No, you’re hanging out with her crew on a regular Friday night – if you’ve ever drunk too much alcohol and bragged about your romantic exploits, you’ll feel right at home in this song.
Young M.A has been rapping for years, but in recent months OOOUUU has skyrocketed off the charts, and received remixes from stars such as Nicki Minaj and 50 Cent. The single has been streamed on Spotify over 37 million times alone.
She’s the first openly lesbian rapper to cross over to mainstream music in recent years.
Angel Haze (pansexual) and Azealia Banks (bisexual) have had mild mainstream success; their respective hit singles, “Battle Cry” and “212” have had 8.6 million and 62 million Spotify streams. However, both women present as feminine. Young M.A is anything but. “Mama wondered why I never liked to wear a skirt,” she raps in “Quiet Storm.”
The OOOUUU video features her wearing a snapback, rocking sweatpants and flashing a grill. She’s not going to conform to gender roles, and she’s proud of that.
However, in a recent interview with Pigeons and Planes, Young M.A explained that she doesn’t want to be an LGBT icon. She doesn’t see herself as a trailblazer, she just is who she is. And she dislikes labels.
Despite her reluctance to be the face of the LGBT hip-hop movement, it’s hard to deny that she’s paving the way for other queer rappers. We can only hope that Young M.A capitalizes on the success of OOOUUU in order to keep making music about the black lesbian experience.
