Getting Real About cupcakKe the Rapper

Getting Real About cupcakKe the Rapper

The hopeless romantic and raunchy queen is truly an icon for the ages.

By JT Lucas

Ah, February. Days are getting longer, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and the tunnel of love is open for business. Elizabeth Eden Harris (government name of cupcakKe the rapper) is a hopeless romantic just like the rest of us. She has so much romance in her soul that she just can’t limit all of her romance to one, or even 10, or even 100 lovers. There’s no polite way to say it: cupcakKe is raunchy. If you’ve ever been caught on occasion clutching a strand of pearls proclaiming “Oh my!,” you’re probably not ready to join cupcakKe’s legion of devoted fans, known for reasons I won’t explain on this publication as “Slurpers.”

That being said, beyond the hyper-sexualized barrage of one-liners vile enough to make Janet Jackson wish she never championed a sexual freedom revolution, cupcakKe has some very real things to say about the state of the world today. She uses her “wisdom teeth” when she speaks about racism, her poverty-stricken past, LGBTQ+ advocacy, sexual abuse and autism. She’s exceptionally fast, too, blending an absurdly comical sex talk flow with devastating truth bombs at breakneck speed.

It’s important to note that cupcakKe built her following from the ground up. She started with her YouTube channel at age 15, releasing videos and free-styles. She gained national notoriety at age 18 with a couple of her raunchiest offerings, featuring videos using healthy produce in some fun and unhealthy ways. Everything she has put out has been self-released without major label assistance, and that’s pretty boss. For the purpose of this column, we are going to look at her two 2018 offerings: Euphorize and Eden.

Euphorize, released at the beginning of 2018, opens on a solemn note. “Two Minutes” is a testament to cupcakKe’s work ethic, referencing her troubled past, challenging herself to constantly think of her next moves. “That ain’t your friend if he walking around with money while you’re sitting hungry” is an idea that comes back in different forms throughout the album. In “Wisdom Teeth,” she laments how people are willing to throw down money on their clothes and looks, but then won’t thrown down to help their own povertystricken community. A similar statement is made in “Self-Interview,” showing a fear of allowing fame to make her selfish, ungrateful and uncharitable. Selfish isn’t in her character profile, though, as she has made a reputation of contributing money to struggling fans who reach out for help.

The stand-out track on Euphorize, of course, is “Duck Duck Goose.” All of the raunchiest things Lil’ Kim could’ve said back in the day belong in a hymnal compared to this playful, vulgar romp, proving why there’s so much money in cupcakKe’s “vending machine.” And then there’s “Crayons,” the album’s pro- LGBTQ+ anthem. “Crayons” means to pay homage to all facets of queer culture in one fell swoop, and that creates some awkward sentiments, such as claiming that gay males taking anal are brave and the clunky line “transgenders are people so Imma treat em equal.” It seems clumsy and insensitive, but the heart of it is in the right place, as a song of this type of message is generally never heard of in this genre. Plus, a few days before the release of this album, she paid off a gay teen’s GoFundMe account, geared towards keeping them off the street when their housing situation suddenly drastically changed, so she has points with the gays either way.

Eden, cupcakKe’s fourth studio album, was released towards the end of 2018. Two studio albums in one year is practically unheard of, but this serves as another testament to Harris’s work ethic. Eden opens with spitfire diss track, “Petsmart,” featuring next-level references mentioning Wendy Williams’s fainting and Azealia Banks’ sudden obsession with making soap. Eden seems slightly less about sex and more about proving to the world why she belongs at the top. In “Starbucks,” she wants you to know that she’s 21 and “walking around with a black card,” and in “Prenup,” she wants you to know that she’s “married to the money,” and for those fake friends who try to get close to her to get to that money, she’s “shutting it down like Sears” (#toosoon).

CupcakKe does not let you forget that she is, in fact, a sexual being. Eden’s fourth track, “Garfield,” opens with horny caterwauling as she goes on to compare her nether-regions to America’s favorite lasagna-loving fat cat. “Typo” challenges our typing skills in a sexy way, and after listening to “Blackjack,” you won’t look at Ariana Grande’s ponytail the same way. The album closes with “A.U.T.I.S.M.,” another clumsy support song of a marginalized group. “A Unique Thinking Individual Strongly Matters,” the song proclaims. Like Euphorize’s “Crayons,” it’s awkward and seems unmerited, but it’s a nice sentiment. Being that she spent the rest of the album letting us know why she should be queen, she’s allowed to take a moment to prove that she will be a benevolent ruler.

The future is bright for this raunchy 21-year-old, as she has already released a new single this year — “Squidward Nose,” which will have you thinking dirty thoughts about a childhood fave. And for the shameless plug no one asked for, cupcakKe will be at Ace of Cups in Clintonville on March 22. This is also my birthday, so come out for some great live music and to see if I’m able to wear her down enough on social media to convince her to do an even sexier cover of Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake” in my honor. I think I can do it, too. After all, cupcakKe loves charity.

JT Lucas is a Columbus-based music enthusiast, frequent concertgoer and a Carly Rae Jepsen superfan.