M.I.A's No Longer M.I.A, Face Mask Fashion W/ Leikeli47, & Tom Hanks’ Wife Gets Naughty?!
Friday 3/27/20
Hey Femcee Fans,
Today, I’ve got quarantine treats for ya, so let’s get into it! Playlist link below!
New Track Alert: M.I.A. Resurfaces With 1st Song In 3 Years!
While most of us are busy hiding out in our caves, the dearly missed rapper M.I.A. has decided to poke her head out for the sake of us all. M.I.A. released the track, “OHMNY W202091” just this past week for free via her Patreon page, in honor of the 15th anniversary of her debut album Arular. “Free music to get you the fuck up outta bed! Here’s the beginning,” she tweeted; a much needed wakeup call for all of us who’ve already fallen into the habit of staying in our PJs.
The new, highly experimental track is classic M.I.A., twisting together many of her greatest acoustics from over the years. The electronic and synth beats are chopped and screwed and full of rebellious, aggressive energy, with found sounds that include triumphant battle horns, bullet shots and choral harmonies all mixed in a turbulent swirl around one another. Right off the bat, M.I.A. acknowledges her absence, rapping the powerful line “People be sleeping on me so much I feel like a mattress”.
This is the first new music released by M.I.A. since her 2016 album AIM, which she had previously stated was to be her last. Since then, she’d been busy with her incredible 2018 documentary, Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (really a must see!) and also deeply engrossed in various political and activist pursuits, including performing at an event protesting the extradition of Wikileaks found Julian Assange. But there’s been a deep chasm in the hip hop world without M.I.A.'s unique persona and perspective, and thankfully the rapper is back, revealing earlier this year that a new album’s in the works and is nearly finished. No release date yet, but for now get hyped with this new song and also revisit a golden oldie below!
The Lewk: Leikeli47’s Fashion Face Mask Inspo
If you’ve ever come across a photo of rapper Leikeli47 you know she has a face you just can’t forget. Well, rather, it’s a face you can’t forget because it’s a face you cannot see. That’s because ever since her first foray into music, Leikeli has never shown her face or even released her legal name. Instead, identified solely by her rapper identity Leikeli47, she is known for concealing her visage with a bandana or balaclava (or even gas mask, see below!) of some sort at every single performance and professional appearance she’s ever made.
Why the mask, you may ask? Well in addition to identifying as a private person, Leikeli told Cultured Magazine, “Being black, we gotta learn how to wear a mask early.” And in an interview with Vibe Magazine, she stated that she conceals her face because it gives her courage: "I feel like the Dark Knight, or one of those superheroes, or Superman… the mask, it represents freedom. I'm free with it on." By now, the mask is deeply ingrained in Leikeli’s artistry, to the extent where each mask she dons is unique, exciting, coordinated with her outfit of the day, and highly fashion forward. For the rest of us though, these days the mask has become the hottest trend of the season-but not by choice.
Like it or not, go outside today and you’ll see every other person’s face concealed by some form of surgical mask—from simple paper-based white to shiny black neoprene, and everything in between. This accessory’s here to stay indefinitely and in just a couple months became the inescapable icon of our times. Of course, there are already rumblings of the mask as trendy accessory pervading the high fashion world (see above pics and react as you see fit). And while we don’t yet know with certainty when these masks can fully come off, most of us do know that we’re currently at home with too much time on our hands, frequently looking to arts and crafts as a means of distraction. So why not check out some of Leikeli47’s beautiful and incredible mask looks below and get inspired to decorate your own, all while bopping to some of her thumping tracks? After all, don’t we each strive to be individuals in this mad, mad world?
Tom Hanks’ Wife Rita Wilson Rapping Under Quarantine
For a lot of people, COVID-19 became all too real a couple of weeks ago with the announcement that beloved-by-all actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson had both tested positive for the virus. Since the diagnosis on March 12th, the celebrity couple were admitted to a hospital in Australia, where Hanks was shooting a film, and have remained in quarantine since.
With many of us now experiencing our own, milder versions of quarantine, we already know that being cooped up inside all day can push you to try all kinds of things as coping mechanisms and forms of entertainment. Even just a week of this kind of house arrest will have you cycling through moments of lunacy, despair, or just plain ridiculousness, and actress/film producer Wilson is clearly going through it all and willing to share.
In keeping with an apparent theme this month of older white women you’d never thought you’d see rap but who also might be good at it, Wilson posted a video to her IG this week where she spits her way through the bars of Naughty By Nature’s biggest hit song, “Hip Hop Hooray”. With her hair pulled back and an open copy of the book Ender’s Game in her hands (but why?), she casually flips on the track, darts her eyes around the room, and then without skipping a beat runs through all four minutes of the rapid-fire bars. It’s emotive, impressive and will leave you smiling...but also wondering, how did Wilson memorize ALL those words, and is this where I am headed too? Check it out below!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-BqChYnY6F/?utm_source=ig_embed