Bhad Bhabie brings energy and expletives

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This article was published 27/02/2019 (2734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the lobby of the Garrick on Monday night, a young woman with tiny red lights along her eyelash line unknowingly walked by the management team of 15-year-old American rapper Danielle Bregoli — a.k.a. Bhad Bhabie — who deemed the look worthy of a FaceTime call to Bregoli backstage.

“Holy s***, I can’t believe this,” the girl exclaimed, her eyes glowing, and not just because of the LEDs.

“Let me Snap me FaceTiming her,” she continued, uttering perhaps the most Gen-Z sentence that has ever existed as she pulled out her phone to capture the moment on social media.

On the other end of the phone, Bregoli waited for her fan to get the video for Snapchat as she repeatedly professed her love for the rapper. Bregoli laughed, thanked her and quietly ended the call.

This interaction was a far cry from the expletive-shouting, middle-finger-flipping, rapidly twerking girl who later blasted through a brief but enthusiastic 45-minute set for a sold-out crowd of 750 fans at the Garrick in downtown Winnipeg, 120 of whom dropped about $100 for a special VIP experience ticket that included a meet-and-greet before the show.

Bregoli hopped onstage 20 minutes late, after several opening acts performed and several fans were ejected. She wore a crop top that showed off her many tattoos and bulky grey sweatpants, flipping thick locks of bright red hair that overwhelmed her tiny frame and pointing her claw-like acrylic nails at fans who knew every word to every very short song.

She owned the stage, and rapped pretty well over her backing tracks. Hundreds of phones recorded her every move and every brash piece of banter. In the lobby, hundreds of dollars were being spent on her merch, which included $50 T-shirts, $80 sweatshirts and a necklace named after one of her biggest hits, Hi Bich, for a whopping $85.

Again, she is just 15 years old.

For those over the age of 30, Bregoli’s appeal is a bit of a mystery. She’s aggressive and loud, and, according to the Dr. Phil show appearance that launched her rise to fame (and generated her now-infamous catchphase, “Cash me ousside, how bout dah?”), she’s also a bit of a criminal. Her songs have names such as These Heaux and Gucci Flip Flops; she uses the word “messy” as a harsh insult and asks the crowd if they want to “f*** shit up” with her and her crew. She has been accused of cultural appropriation and glorifying drug use and crime.

But she’s also the youngest female rapper ever to appear on the Billboard Hot 100. She’s signed to Atlantic Records with multiple gold-selling singles, has amassed 16 million followers on Instagram and is earning a lot of money for a lot of people after less than two years in the entertainment business.

“I can only speak for myself, but I was aware of Danielle’s appearance on Dr. Phil. I wasn’t aware that she had parlayed the success into music until the show (was) confirmed,” said Sam Smith, the Garrick’s operations manager. “Personally, I was surprised first by the vitriol online about her appearance. Then concerned when sales surged, expecting an angry mob.”

“Then I answered the phone at the venue a thousand times regarding the show itself and realized the fan base was genuine, extremely excited to see her perform… Seeing how genuinely engaged her fans were, it’s pretty clear what she’s doing isn’t to entertain a middle-aged white fella.”

Smith pegged the demographics accurately — around 5:30 p.m., a lineup of teens and 20-somethings had snaked around the Garry Street venue despite the frigid cold; not all of these fans were there for the meet-and-greet, but instead were willing to suffer, waiting until doors opened at 7 p.m. to get a front-row spot on the floor.

According to members of Bregoli’s team, the Winnipeg show sold about 150 more tickets than her show in Toronto; it’s clear her local fanbase is buying what she is selling, be it the lyrics about huge houses and fancy cars, the lavish lifestyle portrayed on social media or the rough-and-tumble narrative she has built her Bhad Bhabie persona on.

Bregoli is basically Snapchat personified; a living version of the ultra-trendy, ultra-curated, ultra-filtered internet places where young people spend a lot of their time and energy building their own ultra-trendy, ultra-curated, ultra-filtered online personas.

And just like a Snapchat, she’s likely to be a temporary part of our collective consciousness, but entertaining to watch for the few seconds she’ll be around.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel