Flyana Boss: meet the most talked-about new rap duo on the planet

NME

Lil Nas X. Missy Elliott. Megan Thee Stallion. What do they all have in common? They’re the latest fans of Flyana Boss, the dynamic duo dominating social media with their cheeky raps and ingenious marketing tactics.

Flyana Boss have entranced millions of users worldwide with their ‘Flyana Boss challenge’, which sees them run through various, unexpected LA locations – from McDonalds to Disneyland. Each video is set to their latest single ‘You Wish’, which pairs an upbeat, rubbery bassline with the girls’ high-energy, animated verses. It’s not hard to see why they’ve garnered fans in such a short span of time: their bars are packed with personality. There’s the inventive: “I’m made of sugar, spice, Kanekalon and cinnamon”, and the hilarious: “I be Michael Phelps / All the brand deals that I’m swimmin’ in”. 

Over Zoom, Flyana Boss are bursting with energy, constantly bouncing off each other in conversation. When they’re prompted to introduce themselves and their ages, their responses are entertainingly evasive; Detroit-born Bobbi LaNea is “old enough to drink and smoke”, Dallas-raised Folayan – who prefers not to share her surname – meanwhile, is simply “grown”. LaNea can always be spotted with her pink bag in videos; Folayan often dons her signature elf ears.

Both are talented musicians who met at music college in LA, each with a melting pot of influences: LaNea is a producer who grew up listening to Motown, R&B and soul. Folayan, who was surrounded by Ginuwine, Dallas rap, and Ella Fitzgerald, trained as a jazz vocalist, once a finalist at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2013. The two also bond over pop legends like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Rihanna, and of course, take their name from Diana Ross, inspired by a compliment Folayan received at college: “She had these bright Diana Ross eyes!” LaNea beams.

Taking cues from their role models, Flyana Boss have declared themselves leaders of the wonderfully-titled ‘Vagina Dynasty’. It’s a term coined by Folayan’s sister, a writer and Columbia University graduate. “We’re from this divine feminine world”, Folayan explains. “We come from strong women, sisters and friends around us,” LaNea adds. “That is what the Vagina Dynasty is”.

Though a lot of love has been shown towards Flyana Boss on social media, there’s also been a lot of hate. There’s everything from tired accusations of being “industry plants” – a trend that has largely plagued young, female-identifying artists across all genres this year, from The Last Dinner Party to Sexyy Red – to suggestions from various Twitter users that ‘You Wish’ is “the worst song I’ve ever heard”.

That’s why the first order of the Vagina Dynasty is to advocate for the power of female friendship, especially as rappers: the pair write together, and try to make each other laugh with each lyric until it becomes increasingly outrageous. “We want to represent true friendship, community and sisterhood,” says LaNea. “That image isn’t always displayed in female rap.”

NME: Were the two of you born into musical families? 

LaNea: “Just musical fans. I didn’t see people doing music until I saw myself doing it. But I didn’t understand how music was made, so it took a lot of research for me to figure that out.”

Folayan: “I grew up in a musical family in Dallas. My brothers do music, my sister does music and film. My mom is this fairy goddess who does hair. She’s a celebrity hair braider and a natural hair activist. So she doesn’t believe in chemicals, perming, heat. She just uses however your hair grows and water to braid hair, She’s helped out a lot of young women and she’s amazing.”

You must have run into some famous faces while helping out at the salon, then…

Folayan: “The biggest one is Erykah Badu. For me, she’s been a huge inspiration my entire life. Just seeing her in my mom’s chair – that was just amazing. That’s my favourite person.”

LaNea: “There’s a photo of Folayan’s mom braiding Erykah’s hair and Folayan is on her back in a knapsack, poking her head out. It’s so cute.“

Folayan: “[Erykah is] hilarious, and also smells amazing. Just an all around amazing person.”

Bobbi, your mum has appeared in a few of your TikTok videos. What does she think of your viral success?

LaNea: “She can’t wait for me to buy her a house or a condo! That’s what she thinks about because she doesn’t understand social media. It’s big, but she doesn’t understand how big it is because we’re not on TV. But she knows what a Rolling Stone article is – that’s huge, so she’s like, ‘Where is my house?'”

You both share a great sense of humour – where does that from? 

Folayan: “I’ve been getting my humour from Bobbi.”

LaNea: “Back when we first met,  said that somebody told her that she wasn’t funny and I think they’re the biggest liar on the face of the earth. She makes me laugh so much. But I will say I’ve always tried to be funny my whole life. Ever since I was a little kid, humour was a bridge for me, especially connecting to my dad and my brothers. I had to make them laugh to get their admiration and attention and affection.

You’ve described yourselves as “two weird Black girls”. What’s the weirdest thing about you?

LaNea: “We call ourselves weird because we don’t fit like a stereotypical mould of whatever a Black girl is supposed to be – which I think is every Black girl, but we’re just outwardly projecting. We’re not whatever you think a Black girl should be. But I mean, we both have little quirks. I don’t like cheese. People think that’s weird about me.”

Folayan: “I usually wear my ears of some sort. I don’t have them on today because I left them at home.”

Folayan, where did you get the idea to wear elf ears?  

Folayan: “I wanted to wear elf ears for a really long time, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing it. I was like, ‘Is it too weird?’. There was someone that worked at a dispensary with me, they wore elf ears, and they’re a cute Black girl too. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can do it too!’. So they really influenced me to start just wearing them out everywhere. The ears just make me feel like the mystical creature that I feel like inside – and that makes me very happy.”

Bobbi, you’re always carrying a bag in your videos. What’s in the bag?

LaNea: “I need to get a new bag. Everyone’s like, ‘Y’all got brand deals, why are you still wearing the same dingy bag?’ [laughs] Let’s see. I have hand sanitiser. My wallet. Some Vaseline – I hate to be ashy. Some manuka honey lozenges, keys and a pen. I had a mask in here up until last week. And a scrunchie.”

The Flyana Boss challenge has popped off. Have you ever nearly got kicked out of any locations for filming it? 

Folayan: “So L.A. Fitness gym, that was on Hollywood Boulevard. We just decided not to ask for permission, but to ask for forgiveness. We had someone go up to the front desk and distract everyone. Her name is Julie – love Julie – and we just ran through it.”

LaNea: “The whole clip takes 25 seconds so you don’t have to ask for permission because by the time they’re yelling at you, we’re done.”

Folayan: “We went to Disneyland – we thought we were definitely gonna get kicked out. We thought everyone was gonna have a problem with it.”

LaNea: “That’s the only place we didn’t want to get kicked out or banned from because we love Disneyland.”

Missy Elliot has participated in the Flyana Boss challenge – how did that make you feel? 

LaNea: “A dream come true! She’s our hero; she is the pinnacle of black weirdness expressing itself.”

Folayan: “We can sing her praises all day.”

She even defended you both on Twitter, right? 

LaNea: “It started with her commenting ‘fun’ [on one of our videos], and then it escalated to her coming to our defence on Twitter. Wow, that was crazy. If you can have somebody like Missy on your side in the Twitter-sphere, then that’s huge.”

How have you learned to deal with hate comments on social media?

Folayan: “We had 40 million views on a video we did, so it’s only natural to have that negativity. I think people just are jarred by two happy Black girls running; [they say], ‘What is this? This isn’t hip hop.'”

LaNea: “But we like that reaction as well…”

Folayan: “Yeah, because we’re being seen by so many more people than we could ever imagine.”

LaNea: “So if they hate on us, whatever – we’re still happy!”

Flyana Boss’ new single ‘You Wish’ is out now

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