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Leikeli47 is a Brooklyn rapper with a history of not showing her face. Instead, she raps, icily, from behind a ski mask, harder than any other New York rapper at the moment, then, easily flipping into R&B softness. On her latest single “Miss Me,” which dropped last Friday, she has even less patience than normal, insisting on the insanely catchy hook: “Miss me with the bullsh*t.”
The single comes off her first debut album, which will be out this fall through RCA. It follows up 2012’s LK-47 and 2014’s LK-47 Pt. II, both tapes replete with AK-47s in the visuals (in case the album names didn’t give it away), and Leikeli47’s signature, spooky mask. But the goal of the mask isn’t intimidation at all, instead, it’s a way Leikeli avoids the double standard that female rappers are so often subjected to. “It distracts from everything that everybody would normally go to,” she explained to Noisey in 2015. “Shat’s she look like, what’s her shape, her complexion.”
If you caught her 2014 “Two Times A Charm” video, some of the same recurring visual themes pop up here — as in, her whole crew is here to deadpan the camera along with Leikeli, as she goes through the mundane tasks of manning a bodega counter. You’ll notice the products on stock at this particular location are all “Miss Me” or “Leikeli47” brand, a nice little Easter egg for those who have been waiting for this defiant young rapper to come into her for a couple years now.
From the sounds of “Miss Me,” it will be the last time Leikeli feels slept on. Watch the video above and look for much more from her throughout the rest of this year.
