Masked Brooklyn-native rapper Leikeli47 is showing off her love for New York in the video for her new single “BITM,” which comes from her just-announced album Shape Up out this spring. It’s her third LP overall but will serve as the finale to her trilogy, following 2017’s Wash Set and 2018’s Acrylic.
The song has a daunting, pulsating beat and assertive, whisper-like vocals as she repeats the confident hook, “B*tch, I’m the man.” The eerie atmosphere is full of echoes and reverberations, and the bridge features a kind of chant about rent being due. It’s idiosyncratic and hypnotic, like her previous single “Chitty Bang,” which was released earlier this year after being on the Madden ’22 soundtrack and then mysteriously disappearing late last year. It has been confirmed as a track on this new album. Earlier in the pandemic, she also unleashed the aptly-titled “Zoom,” whose creative video borrowed its aesthetic from the 16-bit video games of yesteryear, featuring an animated version of Leikeli.
Watch the video for “BITM” above, which features footage from a recent performance of hers at a sold-out show at Elsewhere. Find the album artwork for Shape Up below.
Shape Up is out 4/14 via Hardcover/RCA Records.
