Blending distorted and chaotic soundscapes with unapologetic flows and ethereal melodies, Bktherula makes a new kind of rap psychedelia. Since breaking out with "Left Right" in 2019, she's oscillated between raucous cloud rap and gentle R&B, fusing impressionistic songwriting with complex musicality to create affecting anthems that feel futuristic and universal. Her forthcoming EP LVL5, PT 2, is light years ahead of the current trends.
Brainstorming new dreams, Bk looks to the future. "I want my music to inspire others to be the best version of themselves," she says. "I feel extremely blessed where I am now and where I see myself going. I'm super blessed for my fans, because I wouldn't be here without them."
The 21-year-old has been rewarded with a growing legion of fans and a slot as Atlanta's next-up in many critics' estimations. To date, her songs have collected more than 236 million streams across multiple platforms. She's planted more seeds with "TATTI," the playfully braggadocious new single on Warner Records.
Coasting over an apocalyptic instrumental, Bk uses "TATTI" to let loose flurries of arrogance and dismissive humor: "Bitch, try to hack my phone again, I'm callin' the cops / I'm just way too grown, way too swaggy to have opps." Brisk, decisive, and funny, it's a kiss-off with a wink.
While "TATTI" dwells in momentary invincibility, her YoungBoy Never Broke Again-assisted single "Crazy Girl P2" makes a home in the world of scorned love as Bk predicts her ex's new lover will soon be forgotten the same way she was. Trading stop-and-start raps for frenetically melodic murmurs, her words seep with bitterness that could only come from a broken heart: "Heard you let the ho meet your moms, nigga / D-damn, nigga, you cold / D-damn, nigga, you bold / Do you know he cry for me all night? / D-damn, baby, you know." Coated in dynamic sounds and subtle emotional depth, the tracks reflect a Bk who has leveled up in more ways than one.
"I've grown in all aspects of my life. I also have a good team and people around me that really inspire me to make my best creations,' she says. "I've experienced a lot these past few years. I just feel more mature, and it reflects in my sound. LVL 5, Part 2 is an advanced version of me."
Before Bk was advanced at anything, she was an impressionable kid absorbing the sounds of acts like A Tribe Called Quest and Michael Jackson alongside her dad, a burgeoning rapper who was in a group that opened for Tribe. "I was into music before I could even talk," she remembers. That predisposition resulted in her becoming interested in dance, which meant she was soon well-versed in hip-hop, tap, and jazz. By the age of nine, Bk was recording her own music, with her mother using a tape recorder to capture the two of them singing. "It made me want to burst into tears, it was so pure," she says of those first a cappella recordings.
Inspired by her own family and the music she grew up listening to, Bk took her recording habits to the next level. At age 13, she uploaded her first songs to SoundCloud. At 16, she was putting her playfully swaggering raps to the test at local shows in Atlanta's rap underground. Around that same time, she unloaded "Faygo" and "Left Right," singles that promptly went viral, with the latter getting an even bigger surge just last year: "I'm on TikTok scrolling or I'm on my Instagram Reels and scrolling, and I was just like, 'Oh nah, niggas are taking the time out they day and using this as a sound,'" she says. "Left Right" earned tens of millions of streams across multiple streaming platforms and helped her secure a deal with Warner Records and her very own festival in Atlanta. Now, following the release of LVL 5, Part 1 and ahead of LVL 5, Part 2, she looks to soar higher than ever. This past spring, she embarked on her first-ever sold-out tour. "I felt like Michael Jackson," she says of the moment. Her music has been characterized by spiritual warfare, a struggle she knows fans can face, too. Having surmounted personal obstacles, she knows that transformation begins in a belief in possibility--even the things we can't see.
"The fifth dimension, or what I call LVL5, is the plane and space where spiritual phenomena take place," she explains. "It is the space where the things that we cannot yet explain through our fourth-dimensional perception are manifesting. It is up to us to remain positive and break our repeated cycles that prevent us from reaching our higher selves."
