The Mastery Of Queen Key

Words by Franky Dono • Photos by Michael Salisbury

It doesn’t take much to understand how 22-year-old Queen Key’s vibrant personality has catapulted her to the forefront of Chicago’s rap scene. Her candid and outspoken brand of dialogue lives in its rawest form at all times and has an all-access residency in Queen’s growing, humorous and explicit lyrical rap sheet. Key’s wordplay is clever, carrying brash honesty with every punch. She loves exposing the fallacies of our society, especially the testosterone-heavy culture of hip-hop.

Men haven’t been much of a hot button for Queen lately, but she starkly remembers using her interactions with fast boys as a fuel to her creative process. Back at Homewood Flossmoor High School, she turned those unfavorable experiences into hot music, “I ain’t have to say their names when they heard it, they knew. But to see people recite that shit, and repeat it, it’s like, ‘Aw yeah this shit cool, yeah this a little formula like, nigga make me mad again!’”. Those natural instincts continued propelling Key toward success through her transfer to Dwight D. Eisenhower High School during her junior year. Along with building a reputation as the class clown with good grades, Queen eventually came into contact with her business partner/mentor, Mikkey Halsted of Machine Entertainment Group. Incorporating Mikkey, as well as signing to Machine Entertainment Group, have been instrumental factors in Queen’s career, especially with the release of her latest album, Eat My Pussy.

The title of the album started out as a joke, but quickly became a reality as it gained traction on Twitter, “So I called up Mikkey like, ‘Should I call my album this?’, he was like, ‘Yeah!’ And I was like, ‘Bet! We gone!’” Like much of Key’s past work, her words bear a more personal meaning than what’s generally on the surface. The title, Eat My Pussy, is a stamp for Key’s career, celebrating her aspiring longevity, as an in-your-face spirit of femininity within hip-hop culture. Even though her choice of words may be seen as negative, Key sees, “the beauty in it… I’m seeing a young, black girl, who just dropped a project called Eat My Pussy, and mfs is actually fuckin’ with it… Period.” In Queen’s eyes, what better way to make waves in an industry typecasting women into talking sex symbols, than to use that concept as an estrogen-based threat to her male competitors. The message is basically, “me telling niggas, ‘Watch out,’ because how Y'all be talking all that shit, there’s bitches that’s the same way bro. Like, bitches that’ll actually be a threat to you.” And she sees the title of her first project as an enthusiastic step in the right direction.

Even though Queen’s persona resembles the shock value attributes of Little Kim, Key’s deepest aspirations model that of Lauryn Hill. She grew up idolizing Lauryn’s story as a teenager and has kept up with her career thus far. All the more inspiring Key to be the bold artist that she is today, “It’s because she’s just one of the rawest bitches. She made me feel like you can still be a dope artist and write and not let fame or this money get to your head.”

Making a positive impact on young girls and women across the world, akin to Ms. Hill, is a legacy Queen Key aspires to create beyond the music. She’s humble and thankful for the people in her camp, a successful team of people Key knows were brought into her life by the grace of God. Even though, “people be like, ‘What the fuck she talkin’ about God? She just said, ‘eat my pussy!’ But like, bitch, that has nothing TO DO WITH IT. Don’t be that fuckin’ ignorant, assuming I’m ignorant.” Queen Key’s brand of expression is far from conservative, but this only partially dictates the person behind the music. She’s already proven going against the grain to be a suitable tactic, so what’s one more rule broken on the rise to fame? “I didn’t have to change me to do this shit. And I want people to know, you don’t gotta change, or do shit that people say. You can literally just do and say what you think.” Using Eat My Pussy as a launch pad for the summer, the next couple of months are lined with the successes of Queen’s Key’s beliefs.  

Key’s excited to be performing at WGCI’s 2018 Summer Jam on July 26th. And what’s more, she stands as the lone female artist performing at Lyrical Lemonade’s first ever Summer Smash in August. Queen and her team’s successes will continue into the coming months as well. With additional help from her partners at Machine Entertainment Group, she’s never too far from a studio. But right now, Queen’s happy with where the new album is taking her, and judging by the half pixelated tracklist featured on the back of the cover, she’s just getting started. “I did that to symbolize to mfs that I ain’t done, it’s not over.” Key intends on letting creativity take the wheel over the next couple of months. She’s in no rush but hopes to drop Eat My Pussy Again sometime in the next couple of months. Queen Key believes part two of her new album will set her on course for an even wider-spread audience and a new light in which to display her talents. “I’m just trying to be a little more open, more versatile, you know? Expand my horizons, show more of me.”

Thankfully Queen’s never been shy about expressing herself and continues to be a well-rounded voice in Chicago hip-hop, unconcerned with how others choose to label her. At the end of the day, she understands that the respect for her craft is, and forever will be, championed by the fans. But, “for right now, I know that I’m definitely the best bitch, period. I know I want to make timeless music and work with all my favorite artists, and I know I want to get into this movie shit.” There’s no doubt that Queen Key is focused on all the right ingredients for success, and as time goes on, expect to see her shine with confidence all the way to the world stage.