SW 2019: Kari Faux

For those of you who haven’t read past Daniel Caesar’s name on the spring weekend lineup, Kari Rose Johnson, more commonly known as Kari Faux, is a name worth knowing.Faux is the daughter of a minister and a peanut butter factory worker. She grew up in Arkansas before moving to Georgia for college. After dropping out of college because “it sucked,” she “took [her] ass back home” and began working on music. She dropped her debut mixtape, "Laugh Now, Die Later," which was featured in Pitchfork’s list of most under-the-radar mixtapes of 2014. The mixtape caught the ear of Donald Glover, (aka Childish Gambino if you’ve been living under a rock). He later featured her song "No Small Talk" in “Gahdamn.” She recently dropped “Cry 4 Help,” which Pitchfork described as an “intimate” EP in March 2019.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaeSM_njNmw[/embed]What really drives Faux home are her honest, relatable lyrics. In “No Small Talk,” Faux jokes, “All my bitches bossy, all my diamonds flossy / Rap game sriracha man you know I'm saucy.” She goes on to say shamelessly, “Three cellphones and I still don't ever text 'em / Catch me out in public, and you know I'm flexing.” She unapologetically captures the essence of wanting to flex.In “Cry 4Help,” Faux shows a more sensitive, yet equally honest and relatable side. In an interview with NPR about the EP, she said, "I've always felt like I was never able to put my real, real life into my music, so this was kind of like a test for me to see like, 'OK, can you write about the s*** [that] has actually happened to you?” In the single, Leave Me Alone, she gets real with feelings of loss and emptiness, saying “I find myself doing the same old things / Thinking 'damn man, where are my friends?' / I guess that love is just for pretend / My views was skewed like a fish eye lens.” Faux can do it all -- get real, get funny, and get honest -- all through soul, R&B, and hip-hop inspired rap. She's a must-see this spring weekend!Image via