The making of the viral TikTok hit, "Own Brand Freestyle"
"I ain't never been with a baddie." What does TikTok's favorite dance track "Own Brand Freestyle" mean? We asked rappers Dreya Mac and FelixThe1st.
Who sings own brand freestyle ?
“Own Brand Freestyle” is the soundtrack to over 6 million videos on TikTok… “‘Now, I ain’t never been with a baddie.’ I was really talking about Instagram baddies. I wasn’t saying that everyone I’ve been with isn’t a baddie. I got a lot of angry calls about that”, says Dreya Mac. Longtime friends Dreya Mac and Felix the 1st walk us through the lyrics of the song that brought them international fame.
The story behind TikTok's viral hit, "Love Nwantiti"
“So what I’m saying is, I just want money that’s easy, that’s light. “I just want money that’s calm. Teenage never worry ‘bout acne.” Because we’re good. We don’t worry about spots, we’re young. No stress, do you get it?”, explains FelixThe1st.
Like its name suggests, the song was really a freestyle that the pair recorded during an impromptu studio session. “We just got yakked. Sorry, I mean drunk. We just got drunk and we just spat the bars. I can't lie. To be honest with you, there’s probably like eight versions of the song. Do you know what I mean? Because we were just doing different takes, different freestyles of sections of it. I just talk a lot of rubbish in the mic until it makes sense and then Dreya’s flow just literally bounced off mine and it was like, “Yeah, that’s a track.” Do you know what I mean?”, says FelixThe1st.
She sings public service announcements on TikTok: Brut met Heb On The Web
Dreya Mac choreographed the dance
The artists met through a shared love of dance. “We’d spend lots of time together, just vibing. And when we were in the dance stuff, we both had the same passion, so we would always be freestyling, taking the mick [teasing each other] doing our stuff. And then one day she just said to me, like, “Yo, you need to make music”, explains FelixThe1st.
Dreya Mac choreographed the dance that helped catapult the song to viral fame. “I was just trying to think about moves that people could actually catch onto, but people still say it’s hard. But I tried my hardest to, you know, keep it kind of “TikToky”, explains Dreya Mac. TikTok users got creative with the sound.
Musicians and TikTok: It's complicated
For the young artists, there’s a new generation of U.K. talent ready to make their voices heard. “I think the U.S. trap beats, they draw people in. Because it’s the big 808s, the big basses. *singing* I feel everyone can just nod their head to it, you know what I mean? And I feel like people, I don’t know, haven’t heard U.K. accents or, you know, British accents over the top of that and I think we’re starting something new”, says Dreya Mac.
Meanwhile, the #FlipTheSwitch challenge takes over TikTok...
Who sings own brand freestyle ?
“Own Brand Freestyle” is the soundtrack to over 6 million videos on TikTok… “‘Now, I ain’t never been with a baddie.’ I was really talking about Instagram baddies. I wasn’t saying that everyone I’ve been with isn’t a baddie. I got a lot of angry calls about that”, says Dreya Mac. Longtime friends Dreya Mac and Felix the 1st walk us through the lyrics of the song that brought them international fame.
The story behind TikTok's viral hit, "Love Nwantiti"
“So what I’m saying is, I just want money that’s easy, that’s light. “I just want money that’s calm. Teenage never worry ‘bout acne.” Because we’re good. We don’t worry about spots, we’re young. No stress, do you get it?”, explains FelixThe1st.
Like its name suggests, the song was really a freestyle that the pair recorded during an impromptu studio session. “We just got yakked. Sorry, I mean drunk. We just got drunk and we just spat the bars. I can't lie. To be honest with you, there’s probably like eight versions of the song. Do you know what I mean? Because we were just doing different takes, different freestyles of sections of it. I just talk a lot of rubbish in the mic until it makes sense and then Dreya’s flow just literally bounced off mine and it was like, “Yeah, that’s a track.” Do you know what I mean?”, says FelixThe1st.
She sings public service announcements on TikTok: Brut met Heb On The Web
Dreya Mac choreographed the dance
The artists met through a shared love of dance. “We’d spend lots of time together, just vibing. And when we were in the dance stuff, we both had the same passion, so we would always be freestyling, taking the mick [teasing each other] doing our stuff. And then one day she just said to me, like, “Yo, you need to make music”, explains FelixThe1st.
Dreya Mac choreographed the dance that helped catapult the song to viral fame. “I was just trying to think about moves that people could actually catch onto, but people still say it’s hard. But I tried my hardest to, you know, keep it kind of “TikToky”, explains Dreya Mac. TikTok users got creative with the sound.
Musicians and TikTok: It's complicated
For the young artists, there’s a new generation of U.K. talent ready to make their voices heard. “I think the U.S. trap beats, they draw people in. Because it’s the big 808s, the big basses. *singing* I feel everyone can just nod their head to it, you know what I mean? And I feel like people, I don’t know, haven’t heard U.K. accents or, you know, British accents over the top of that and I think we’re starting something new”, says Dreya Mac.
Meanwhile, the #FlipTheSwitch challenge takes over TikTok...