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Baltimore’s Double Down Embraces a “Chicken Box” Full of Racial Stereotypes

This thing is a borderline racist (and seems completely racist until you realize that Andrea is the large woman rolling around in bed) mindfuck in the best possible way.

The other day we stumbled on an amazing video for a song called “Chicken Box” by Baltimore rapper and producer Andrea Towns, AKA UnderWaterstar (and a bunch of other names). This thing is a borderline racist (and seems completely racist until you realize that Andrea is the large woman rolling around in bed) mindfuck in the best possible way. Before you read it, though, you really need to see this video:

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VICE: How do you think the "Chicken Box" video combats racial stereotypes in Baltimore? 
Andrea Townes: Simply, it doesn’t. It glorifies them. Stereotypes are how we recognize each other in this culturally and environmentally diverse society. As the chick on the phone in the video would say, “I ain’t gonna ask no skinny white girl where to get no chicken box in the ghetto, shit. I’m gonna ask the fat bitch on the train who smell like grease and look like me. You feel me?!”

Yes, I very much feel you. There's a lot of karate in this video. How come?
Well, the boy in the alley is seeking revenge because our “hero” is his mother’s baby’s father and has failed to make his child support payments… but that is irrelevant. Aren’t all white men evil and don’t all black men know some form of karate? I mean, certainly all guns in the hood are gold-plated.

Do chicken boxes really only cost $5 in Baltimore? I feel like they're more here in NYC.
Oh absolutely not. Well, it actually depends on how hood-deep you want be verses how clean you like your chicken grease. If you don’t mind not knowing whether your chicken is going to be fried too hard and taste like fish, a box will run you $5 and some change with a can of grape soda for another 50 cents. But if you want big tasty wings with western fries from new grease with a half-in-half, that’s close to $7.

Are you the lady in the video? Did you have fun during the filming of it?
Why yes, the lady in distress is myself, UnderWaterStar aka Phantom Ham. The video was fun up until we cut and I had to give the chicken to the dude that let us borrow his camera. All I actually got out of the video was that bite out of the donut. Not that I was in it just for the food, I mean just ’cause I’m fat doesn’t mean I only work for food.

Who was the first kid in the video?
He’s really like, 16. He just walked up on us trying to buy some “trees.” Of course, none of us knew anything at all about that, so we just asked him if we could get a couple shots of him kicking a soccer ball.  He said he would do it for a Newport. The chick with him is his baby’s mother who lives around the corner.

Aside from chicken, what other kind of food do you think would be good in a box?
… Fried.

Do you have plans for any more videos?
Well, Double Down is the pet project of myself Andrea Towns, aka UnderWaterstar, aka White Precious, and Mike Smith, aka M.I.C.S.M.I.F.F. Baltimore is in our blood, music is in our souls, and art is how we survive. There’s nothing funnier than to look in the mirror and realize that everything you talk shit about is staring you right in the face. That’s where the motivation comes from. Mike and I have been friends since I was stealing my parent’s car and sneaking into his mother’s basement. Double Down was born way back then and now it is finally the time to put it out there. We like to keep our ideas on the low, but I can tell you that we have been throwing the idea of “a bow and arrow that shoots glitter” around.

@wolfievibes