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Music

Kirko Bangz: Digital Love

He showed us his Insta DMs, and trust—the thirst is real.

It's an exciting time to be a groupie. Once upon a time sleeping with a star meant a high-value investment like throwing your bra on stage or interning at the White House. Things have changed. A few weeks ago I finally gained access to my personal holy grail—a semi-famous rapper's Insta DMs. Scrolling through Kirko Bangz' daily communion of low-res nudes I felt a sense of wonder at our frictionless modern Gomorrah. In a sense nothing's new—humans have always worshipped distant gods with gifts of flesh. Now the gods can hit you back.

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Of course, Kirko Bangz isn't a god. He's a rising rapper from Houston with a couple national hits under his belt and an upcoming major label debut, and during our recent chat he seemed just as amazed by the nudes as me. Think about it—dude spends most of his young life perfecting the craft of yelling rhyming words over repetitive sounds until one day strangers began sending him pictures of their butts? If that's not inexpressibly magical then I don't know. Fear not, ladies—even if he doesn't respond, he wants you to know that he looks at every DM, and he's always appreciative. Long live the new flesh.

Listen to Kirko's brand new Progression 4 mixtape and check out our interview below:

Noisey: So, what brings you to New York?
Kirko Bangz: Aw man, doing promo. Just dropped a new track, gearing up for my album. It’s called "Hoe," and it’s basically talking about the girls in the world and the things that they do.

What’s your favorite thing that girls do?
My favorite thing? I like it when girls keep it clear, keep in G.

What's your least favorite thing?
When their vibe is chasing attention and stuff like that. If it’s a club where they got the sparklers and they just chase for the bottles when they don’t have their own.

Tell me about the environment where you grew up in Houston.
Single-parent home, brother and sister. It was a rough environment where things happened around me, but I knew what was in it. I played basketball when I was younger to keep my mind on things that went on around me. I always tried to separate myself and knew I wanted something better for myself. I mean, I’m a product of my environment, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time I didn’t let my environment get the best of me.

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Must have been tough for your mom.
It was tough for her. She had two jobs all her life. She’s still working to this day. I still need to get her to stop working, so I have a lot of work to do, but I don’t think she’d change it. I think that she liked the way we learned from her. If I can grind half as good as she did with this music shit I’d be on top of the world. I learned from her and she knows it, so I think she’s very proud of me.

What was the first time you recorded a song?
On my porch at the table. Had the radio set up and would just write raps. I was going through a lot of shit, didn’t have nothing. So I wanted more. I was fifteen exactly and I wanted more in life. And I was like, I don’t want to talk to nobody, because I don’t want nobody knowing that I’m going through this type of shit. So I sat on my porch and just wrote about it. A little thug diary. And slowly but surely man, people started finding out and I started rapping around with people, and it just took off from there.

What was the Houston rap scene like at the time?
It wasn’t going on when I first came out. My first record was “What Your Name Iz?” and there wasn’t a lot going on. It made it easier for me, and slowly but surely, after that, boom, boom, boom, it was like a domino effect.

What were you writing about?
Shit. Just bad shit. Like bad stuff, not shooting anybody or doing drugs, but talking about the pain, probably some girls I wanted.

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So, I feel like the songs you've received most recognition for are party songs, but I'd imagine your upcoming album has a wider spectrum?
Exactly. My album is called “Bigger Than Me” and I want to talk about where I’ve been. Everything is uncut though. No cutting no corners, I’m giving everybody the game and what I’ve been going through. And that’s the stuff I’ve been doing my whole career, but the old songs are the songs that blew up, so I kind of just played my cards, waited until my time to get those other messages across as well as what I’m known for.

What is the most lavish thing you’ve done since blowing up?
My Lambourghini, Ferrai, and I got a penthouse. 29th floor, top of the building.=

Great view?
For sure. It’s all for the girls, and it’s going to use.

Which of the cars is your favorite?
Ferrari.

Do you often just go cruise?
All the time. Especially when I’m making new music, the best way to listen to music is in a car. So late at night, if I do a song, I’ll go ride around the block, see how it sounds.

What was the most trouble you got into in high school?
My come-up partners, they were selling CDs, and I figured out how to do it, how to burn CDs and stuff, and I don’t know how I came up on it, but I had 50 dollars, so I spent it all the money to get CDs, and I started making money. I had 300 dollars in my backpack one time, and I was slanging CDs, and at the time they had banned it at our school, and my dumb ass was in the middle of the hallway trying to do that shit, and then my principal came and took all my shit. Took my money, took everything.

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Damn.
I wasn’t a bad kid, so that was probably the worst thing I ever did. Still slang them CDs though.

Did you go to prom?
I went with my my two homies. Only one of them had a date. We went in there, had a big ol’ gold chain on and shit. I was clean as a bitch. I remember I had a rental car. Couldn’t get what I wanted, had to get a Cobalt. Sorry-ass car [laughs]. It was legit though, I was into this girl all year. She had a nigga at the time and she was like, "I’m gonna leave my nigga and leave with you." I was like, "Hell yeah, can’t wait." And next thing you know I was riding back from prom, one deep, bored, no bitches. All that shit changed now though.

So she didn’t end up going home with you?
Hell no! She went with her nigga [laughs].

Cold. What’s your favorite place to take someone for a date?
I like to find something that’s out of the usual. I don’t go on dates that much, but if I do, I like to look up some other little shit. You know, I’m a little creeper though. I find out what the girl likes. I look on her instagram, find out some shit she like and just pop up like, wanna go here? And I already know she likes that type of shit.

Nice one. You can’t get too specific though, or she'll know.

Can’t at all. Just got to keep it player, bring it up in a conversation.

Do you think instagram is the thirstiest form of social media?
Yeah, but that shit’s a good thing. You wanna see my insta DM?

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Yes.
Let me show you. I get nakeds constantly,

Wow.
But I look at all them, that’s the crazy part. I don’t think that they think I look at them. I look at all of them.

Let the record show that currently, Kirko Bangz is showing me his Insta DMs on his iPhone. Still loading.
That’s some booty right there.

That's definitely booty.
I got the full nakedness in here.

So far it’s just a lot of—oh, there we go.
Naked.

Houston, we have full nudity.
Look at this shit.

Wow.
Yeah, I keep the nakeds in my insta DM. so any girls wanna send me some, I’m gonna look at it for sure.

If you’re out there sending Kirko insta DMs, he’s looking. So, moving on—what would be your dream career path for the next couple years if everything goes according to plan?
It’s gonna go according to plan for sure. Just excel in this music, man. I want to like, write movies. I want to act too.

Do you see yourself as a romantic lead?
No, I want to be in some gangsta shit. So yeah, childhood dream, you know? Other that man, just being a bastion for my city. Just do a lot of things for the city, bring stuff back to the city, events and stuff, take care of the people in the city. I don’t want no homeless people in my city. Want to build some type of shelters so we can scoop them all up. We take your ass of the streets, you ain;t got no choice, c’mon. I don’t want no homeless folks in the city so that’s what I’m working towards.

Tell me about some of your tattoos.
I got Houston right around here, on my neck. The reason I go it is I kept getting these hickies on my neck, so I was like, man, I can’t have a show with all of these, so I just covered that shit up. And this

Wish I had problems like that. What's the best show you've ever played?
I had this one show, in like, Padre or something like that, and we killed that shit. When I’m having shows I fuck with the people. I’ll be in the crowd, chillin’, I’ll be walking down the streets. I’ll just be having fun. So I was out there chillin’ and we had the hotel right there. My dumb ass, I told everybody to come after the show. So all the bitches just following us. They had a pool right there, and I was so fucked up, and one of my niggas bet me to jump in the pool with all my clothes on. And I just ran in there and jumped in with all my clothes on. Bitches started jumping in and shit, and we took it upstairs. That shit was crazy.

What's one word of advice for kids coming up right now?
Be yourself, be yourself. People underestimate that man, like be yourself. And take time to yourself to find yourself too. To get yourself, sometimes you got to get away from your friends and sometimes you got to get away from your family too. Whatever you’re trying to do that ain’t you, it might work, but it ain’t gonna work for long. You’re just going to keep clashing with yourself and you’re not going to be happy. Just be yourself and pray.

Ezra Marcus will also look at any nude he receives—@ezra_marc