(CW: This article makes reference to sexual assault)

RAPPER ASHNIKKO RELEASED her latest single, ‘Invitation’, last Friday. 

A collaboration with Kodie Shane from her upcoming EP ‘Unlikeable’, the song details Ashnikko’s – real name Ashton Casey – lived in experiences of being a woman. 

I can’t even wear my skin

Without them asking where I’ve been

Without them asking for a spin

This is not an invitation.”

She’s been called “prudish” and “bitchy”, among an improbable number of other things, for turning down the unwanted advances of men. Now, she turned them back on the creeps, celebrating her bodily autonomy with sharp verses across industrial-sounding synth.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

“['Invitation' is] about me being assaulted, which was shit, but I wanted to write a hard song about it. Companies are using feminism as a marketing tool now. Its gross but even if it makes one little girl or boy go home and google “feminism”, I fuck with it. It’s a bit hollow, but I think only good can come out of that.

If I’m going to already be writing pop music i might as well talk about the things i’m passionate about. If you can outline the rules of consent in a pop song so more people can hear it and the more hear it, the better.”

Ash started out her music career as a teenager in Latvia, where her parents moved to from the States. She wrote a diss track about a girl in her class over Lil Kim’s ‘Black Friday’ beat.

Having been uprooted from North Caroline to become the only American in her Riga high school – where all classes were taught in Latvian – she sought refuge in her music, flying over and back to England with the hopes of getting noticed. She joined the OddChild community and has been slaving away at her craft over the four years.

In an interview with 1883 magazine, she said: “I got bullied a lot because I did music. It’s quite a patriarchal society there, a lot of men were offended by my presence. 

Doing something different is uncomfortable, regardless what you do differently – you always get hated especially as a woman. But regardless, its always more rewarding to be yourself.”

She’s heavily influenced by Nicki Minaj, Bjork and Neil Gaiman (that’s the dude who wrote Coraline, FYI) – all which are definitely evident in what she does. 

And she’s all about female empowerment. Speaking to All Access Music, she said:”I’m tired of being brainwashed that my body is my biggest asset [...] I will never exploit myself in a way that doesn’t empower me.”

Get ‘em, sis.
https://open.spotify.com/track/03VtV9LBKkvmWLRgO1ufvB

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