The Spectacle of Chase Icon and Addison Rae
put your headphones and blonde bangs on
Hi Icons,
It’s Mo aka DJ Gay Panic, and this(!) is The Deviant Dispatch. I’m blogging from my corner of the NYC “underground” to bring you subcultural musings, scene updates, and queer shit. There will be typos.
Thanks to everyone who sent love about my anti-phone rant + hello to all my new subscribers! Let’s ride.
On my daily quest to find things to smile about, I’ve been turning to Chase Icon’s debut album Icon Baby. Despite putting out songs and guest features for years1, this is the rapper’s first album. When it dropped March 25th, I repeatedly squealed while listening at my desk. Sure I was already a fan, but the quality blew me away.
I’ve compiled some choice lyrics below:
“Sorry I’m pretty and easy to hate. Sorry the gays let you think that you ate but it's over, bitch, now give me that plate”
- “Like Me”
“More famous than the Beatles/Skinny as a needle”
- “Mary Kate & Ashley”
“Turn a transphobe into a chaser”
- “Bang 2”
“You want smoke, little bitch? Check my water line / Fans wait outside my shows, that's a bottom line/And my records selling out like all the time”
-“Illegally Blonde”
“You're not a brat, bitch, you're a Polly Pocket”
- "Like Me”
“I love dick like I love my surgeon, need a new set and the matter’s urgent
-“Bubblegum”
“Now work, work like a job application”
-“Job Application”
“Went to his place, there was cops all around/He had overdosed on his couch /It's a missed connection”
-“Missed Connection”
“Blonde hair, fluoride stare”
-“Mary Kate & Ashley”
“And the winner of the "I don't give a fuck" wars /That's me, yeah, I'm comin' for the trophy”
-“IDGAF”
“Fuck Karma, she's a hoe and I don't have Reddit/You shoulda' known that was a bar but you half-read it”
-“SoCal Girl”
“Sorry to the DJs, I fuck athletes”
-“Mary Kate & Ashley”
Chase Icon first found fame2 in 2020 overdubbing Kylie Jenner’s office tour with her demure voice purring about toilets and Adderall. The original video has been wiped from the internet, but we have Rose Dommu’s Paper Magazine article to reference.
At the time, Chase wasn’t sure where the newfound attention would lead, but 4 years later she’s a rapper with a tongue-in-cheek valley girl persona. It’s a testament to Chase Icon’s wit that she can bring new life into the tropes of being rich, hot, and always partying. It helps she’s rapping over confrontationally synthetic beats from umru, Chicken, and other figures in the hyperpop underground3.
Club music is full of this type of female performer. Her lineage extends from Miss Kittin’s droll descriptions of “sniffing in the vip area” in 2001 to Sophie and Charli XCX’s song “Vroom Vroom” in 2016. Miss XCX’s 2024 domination has probs exhausted some people’s tolerance for buzzy electro beats with deadpan bitchy vocals. But for me this isn’t a trend: it’s a lifestyle.
I will never own a white Hermes Kelly bag, but I can channel Chase Icon’s swagger as she boasts about hers. It doesn’t matter that I’m toting a Telfar with worn corners. My headphones are on and I’m FEELING it.
Chase Icon’s music does nothing to invite pathos. She’s committed to creating the blonde rich bitch fantasy and it being comically two-dimensional. The lack of complexity casts her music as a cunty character study for the new Boom Boom generation (Complementary!) Like countless gay men before me, I am hooked.
Recently the podcast/musician/writer Eliza McLamb’s spilled some words on Addison Rae, another female musician who parlayed viral fame into music. After asserting that “the pop star is a spectacle” McLamb writes:
The thing about Addison Rae is that she has the sauce. She knows her references and she REFERENCES THEM! She’s biting Britney, she’s biting Lana, she’s biting Madonna, and she’s not pretending otherwise. She is not performing the faux-spawn of a nubile artistic integrity, straight from the classically authentic brain of Just A Normal Girl. Of course she’s not real. That’s why she works.
Despite not being a pop star like Addison Rae, Chase Icon works in a similar way. Her musical persona is the pop star spectacle built for the smaller scale of alt gay clubs and the queer online. Like Rae, her references are obvious and suited for the genre. She’s clearly studied Miss Kitten (the first version of her song “Club Cooter” sampled “Silver Screen”). She mentions Charli XCX and Sophie in that first Paper interview. Her own music works because she knows the cannon and has enough sauce to riff on it successfully.
Her music is a fantasy to admire, a plastic tiara to wear on a playdate. Or quite literally, a song to play on your headphones.
I’m gonna be communing with witches until May, but here’s some weekend fun before I go.
XOXO
Mo
Um, Jennifer? Album Release Show
When: Friday 4/25, 7pm doors
Where: Nightclub 101, the new manhattan venue from Baby’s All Right
What: Self-described as “tr@ns slut rock”, Um, Jennifer? is a two piece band making music to appease a god named Jennifer. They balance being emotionally open on songs like “Delancy” with being silly. In a words of a Stereogum commentor: “ the lore is a little bit out there, but these are some great songs.”
The opening band for this release show is the no wave/ post-punk band Pop Music Fever Dream, who are playful enough to work on a bill with the more melodically-inclined headliners. Also on this bill is the showgirl Daniella Darling, a rising star of BK’s drag scene.
How much: $21.56 including fees
CHRISTEENE THERAPEE SESSIONS
When: Saturday 4/26 1-6pm
Where: In front of the Rick Owens Store at 30 Howard Street
What: Get a therapy session on the street from the swamp monster, musician, and comedian known as CHRISTEENE. Advice is liable to be profane and oddly profound. She also will draw a portrait of you. Sign up for sessions begin at 1pm and are first come first serve.
How much: $50
ICON DADDY: the NYC Chase Icon album release party
When: Sat, Apr 26, 11:00 PM
Where: 3 Dollar Bill
What: The woman of the hour (or at least this issue of my newsletter) celebrates her debut album with the help of the west coast party Subculture. The lineup is stacked, with live sets from bubblegum bass mainstay That Kid 4 , rapper Cortisa Star, and Paper Magazine fave Miss Madeline. Subculture said that tickets are already 80% sold, so if you wanna see Chase you better click fast.
How much: $35
The best Chase Icon feature is her verse on Kunt Fetish’s “Botched” but there are sooo many good ones
When I say Chase Icon is famous, it is a niche gay fame. Of course, this is arguably the best kind, but that’s a topic for a different newsletter.
I’m considering setting a challenge to go a month without talking about hyperpop in this newsletter
If I didn’t link enough music for you, check out my FAVE That Kid song “Boost Mobile.”