(Self-released, digital)
On the all-too-brief EP Baby Gear, Montréal rapper Kaya Hoax quickly IDs herself as a “rookie on the scene” and a “newbie on the scheme.” A nascent artist whose official introduction is a scant 17 minutes long, Hoax speeds in and out of her listeners’ heads, leaving a rainbow-colored dust cloud behind her. New she may be, but she wasn’t born yesterday.
Witty rhymes and clever observations pour out of her smirking lips, lacquered atop snappy, globally sourced sounds. She fits snugly with contemporaries like switchblade-sharp New Orleans rapper Boyfriend, kaleidoscopic Brazilian Dominican artist Jarina de Marco and fellow Canadian sass-mouth Sabby Sousa.
Hoax has an erudite streak, as well. Inspired by a women’s studies class at her hometown’s Concordia University, she weaves her reaction to reading a frustrating police transcript between a cop and a survivor of sexual assault into her song “Kicker.”
With throat-punching bass, clanging beats and streaks of buzz-saw synths, she spits, “I heard a whistle blow / Was it a rape, though?” like a schoolgirl calling out a demented handclap game. The track heightens and intensifies the common experience of abuse victims recounting their stories over and over only to not be believed by authorities. It’s a warning that people like Hoax won’t stand for it anymore.
Hoax shares “Hot Girls with ADD” with fellow Montréal R&B artist Magi Merlin. (The arena-shaking slapper’s title instantly made me think of Burlington pop queen tip/toe’s sensational 2023 album Hot Girls Don’t Trust the Government.)
The two “…hop in a limo / Rolling through the city sparking shit up like a Zippo,” sneering through tinted windows at sidewalks full of fuck bois. They hype themselves as frequently as the Beastie Boys and don’t have time for nonsense: “It’s cute you like to dance but you know I do it better / Shaking ass a plus when you’re pretty cute and clever,” breathes Merlin, while Hoax flips off thirsty dudes with “But precious no wonder why that boy is stiff / The only time that he sits in a day is when he takes a shit.”
Baby Gear‘s other cuts are just as vicious and delicious and reveal more of Hoax’s platform. On opener “KTD,” a bouncy coronation for her arrival on the scene, she announces she “used to think that stability was boring / Not until we’re talking mental health, darling.” On “Hot Water,” a bop thick with bass and MIDI shehnai, she declares that she’s raising herself “like my own kid,” another nod to mental health.
Hoax is equal parts swagger and social commentary, committing 100 percent to both facets. You read that right: She’s giving 200 percent.
Baby Gear is available at kayahoax.bandcamp.com and on all major streaming services.
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2024.
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