Six months on from the release of her Last Year Was Weird, Vol.2 EP, Tkay Maidza is back with “Kim”, her first track of the year and what is ostensibly the first taste of the last instalment in her series of EPs.
Teasing the track earlier this week, “Kim” sees Tkay teaming up with US artist Yung Baby Tate to deliver a fiercely original composition, backed by grimy synths, rapid-fire rhythms, and mesmerisingly-slick vocals that shows even the most casual listener why Tkay is one of the best in the game.
Alongside the track’s release, Tkay also shared a new Adrian Yu-directed music video, which sees her embodying the imagery of three iconic Kims: Kim Possible, Lil Kim, and Kim Kardashian. Going between lab work as Kim Possible, to Lil Kim’s iconic 1999 MTV VMAs outfit, and Kim Kardashian’s internet-breaking PAPER cover shoot, Tkay embodies the powerful personal of all three, while Yung Baby Tate appears as Kim Possible antagonist Shego.
“The idea for the song came from Kim Possible, an iconic figure in my childhood – she always came out on top,” Tkay explained. “I thought why not make a song to remind those who question me that I will always figure it out like Kim.
“From there when we starting planning a video we thought why not recreate iconic moments from other iconic Kims, across generations.”
While “Kim” is officially out today, there’s currently no official word as to when Tkay will release the third and final volume of her Last Year Was Weird trilogy. The first and second volumes of the series arrived in August of 2018 and 2020, respectively, but it’s unclear whether the last will follow the same pattern or if it will arrive sooner.
Tkay Maidza’s “Kim” is out now Via Dew Process/4AD.
