CupcakKe at Electric Brixton review: outrageous lyrics delivered with camp joy
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CupcakKe was supposed to be one of music’s rising stars. Well before brat summer was a slime green glint in Charli XCX’s eye, CupcakKe collaborated on their 2017 song Lipgloss, pure bubblegum pop about the stickiest sexual acts (“More flavour than Flavor Flav, my pussy is very brave”).
That summer the young rapper joined Charli XCX on stage at music festival Lollapalooza, dancing her way across the stage as she belted out her viral hit CPR about foreplay performed with life-saving zeal (”We’re about to have late fun, I’m about to make your balls stick up like space buns”).
At just 20-years-old the Chicago singer born Elizabeth Eden Harris was the darling of indie magazines, vaunted for her furiously witty and cartoonishly sexual lyrics, her commitment to body positivity, and her wholehearted embrace of her LGBTQ+ fanbase. She released a gush of albums six mixtapes and albums in three years – Cum Cake, STD, Audacious, Queen Elizabeth, Ephorize and Eden.
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But six years ago, the wheels came off. In January 2019, after making concerning posts about suicidal ideation, the 21-year-old artist was hospitalised and sought treatment for depression. Harris continued posting erratically on social media, cancelling her tour and threatening to quit music altogether over her fears younger children were dancing to her explicit lyrics.
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Although she never fully gave up releasing new music, it wasn’t until last summer that CupcakKe returned with a full album, Dauntless Manifesto. For the London stop on her tour she played to a rapturous audience of Gen Z fans (her music took off on TikTok remixes during her hiatus) at Electric Brixton on Friday 17 January.
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