Women from Detroit do it better, and Bobbi LaNea, one-half of viral rap duo Flyana Boss, is proving it.
She and other-half Folayan are real-life best friends — they finish each other’s sentences, practice self-care together, give each other space when needed, and take pride in being unapologetically themselves — elf ears, bright colors, and punny yet punchy lyrics included.
Just around a year ago, the two aspiring musicians quit their jobs at cannabis dispensaries to pursue music full-time, and success didn’t happen overnight. Years of previous hard work and consistent posting to TikTok finally paid off when Flyana Boss’s song “You Wish” went viral, accumulating nearly 40 million Spotify streams since its release on June 16. Their uniquely eccentric videos, featuring them singing while sprinting through various locations, caught people’s attention, leading to videos in notable places like Spotify headquarters, Teen Vogue, and Disneyland.
The duo also gained acclaim from various celebrities, including hip-hop icon Missy Elliott, who collaborated with them on the “You Wish” remix alongside rising rapper Kaliii. The success earned Flyana Boss over 1 million followers on TikTok and the opportunity to open for Janelle Monae on The Age of Pleasure Tour, an experience among many over the past year that the pair describes as “surreal.”
“We’re super grateful for Janelle, Janelle’s amazing and was such a great artist to watch every night,” Bobbi says. “We’ve dreamt of this our whole lives, so we feel very prepared and ready for everything, but it’s a dream.”
Now, Folayan and Bobbi are gearing up for an even bigger dream, their first headlining tour of their own: The Bosstanical Garden Tour. It kicks off on Saturday in Chicago, with a second stop in Detroit on Sunday.
@flyanaboss Replying to @Spotify Running to a playlist near you!!!!! #flyanaboss #evanblummadeit #rap #hiphop ♬ You Wish - Flyana Boss
The duo hopes that people who come to their performances feel accepted, connect with people, and hopefully leave with a new friend. Music has been a form of connection for the two of them, so they hope they can help it be the same for others.
“You can expect plants, you can expect growth, you can expect to water yourself and to water others,” Bobbi says.
“And ass shaking,” Folayan adds.
The besties connected through similar aspirations at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, but they both originally hail from cities that begin with the letter D: Detroit and Dallas, also known as the D and D Town.
In true Detroit spirit, Bobbi does not stray away from proudly repping where’s she from — and for anyone wondering, she claims the westside.
“She owns a lot of pieces of clothing that says something about Detroit,” Folayan says.
“I feel like Detroit people, when we live in other places, we like to let people know we’re from Detroit,” Bobbi adds. “I definitely got that from Detroit.”
The name Flyana Boss is actually inspired by Motown icon Diana Ross, whom both of the girls have always loved and been inspired by. Now, like Ross, they boast in being fly and being bosses in the music industry in their own unique way.
“I grew up around Motown, my first job was at the Motown Museum, so Motown has been a big influence on me. I grew up watching The Temptations,” Bobbi says. “I don’t know what I would be without Motown, to be honest.”
Apart from “every Motown artist,” she has a handful of other favorite Detroit artists too.
“Some people may say Madonna’s not from Detroit, but I like to say she’s from Detroit because she’s from the outskirts, so I’m claiming Madonna,” Bobbi says. “Obviously, Eminem’s an icon, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Big Sean, Kash Doll, the list goes on and on, we built them great around there.”
For their upcoming Detroit show, Flyana Boss will be playing at the Shelter, a pretty small and intimate venue on par with the rest of the tour, unlike the larger spaces they played with Janelle Monae. The duo is excited to connect with fans in a more up-close and personal way.
Their biggest show, they say, will be the last stop of the tour at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on March 28. On the same day, the duo will be dropping an EP titled This Ain’t The Album.
After that, Flyana Boss says their biggest goal is to take a long and well-deserved nap.
“We wanna get through this tour and not be so exhausted,” Folayan says. “But, by the end of the year, we want to have a song on the radio.”
“A top 10 Billboard smash,” Bobbi adds.
There’s no doubt that the pair could make that happen, especially as the two hold importance in helping each other maintain balance and stay calm during this time of tons of positive accomplishments, but also inevitable fatigue.
“We’re like butterflies going through stages of life, we were first making music alone and that was kind of the cocoon, and then we popped out of the cocoon and now we’re spreading our beautiful wings,” Folayan says.
Their mission with their music and all of the work they do is to uplift and spotlight all underrepresented groups of people, especially “weird Black girls.”
“We just represent our quirky unique self, we didn’t always feel seen as little girls in our awkwardness and our weirdness,” Bobbi says. “There were some artists like Missy Elliott that influenced and helped us along the way growing up, but we would like to be that for this generation.”
In their newest single “yeaaa,” released on Friday, the inspiring energy is apparent as Bobbi spits bars about Detroit that fans will get to hear at the upcoming hometown show and throughout the tour.
“Detrois faux fur, yeah I’m so cold,” she raps. “Anita Baker, sweet love, so low.”
That’s not the first Detroit mention in Flyana Boss tracks either. “I always try to shout out Detroit as much as I can,” Bobbi says.
Folayan, on the other hand, has never been to Detroit, but she knows the basics as she’s ready to visit. “It’s gonna be my first time, I’m so excited. I’ve heard a lot about Seven Mile and Schaefer,” she laughs. “Better Made potato chips and Faygo pop, I’m excited for that.”
Bobbi says she usually visits home once or twice a year, but she hasn’t been back to the city in a while, so she’s “obviously” looking forward to Coney Islands, as well as the often underrated authenticity the city has to offer.
“Detroit is a lot more diverse than people think. There are different types of people, creative people, artists, painters… everything is not just about the Motor City and the grind, there are a lot of delicate flowers in Detroit,” Bobbi says. “I think it would be nice for people to have a new perspective that there’s just more to Detroit than whatever they may think.”
We Detroiters already know that, but if you don’t, she’s right, and we’re glad that the city can now claim Flyana Boss too.
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