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Music

Bhad Bhabie Doesn't Care What You Think of Her

We talk to the rapper and internet star about her foray into reality programming, her growing career, and not giving a shit what people think.
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Fifteen-year-old Danielle Bregoli, better known as Bhad Bhabie, has finally made the inevitable move into reality programming with her new Snapchat docu-series Bringing Up Bhabie, in which viewers get an inside look into the life, fame, and artistic process of the young viral sensation.

As the series wraps up (all 12 episodes are available now on Snapchat), her first reality offering seems to be a massive hit for the international teen-oriented social media app's original content divisions. The show reportedly garnered ten million unique views in the 24 hours after its debut, a number that, as many critics pointed out, stands high and mighty above the 1.5 million viewers of an average television episode with reality superstars Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Could the massive viewer numbers be yet another metric for the quickly-shifting reality content landscape, or maybe yet further validation of the massive mainstream appeal her no-filter, unadulterated brand of viral success?

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In the show, viewers see the time, team, and effort it takes to maintain a growing international career. But the best parts grow from all of the drama that is added by the fact that the show's star is still only 15 years old, and is taking her mother along for the ride. It's a rare look inside all of the different gears that help push a viral rap project to mainstream consciousness, and Bregoli comes across surprisingly mature for her age given the level of negativity from adults that she confronts every day.

Bregoli took the time to sit down with me to share some wisdom on the themes surrounding her new show.

Noisey: Do you remember the first time you were on social media?
Bhad Bhabie: Yeah, I had Instagram and Snapchat as a kid and I used to post the dumbing most irrelevant posts. I started my first Instagram when I was nine or ten and my username was LONGLIVEA$AP followed by some numbers. For the photo, I used that iconic image of A$AP Rocky from the tape's cover. I was a huge A$AP Rocky fan, but I just found out he was 30.

Do you think it's interesting how your rap career sprouted?
Yes, I think it's very different. I try to keep the past in the past, what happened already happened. I can't really sugarcoat it, I used to be bad as fuck. But I just didn't care, and when you don't care and there's nothing for you to give a fuck about, you just act out and do what you want to do. I wasn't focused on getting good grades and staying in the clubs at school. My mother didn't really try to punish me because it's like, what can you do? You're going to lock me in my room? Well I'm going to sneak out the window.

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Do you think young people are going through a lot of the stuff you went through back then?
In this generation, all the kids are bad. All of them. There's always those parents that are like, "not my angel, not my angel." Oh yeah? Not your kid, right? Kids are getting smarter and realizing things, and no one cares anymore. The next generation, kids are going to be smart enough to not even believe in Santa Claus. They're going to be smart enough to put it together and be like, "How'd he get in the house? This fat guy got down the chimney?" Sometimes I wonder how my mom played me with Santa, I should have realized that shit.

Do you think the internet and social media played a role in maturing kids younger?
Yes. It's not even their fault. Sometimes I'm around kids scrolling through TikTok or whatever and that iLOVEFRiDAY "Mia Khalifa" song will pop up and I'll be like, "Stop listening to that! No!" This girl listening is like seven, she doesn't understand what this song means. It's not her fault, she's just scrolling through TikTok or Musical.ly, which should be a child's app, but all of this music is on there, so, duh, they're going to put two and two together.

Do you think the music industry itself has played a role in feeding mature messages to kids? Maybe even to sell more records?
Every kid right now wants a face tat. Every kid right now wants to dye their hair bright colors and get dreads and look like their favorite rapper. They all want to be unique, but they're just all doing the same thing. It's just a race to see who can do it stupider. No one wants to see, "Oh, look at this talented person doing this." It's more, "Oh who can do it cracked out on the floor." That's what kids are seeing so that's what they think is cool. What they should be seeing is, "Oh look, this went Gold or this went Platinum," seeing people do good things. But no, what are they seeing? Them acting dumb.

How has moving to LA been different than Florida? Do you think it's affecting you positively or negatively?
It just gets on my nerves because since being here and being constantly photographed I keep thinking like, "Do I need to be wearing more makeup? Or do something different?" But then I remember, since when do I give a fuck? Out of all the people out there I probably give a fuck the least. It's trying to turn me into a little Hollywood demon, but I always remember who I am. When people want to say shit to me, remember, I've said it all to myself already. I have to check myself or else I'll fall into it.

What's your relationship with your mom like now?
When I go out shopping I try to buy her stuff, but she doesn't really want anything. I bought her one Balenciaga wallet and she hasn't really asked for anything else. Sometimes we fight, and sometimes she feels left out of decisions, but then two minutes later she's cooking me food and the fight is over.

When you signed that make-up deal for almost a million dollars I saw you went to McDonald's to celebrate.
Yeah, me and my best friend went to McDonald's and got sweet tea. Then I went to the Santa Monica promenade and spent a lot of money, my mom was not happy.

Snap Original, Bringing Up BHABIE, is now streaming on Snapchat Discovery.