Bhad Bhabie is through and through a “meme” rapper, born of the viral Dr. Phil video in which she told her mother, and the audience, that they could catch her outside if they had a problem with the way she behaved. That video took off as an internet phenomenon, generating millions of views and, along with those views, plenty of baby-boomer-era finger wagging at the then-13-year-old girl.
It was clear from the segment that Bhabie, whose real name is Danielle Bregoli, was obviously suffering from a broken home life — her father had abandoned the family, her mother was struggling with the bills and battling cancer. But internet virality has a way of shirking nuance, and white 55-year-olds named Lenore from South Dakota with tax evasion charges who use the n-word with a particular joy were quick to comment on her affected persona: “trash,” “ghetto,” “autistic.”
That’s what makes the “Thot Opps (Clout Drop) / Bout That” music video so enjoyable. On Dr. Phil’s show, Bregoli put on a hard-ass attitude to cope with trauma from her home life, and was viciously attacked for it by strangers. Here, she cashes in on the finger-wagging.
It’s not the best rap video out there. It’s generic, an obvious packaging job by Atlantic Records to shape her into a polished Atlanta-rap transplant. The imagery of baseball bats, blue fur coats and cop cars does more to render her indistinguishable than stand out, and as a result the video feels redundant, a placeholder for every other rap video out there right now.
Still, Bhabie has real charisma, and it manages to carry on camera. There might only be two sets in this video, but she manages to jump around each enough within the two-minute span that we at least feel satiated. And at the end of the day, it’s sort of fun to watch her reveal that she has kidnapped a police officer in the trunk of his car, and then pull her designer bag out from behind him while closing the trunk on him. She’s bout that, so it appears.