More like a ballerina coup…
[Video]
[8.12]
Al Varela: CupcakKe puts so much effort and ferocity in her bars that just when you think the shtick has gotten exhausting and she should move on to a new joke already, boom: she drops a banger with bars that still make you chortle on the spot.
[8]
Ian Mathers: A sheer kinetic delight, from “now she Hello Kitty, no mouth when I see her” to “reincarnate as a pigeon, I be shittin’ on these bitches.”
[8]
Julian Axelrod: Chicago’s reigning queen of raunch sounds perfectly at home blacking out over big 808s and Kraftwerk synths as she waxes poetic about witches, Hello Kitty and being reincarnated as a pigeon so she can shit on you. The old school beat underlines CupcakKe’s position as a rapper out of time, a throwback to the days when dudes like E-40 and Uncle Luke could establish cottage careers far removed from the mainstream, where they could devote their lives to perfecting the art of rapping about getting head.
[8]
Taylor Alatorre: CupcakKe is one of the first artists who could reasonably, if uncharitably, be described as a “relic of the late 2010s.” It’s a good thing for us that nobody thought to tell CupcakKe that. For the next long while I will be unable to look at a wall-mounted TV in the same way.
[8]
Alfred Soto: I like CupcakKe because she reminds me of Space Mountain: two and a half minutes of careens and unexpected dips, enough for me to go, “Again!” when it ends, even when the ride becomes increasingly predictable.
[7]
Katherine St. Asaph: I continue to love basically anything that sounds like freestyle in 2025.
[8]
Joshua Lu: I don’t know if it’s just because that line about pushing 30 resonates personally, but I’m convinced that CupcakKe has released her magnum opus. “Ballerina Coupe” is the equivalent of a 100-meter dash, and CupcakKe serves up a relentless smorgasbord of infectious bars over a juiced-up Y2K instrumental: death threats promises to her opps, earned statements of her self-made success, and her signature bars about penises that sound like she’s never actually seen one, The song even handles her biggest weakness — repetitive, momentum-halting choruses — by not having a chorus at all.
[9]
Nortey Dowuona: The only reason this isn’t a [10] is a missed beat at 0:48. Other than that, CupcakKe is still one of the greatest rappers out of Chicago. Thank her that she’s decided to return. Also, producer MC Sherlock still has a YouTube and an Insta. DM them now.
[9]