by Maya Hood
While Chicago natives all over the world share a love for the music genres we’ve produced like house and drill, there’s nothing like being in high school at the rise of the latter. We went to school with the new and trending rappers, knew the neighborhoods they played basketball in, and knew that on Saturdays everyone would be downtown by the WaterTower Place. What was explicitly unique about drill music and the popularity that followed is that many of the artists at the time were genuinely starving artists with exceptional talent, telling stories about their everyday lives. Enter Katie Got Bandz.
Katie Got Bandz, born Kiara Johnson, hails from the Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville, part of what we call “The Lowend.” For some people, she may be “the rapper that did that gun dance,” but to Chicagoans around the world, she is our Queen of Drill Music.
Drill beats were aggressive, the lyrics were filled with raunchy storytelling and hostility, and the piano notes would ring like something out of a Michael Myers film. Between 2011 and 2013, Chicago experienced a big increase in teenage and young adult rappers from the subgenre; we had Chief Keef, Lil Durk, Lil Herb (now G Herbo) and King Louie who was Katie’s right hand man. These guys were all heavy hitters involved in making Chicago one of the “hottest hip-hop music scenes” at the time, and Katie, a woman, was right there with them.
via Dazed
I remember being in school, listening to Katie reciting “I need a Hitta! Dreadhead Drilla” and the girls simply fell in line. Katie was only 18 years old, planning on getting her biology degree from Truman College and working at a fast-food restaurant when she decided to try rapping. Her infectious lyrics partnered with raw beats by her cousin BlockOnThaTrack– a popular Chicago producer at the time, led to Katie becoming a fan favorite with ease. Katie was beloved amongst many other women rappers, such as Shady, Sasha Go Hard, and all-girl groups like Pretty N Pink. In addition to her hit showing love to “dread heads” across the city, Katie gained even more notoriety appearing in Shady’s “Go In” video, where she performed her infamous gun dance turned meme moment that we still see people share today.
Around this time, Chicago also became a target for defamation regarding the homicides amongst Black and Brown people in the city. With so many young teenagers gaining popularity and influence and dis songs that sometimes went beyond the music and unfortunately played out in real life, it was easy to blame the crime on the media that we were consuming. We were under a microscope, with The New York Times noting that in 2013 Chicago’s homicide rates had increased by 16% and surpassed NYC and LA in 2012. In response, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emmanuel blamed the music, and even banned artists like Chief Keef from performing in the state of Illinois. Katie was one of the artists who stood ten toes in defending the genre beyond the mainstream reputation of promoting violence, noting in an interview with Ebony that people are rapping about the conditions in their neighborhoods that existed long before they stepped in front of a mic:
“Before drill music people already had their beef and wars going on. It's just everybody is rapping now, so people think if they make a dis' record, they'll get noticed fast and they're putting it on beats instead of leaving it in the streets. Rapping don't have nothing to do with what's going on in Chicago. This has been going on in Chicago before Chicago got noticed.”
What I loved most about Katie growing up is that she always remained transparent and authentic. I believe that’s what has kept her image so iconic today. Over the years, she would go on to release her mixtape series Drillary Clinton and even had a verse on Nicki Minaj’s Super Freaky Girl remix in 2022.
In August of 2023, we were reminded of Katie’s impact when Victoria Monet and choreographer Bankhead incorporated Katie’s famous gun dance in the choreography for her “On My Mama” video. It perfectly captured who and what Katie represented. And when The “Hood’s Hottest Princess” Sexxy Red toured to Chicago this past Halloween, while celebrating her success she invited Katie on stage to perform “Pop Out.
For so many decades, hip-hop and rap have tried to erase the influence of women artists, watering down the talent, impact, and sometimes leaving them out entirely. But the stories of women rap artists, like Katie Got Bandz, should forever be told. That way you can get them, us, and the history, too.