Zebra Katz f/ Njena Reddd Foxxx: "Ima Read"

The first great rap song of 2012, “Ima Read” could work as a taunt directed towards Lil B, whose forgettable I’m Gay (2011) hedged around sexuality with the tact and humor of a twelve year-old. Here is an actual proclamation of identity, an ode to voguing and the drag ball culture of ’80s NYC coronated with an extended mix played over the Rick Owens collection at Paris Fashion Week. Like Paris Is Burning, the 1991 documentary which immortalized the ball scene, “Ima Read” is infectious because of its self-regarding intensity. You’re in or you’re “read,” and the song makes being in (or out, in this case) enviable.

With nothing to the production but a dancehall bass line bouncing into the void, “Ima Read” can seem like a weightless joke at first. But the dead-eyed refusal to add percussion or melody is the first sign that something is up. “Ima read that bitch / I’m gonna take that bitch to college / I’m gonna give that bitch some knowledge,” intones Katz (née Ojay Morgan), and the unfamiliarity of the lingo can be disorienting. It’s overt and funny in its overtness—the music video features some library dance numbers—but a serious undertone gives “Ima Read” a surprising depth and versatility. While the declasse appeal of Lil B is that he cannot distinguish between good and terrible, occasionally combining the two in invigorating ways, Zebra Katz can in four words write a “fuck you” that works as a tribute to a generation of forgotten artists who died of AIDS, as an absolutely great rap song that openly identifies as homosexual amidst a still-prevalent homophobic stain on the genre (see also, maybe: “212”), as a silly-scary viral video, and as an indelible, danceable, superior response to every asshole spouting this “no homo” bullshit.