Festivals are labor-intensive endeavors, and the 2024 Governor’s Ball is no exception. Arrival to the venue requires several transfers on mass transit, followed by the frenzy of box-office lines, security, and a frantic mêlée to catch the performances. Despite the logistical headache, however, masses of fans of all ages and demographics congregated on a balmy spring Saturday in Queens, bouncing between three stages to see some of the biggest acts in contemporary pop and hip-hop.
In the waning moments of Sabrina Carpenter’s effervescent nü-disco pop set, I attempt to set up camp early at Sexyy Red’s debut as a billed act at Governor’s Ball on June 8. When I stumble upon a harried festival employee and inquire where, exactly, the “Gopuff stage” might be located, he breezily points to the waves of patrons migrating to the next plot over. Just past the concession stands, I spot a new performance venue with a comically gargantuan inflatable red cap brazenly positioned at the center of the platform. “Make America Sexyy Again,” the hat reads, a clear play on the original MAGA catchphrase and the latest in a stretch of behavior that has associated the rising artist with disgraced ex-president Donald J. Trump. To the right, a screen is emblazoned with white text that reads “SEXYY4PRESIDENT” — both a slogan and the domain for Sexyy’s red, white, and blue merch that seamlessly merges hood fashion aesthetics with her spin on classic American phraseology, airbrushed graffiti lettering and all.
It has been about a year since St. Louis’s around-the-way darling, Sexyy Red (née Janae Nierah Wherry), penetrated the mainstream conversation with the mixtape Hood Hottest Princess, a raunchy manifesto of big engines, fast cars, and a cocksure lifestyle. The opening track, “Sexyy Red 4 President,” was an introduction to the coy usage of Americana that would become a mainstay in her music and performances. This is a storied tradition in hip-hop: In the Y2K era, Harlem rapper Cam’ron’s Diplomats refashioned the Great Seal of the United States into an eagle gripping a pistol in each talon and a scroll with the words “HARLEM WORLD” scrawled across it inside its beak; Future’s Freebandz logo plays with similar themes. After the 2016 election, however, political symbolism, oblique or otherwise, feels more loaded than ever.
Fans begin to surround the stage. “If you’re Sexyy Red’s biggest fan, let me hear you make some noise,” her DJ commands to a sea of shrieks. The DJ dons a black sweatshirt with the catchphrase “Make America Sexyy Again” etched across the front, paired with a rendering of the Statue of Liberty in a red, white, and blue bikini alongside tattoos and piercings. A patron close to the stage begins to wave a large white sign with the words “BIG SEXYY” in large red bubble text; she is soon matched by a nearby rainbow-colored poster with the phrase “BIG SEXYY for PRESIDENT!” The crowd begins to whip itself into a frenzy as the DJ whips through major current hits. “IM EXHAUSTED FROM TWERKING TO SEXYY RED,” one sign reads; a few feet away, another sign pops up simply stating “Pussy Pink 🌈,” referencing the lyrics of her Sexyy’s breakout hit, “Poundtown,” a song that the rapper later proudly tells the crowd “got me out the trenches.”
Soon enough, a chant erupts. “Sexyy, Sexyy, Sexyy,” the crowd yells en masse. Eventually, the bawdy rapper makes her way to the stage, a member of security shadowing her as if he were her own personal Secret Service agent. Onstage, she seems at ease in a sea of white and Burberry prints, trading her signature red hair for platinum blonde locks. She clutches her Big Sexyy chain and raps her verse on Nicki Minaj’s “FTCU (Remix)” as an American flag is projected on the screen. There’s an American flag on display in the audience as well: a play on the viral Nicki Minaj meme with the young phenom’s visage replacing the iconic image of Minaj giving a salute.
Iconography can wield power over an audience when people share an understanding of its referential context. One might expect that the massive set piece would incite a cautious response given that the red hat has come to represent an affinity for far-right politics helmed by America’s newest high-profile felon and his supporters, who are currently waist deep in an attempt to reclaim the White House in 2024. Instead, this audience, which is filled with people of all ages — teenagers with braces escorted by parents, Tiktok and Instagram influencers looking on from VIP, and young dilettantes of all races and creeds — embraces it without a second thought. “Make some noise, y’all, what the fuck?!” Sexyy drawls, immediately eliciting feverish screams. “Sexyy’s the best,” a photographer says to me as he reviews his footage, excited to have caught his money shot: a still of the rapper pointing directly at his camera. While the stage is cheekily set up to look like a campaign rally, the hat is the most direct reference to the contemporary political conversation, one in which Sexyy herself has been publicly critiqued for making remarks in favor of Trump. “I like Trump,” the 26-year-old said during a 2023 guest appearance on Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend. “Once he started getting Black people out of jail and giving people that free money, aww baby, we love Trump.”
Sexyy has since shied away from those pro-Trump remarks, recently tweeting “It’s Sexyy Red 4 President 🇺🇸 I’m my own candidate I’m not endorsing anybody period 💋.” But Trump is at the forefront of my mind throughout her performance. The former president occupies a unique position within hip-hop’s own lexicon: The contrived image of wealth and power he once represented reverberated throughout the industry as a point of envy, and he was referenced in songs like A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 “Skypager” and Mac Miller’s 2011 hit “Donald Trump.” Politics aside, it is easy to see where Sexyy finds kinship in the disgraced former real-estate mogul. Both Trump and Sexyy manage to find charm and natural humor in their appetite for unfiltered raunchiness, with Sexyy quickly winning over a crowd with her penchant for offhanded quips.
Sexyy’s recently released third mixtape, In Sexyy We Trust, is a continuation of the Americana motif. The cover features a mockup of the United States dollar with Sexyy in place of an American president. The subversion is clear: The stage is her pulpit, and today’s show is a rally for her to continue taking the musical world by storm. It is far from an exaggeration; last year she joined Ice Spice’s Gov Ball set as a special guest. Now, a sea of adoring fans are here just for her. (“I could tell I elevated, because now I’m not getting brought out. Now it’s actually my set,” Sexyy tells me after the show. “That’s what’s up.”)
The cheers are deafening throughout the duration of the show. When Sexyy Redd transitions to performing “Bow Bow Bow (F My Baby Dad),” the audience hollers along to the onomatopoeia of a twerk — bow bow bow — as the rapper struts up and down the stage, backed by her supporting dancers, the Sexettes. She grabs her rear, rapping “this that booty meat!” in concert with her fans as they exclaim in titillation. Behind her, the American flag is now awash in red, superimposed with an animated graphic meant to simulate butt cheeks clapping together. Sexyy Red’s America is licentious and shameless, and the crowd loves every second of it. “If Sexyy president, all y’all getting food stamps,” she announces to cheers, “Louis bags, all of that!”
“Where the dread heads at?” Sexyy demands before launching into her song “Shake Yo Dreads.” The fact that there do not seem to be many people with dreadlocks in the audience seems irrelevant to the festive energy of the moment. She riffs on her sex life, telling the crowd that she is currently celibate while shamelessly admitting, “I really want some dick, though.” Her frankness is rewarded with applause. The call and response is fast and furious as she works through her catalogue, with onlookers readily yelling along to some of her most salacious lyrics. “I ain’t no scary-ass bitch, I’m a ho,” my section screams along as Sexyy raps her verse on DaBaby’s “Shake Sumn.” A Sexyy show is not the place for decorum or repression; it’s a backdrop for you to indulge in your more base instincts without guilt or repercussions. It’s another trait the rapper shares with the former president: They both have the ability to give their supporters permission to feel safe as their most uninhibited selves.
As “Hellcats SRTs” begins to play, the person beside me exclaims, “That’s my favorite song!” It’s all of the best parts of Sexyy Red in one slick package: booming bass and fantastic lyrics that display an affection for big body engines. “Yeeummmm,” she raps, imitating the sound of a speeding car as she whips her hands around in a faux drag race. It’s pure Americana — sex, cars, and reckless capitalist indulgence — and the audience simply can’t get enough, standing on one another’s shoulders and crowd surfing to get the young star’s attention.
After the set, Sexyy decompresses in the artists’ village with trusted friends and family. “I seen them turning up to my song ‘TTG,’” Sexyy says, beaming. “It’s new, and I ain’t know if they really knew it.” It’s a calmer energy backstage, but she is always ready for prime time. As Sexyy prepares for photo ops, she summons her security to bring her purse to her, opening it to reveal a plastic bag filled with a brick of cash, her favorite on-camera accessory. “All I can say for now is ‘More to come,’” says one of her Rebel Music entertainment representatives with a wink.
On my way out of the park, a group of young girls debrief on the day’s events. “She was so fucking fun,” they concur excitedly. “Sexyy Red is fire,” a young man asserts to his friend group. It is clear to everyone in attendance that the emerging talent has an X factor that makes her enjoyable to watch, regardless of whether you find the messaging a bit cringe. There is something there that incites you to indulge in the reckless fantasies that make up Sexyy’s world. “I love it — it turns me up,” Sexyy tells me, laughing. She’s in tune with the excitement vibrating in m her audience. “But if they’re hype with me,” she says, “I’m gonna be like, okay!”
True to her team’s whispers, the emcee was far from slowing down for the weekend. Before leaving the tristate area, reports would come out that she was involved in an altercation at Newark Airport that required her to be briefly detained. The minor infraction would not stop her momentum, however: Within 24 hours, she hosted WWE’s NXT Battleground in Las Vegas, twerking alongside some of women’s wrestling’s biggest stars. “It’s your favorite hood hottest princess, Sexyy Redd,” she told the WWE crowd in her signature St. Louis drawl. “Now would be the time to announce that I’m running for president, and I’ll be going on tour soon.” Sexyy Redd’s campaign is coming to a city near you, and she isn’t planning on getting off her podium anytime soon.
