Rabbit Run

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t’s tempting to dismiss breakthrough emcee Bunny Rabbit and her girlfriend/beat-boxer Black Cracker as indie-rap lightweights. On the couple’s first musical collaboration, the ominously-titled Lovers and Crypts, Bunny assumes an air of practiced boredom as she raps about bunny feet and shit (literally: "I’m from the bunny land/where we take a shit in our hands") over frantic electro-beats. Moreover, their campy first single, "Lucky Bunny Foot," flirts with one-trick-pony stigma.

There’s just one problem. Bunny Rabbit is actually good. She and Black Cracker have successfully coupled dirty delinquent words and a juvenile, cartoonish aesthetic to speak volumes about recent trends in music. Catchy as hell, their work also conveys a weighty and philosophical intelligence. But forget about all that — Bunny and Black Cracker would rather talk about sex and self-help gurus.
— Katie Liederman

You’ve given multiple stories as to how you met. In one, you claim that Black Cracker pulled up in a spaceship as you were lying on the beach; in another, she hollered at you from across an avenue on a sticky summer night. How do you account for these inconsistencies?

Bunny: The album is completely inconsistent in itself. The lyrics contradict themselves — one minute I’m shy, the next, really sexually explicit. It’s like life, full of complexities and hypocrisies. Nothing is black and white.

As a person of color, how did you respond to being referred to as a "white rapper" by the Village Voice?

Bunny: When I read it I was surprised, of course, and then I thought about why he’d put that, even if I was white. People try to box something in to understand it. It sucks to be limited by something like race.

Do you find that because your lyrics are sexually explicit, people feel free to talk to you about sex?
 


Bunny: No, not really. But some guy came up to me after a show and said, "That was good, but I was trying really hard not to think about sex as I watched you perform," and I thought, "Why? What’s wrong with thinking about sex?"

Black Cracker, you’re a beat boxer. Beat boxers are generally more competent with their mouths than people who aren’t. Do you think these abilities translate in the bedroom?
 

Black Cracker: I think sexual expertise is not a technical thing. For me, it’s a psychological thing. I’d say having creative talent has more to do with a person’s psyche, and with those whose psyches I’m attending to or trying to seduce.

Are people trying to pigeonhole you as lesbian artists?

Bunny: Yeah. People do want to put it in that genre, and others want to put it in other genres, but the music does cross so many boundaries. Dance to it, hate on it, whatever. It doesn’t anger me when people say we’re a couple or that we’re in love.

 

Do you find that it’s hard to uphold the sense of playfulness that is characteristic of your work?

Bunny: We’re trying to look at the world in a fresh way. It’s healthy in a business that is so business to be playful, and to be playful with genres that people have tried to put you in. It is hard to maintain. Everyday it takes a concerted effort to get up and strive to be the person you want to be. It takes courage and work. This is gonna sound cheesy, but I was watching Maya Angelou on TV the other day, and she said that fear is the number one obstacle to overcome. You can’t do anything if you live with fear.

I’ve noticed that when you guys perform, Black Cracker likes to hang back and usher you [Bunny] into the spotlight, like she only wants you to shine.

Bunny: She is definitely more the director. I’m more the actor. Those are the roles we play. We like to play around and flip it up and turn it upside down. I’ll always be me, and different sides of me are shown in different ways, like moments of shyness or moments of over-the-topness, really real moments.

 


So how do your musical alter-egos differ from you personally, if at all?

Bunny: Your alter ego is totally you — it’s a funny concept, but every part of it is me, and every part of it that’s not me is me too.

Black Cracker, you’ve said that you don’t read and you don’t really listen to music. So where does your inspiration come from?
 

Black Cracker: Inspiration comes from my inability and my own personal limitations. I tend to try to ride uphill not holding the handlebars, versus going downhill but holding them tight. I’m good at a more backwards way of approaching it. I don’t read, I’m not a music connoisseur, but I use history, people, and other artists more when I’m trying to fill in blanks. I believe in notions of collectivity. Everyone is totally necessary — pimps, politicians, pigeons, we all fill a special void, a special space in time.

Black Cracker, you’ve also said that you like "breaking the aesthetic of what we think is good and sounds good." Do you think you’ve done this with Bunny Rabbit?  


Black Cracker: Yeah, that applies. We’re just tryin’ to carve out more space for artists to do their thing. But it’s more about making things that people think they won’t like. One of the coolest things is that my younger brother — who’s crunk, dirty south — he listens to Bunny, his friends now listen to Bunny. The music Bunny is putting out, it’s bridging a lot of communities that are a part of me and are disenfranchised from each other. Someone asked why we don’t make happy club songs and make a lot of money, and I thought, "Well, that’s what we’re doing. We’re not tryin’ to fit any one cup of tea. We want to be everyone’s breakfast drink, whether that be Coke, Diet Coke, Earl Grey, decaf — everything." I like to have as many cultural and artistic slants as possible.

You’ve said, "It’s pretty important to me to be both a poet and a musician." With Bunny Rabbit, do you ever find that the two conflict?  


Black Cracker: Well, I failed English two times in high school. I don’t see it as a problem, I let it be what it is. I’m more of a conceptual artist — this work won’t be completed until I’m dead and gone. I see myself as an artist of life, which takes a lot of pressure off. Especially when it comes to time-based restrictions, cause then people set themselves up for disappointment. I try to give myself room to live and let go of control.

Tell me something boring about you two.
 


Black Cracker: We adore Dr. Phil. He keeps it real. He’s representin’ for all us idiots tryin’ to hold down traditional relationships, when you’re doin’ something that wouldn’t be considered traditional. He tells it like it is. He tries to solve a problem no matter what. He gives people the tools they need to solve that problem, and it’s never gonna work till you work on your shit.

That’s very true. Is your relationship exclusive?
 

Black Cracker: Yeah, it’s just us. I’m way too sensitive. We’re really sensitive people. We started out seeing numerous other people, and over time all that wiggled away. It’s cool and fun to just hang out and get used to the smell of each other’s gas and still be able to have sex and shit. That’s power.

Have you guys discussed what’ll come of Bunny Rabbit if you part ways romantically?

Bunny: We’re homies for life. Our love for each other is beyond romance — that’s not ever a question. We’re friends and we’re artists together, and the art we make together is beautiful.
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© 2007 Katie Liederman & hooksexup.com