Move Out the Way

Move Out the Way,Flyana Boss, the rap duo made of friends Bobbi LaNea and Folayan, have been working the TikTok algorithm to the bone all summer with their hit song “You Wish” and running video trend. Here’s how they plotted to go viral.

Move Out the Way

Folayan and Bobbi LaNea. Photo: Ashley Markle

With one of the realest, most debaucherous prayers in 21st-century pop culture – “Hello Christ, I’m ’bout to sin again!” — Flyana Boss’s opening bars to their hit “You Wish” has become the bat signal for Black alt-girls across the internet. The flygirl duo is made up of Bobbi LaNea and Folayan, and they’ve been working the TikTok algorithm to the bone all summer, posting short clips sprinting through various locations — Disney World, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and, recently, the Google offices — spitting the increasingly viral record, inspiring followers old and new to do their own renditions in their schoolyards, workplaces, restaurants, and homes. They got on by tapping into a small team who understood their steez — producer Marky Style and videographer Evan Blum — creating a quasi-quartet that brought their vision to your phone. “You Wish,” with its witty punch lines (“I be Michael Phelps, all the brand deals that I’m swimmin’ in”) and pure coruscation on the clock app, is the product of a dashing approach to brand building.

The pair first bonded at a Los Angeles music college and went on to make music separately for more than a half-decade on SoundCloud before reuniting and officially established Flyana Boss — a portmanteau of their names and an ode to thee pa, Diana Ross — in 2019. For the next two years, they committed to vlogging and releasing music and videos on TikTok every day. Tracks like 2020’s “Ring Around” and 2022’s “Miss Me” experienced early buzz through influencer-led dances and reposts, but it wasn’t until “You Wish,” released last month, that Flyana Boss got their own faces in front of the masses.

With the seemingly outta-nowhere-ness of their rise comes the common allegation in rap fan circles that the pair — who signed to Atlantic Records in 2021 — is some kind of industry plant, potted by suits for reasons yet to be defined. They’ve heard the chatter, and their response? “Google is free,” Folayan says, flashing a truly radiant grin ahead of their recent barrel through Times Square. Bobbi chimes in: “Scroll down far enough in our TikTok” — with a quick flutter of magenta-shadowed lids — “you’re gonna see us doing trends. You’re gonna see when our baby hairs weren’t laid.”

@flyanaboss

Our most hectic runner yet😭 but wait…what’s that in the background??🗽 🦋 #youtubeshorts #flyanaboss #evanblummadeit

♬ You Wish – Flyana Boss

Meeting at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood — what was that like?Folayan: It was great for networking, but as a school, no.

Bobbi: They accept everybody.

That’s kinda wassup, though, no?Bobbi: Like sometimes, right. But it’s like the learning curve. Some people have never seen a piece of sheet music in their life, and some people have been classically trained their whole life. I think it stagnated people knew more about music. I mean … can we cuss?

Absolutely. Bobbi: It was a bit of a shitshow. Like, sometimes we would show up. I showed up more than she did.

Folayan: I never showed up.

You was skipping school?Bobbi: I would never know if she would be in class or not and I’d be looking because, like, we were two of only a few Black girls in each of our classes. It’s like, Damn, it’s just me today.

When y’all first got together, how did y’all mesh? I’ve read that you’re both pretty introverted, but as we sit here, y’all not really giving that. Bobbi: No, this is part of the performance.

Folayan: Also, there’s a word for it.

Bobbi: Ambivert, I think.

Folayan: Yeah, we’re a mix of both.

Bobbi: Right. Introverted is like when you have to recharge by yourself; extroverted is when you recharge around other people. So I do think we’re both truly introverted when we need time alone to function, but we do love performing. And us together, like even when we’re not on stage, it’s a show. Even this conversation right now.

Folayan, you’re from Dallas, and Bobbi, you’re from Detroit. Both are two beacons of Black Weirds. Have y’all ever talked about the D-Town moniker?Bobbi: I think I looked up D-Town and Detroit came up. Wait, no — we looked up Triple-D, and Dallas came up. But if you look up The D, that’s Detroit. I’m a passionate Detroiter, for sure. But she doesn’t really care.

Folayan: I’m just not connected in that way to my city. I don’t know why. I think it’s ’cuz my mom is just a worldly person. But I do love Dallas because I’m from there.

You traveled a lot too, though, right? I read you lived in Sweden after school. Bobbi: She’s a citizen of the universe.

Folayan: I worked for a company — Epidemic Sound — that did like overhead music, or elevator music. Sync music. It was really cool. People in Sweden are so sweet. But there were no Black people, so I felt uncomfortable sometimes.

They always say Sweden is the happiest place on earth. And it’s like, ’cus they only see themselves there. Bobbi: They don’t have to deal with race.

Photo: Ashley Markle

I don’t know if y’all have heard the allegations. Folayan: The industry-plants thing?

Yes! Like what is going on?Folayan: I don’t know, Google is free! Google our names; you’ll see my SoundCloud stuff has been up for a long ass time.

Bobbi: Scroll down far enough in our TikTok, you’re gonna see when our sound got taken down out there. You’re gonna see when we’re doing trends. You’re gonna see when our baby hairs weren’t laid.

It’s crazy to read. Bobbi: It does annoy us a little bit, ’cus we have worked so hard for so long.

Folayan: But it’s kind of inevitable when you go viral. Viral is already something that people don’t understand. I barely understand it myself. So you’re just in front of so many people’s faces and so they’re like, There has to be a different explanation than them just working hard.

Bobbi: It has to be some record label or they must have an uncle somewhere. Somebody literally wrote: “They have a white granddaddy at one of these record labels and that’s how they’re making this happen.”

Folayan: Yeah it was like,“Smells like daddy’s money,” or something like that.

Folayan was at Chipotle! Y’alls music and background also suggest that there is a real intention to speak to young Black girls growing up. Is there a part of that ethic that’s tied to making stuff that you might’ve wished you had as children?Folayan: You always say we wish we knew each other when we were younger.

Bobbi: Because we were both doing the same things. We both were performing “Crazy in Love” for our family as babies. So yeah, if we knew each other when we were like 5 and 6, we’d be out of this world.

So Your Song Went Viral on TikTok. What’s Next?
It Started With a Laugh

Isis Brantley, the owner of legendary Dallas natural-hair salon Institute of Ancestral Braiding, is famous for working with Erykah Badu. Folayan notes: “Those teeny-tiny braids that reached the floor? She did those.”