Born Ke’Asha McClure, Chicago rap star Queen Key is known for her hardcore and explicit lyrics. The 23-year-old artist tore up the hip-hop charts with songs like “Baked As A Pie,” “My Way” and “Ratchet”. She’s collaborated with the likes of Tokyo Jetz, Dreezy, Tink, and Cuban Doll. From her early songs like “Hit A Lic” to her most recent album Eat My P**** Again (2019), fans recognize Queen Key for girl power, hilarity, and misbehavior.
Queen Key shook up the celebrity music scene on Thanksgiving, having announced her pregnancy on Instagram and Twitter. In a video dated October 8, the rapper is seen receiving a sonogram when the doctor releases a bombshell: Queen Key is having triplets! On her Instagram live, Queen Key claimed the father is fellow rapper 600 Breezy. Queen Key songs and shocking baby news aside, there is more to her that even fans may be surprised to learn.
1. She Started Rapping as a Kid
Ke’Asha McClure made her first mixtape around age 7, using a tape deck, recordings from the radio, and a keyboard. A few years passed and she started rapping under her first alias, Baby Niko. Queen Key reminisces on her first rap moniker in an interview with The Fader: “My momma had a friend named Miko. She didn’t have no kids, and she had raw-a** sunglasses. So I think I ended up thinking her name was Niko…” While growing up on the south side of Chicago and parts of Indiana with five siblings, Ke’Asha McClure listened to artists like Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and Gucci Mane.
2. Queen Key Always Knew She Would be Famous
Ke’Asha told The Fader that as a child, she confessed to everyone she knew that she was going to be famous. Talking to the Chicago Tribune about her attempts to be “a regular civilized person” before her 2015 rise to fame, Queen Key recalls having been fired from American Girl and Buffalo Wild Wings “for laughing, for being disobedient, for being herself.” She was briefly enrolled at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights before she “walked out,” knowing that her time for fame would come. Queen Key went on to release her breakthrough hit “Baked As A Pie” as part of her debut mixtape Your Highness, and signed to Machine Entertainment Group in 2017.
3. Her Rap Name Originates in High School
Ke’Asha became Queen Key in 2015, and in her interview with The Fader, she recalls the inspiration behind the name: “I started calling myself Queen in high school, but then I thought, it can’t just be plain Queen, ’cause I think that’s a band or something?” In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Queen Key talks about having pursued rap and quit multiple times during her high school years. She started a YouTube channel with her friend, where they made freestyles and songs, and recorded prank calls.
4. She Runs a Community Empowerment Program in Chicago
Queen Key is carrying out her vision for impact through Queen Camp, a non-profit organization she created to instil confidence in a new generation of women. The rap star gave The Fader an inside look at Queen Camp: “Queen Camp is a group of girls that I select, and we just spend a day focusing on getting to know each other and ourselves- to know that we queens,” adding, “everybody’s got they inner Queen Key.” In another interview with Complex, she shares other program activities like designing vision boards, trips to the studio, and having meals together. Looking at the future of the program, Queen Key says, “I plan on this to be an actual thing on some YMCA-type shit.”
5. The Naming of Eat My Pussy (2018) Was a Joke
Not surprisingly, this particular album of Queen Key’s has been criticized for the explicitness of its title. Queen Key told The Fader that she was unsure of a name while it was in the works. Queen Key had tweeted “Eat My Pussy the mixtape, dropping 2018,” and thinking back, she said, “I honestly don’t know what the hell made me say that! But then I was like, you know what? I should really do that.” Queen Key released her explosive follow-up album, Eat My Pussy Again, in 2019. It’s clear that the title is all Queen, unapologetic and authentically raunchy.
6. Queen Key Weighed in on Nicki Minaj Versus Cardi B
The ongoing rivalry between artists Nicki Minaj and Cardi B is one of the fiercest feuds happening in the hip-hop scene right now. Despite naming Nicki Minaj as one of her favorite artists, along with Lauryn Hill, Lil’ Kim, and Trina, Queen Key told OkayPlayer that she is neither team Nicki nor Cardi B. The artist responded like a true queen: “I’m team me.” Queen Key disapproves of the animosity between the singers: “I don’t think they should be beefing though. That’s not really showing other female artists a good sign. It’s a truck load of new female artists, so it’s like there is no room for no beef.” Queen Key summed it up in her hilariously profane way: “might as well kumbaya in this motherfucker.”
7. Queen Key Has Her Own Mini-Documentary
The Fader x WAV Present Frequencies released a mini-doc on what it’s like to be Queen Key. She schools everyone on the finer details of “queen shit” and regal behavior. The camera rolls on a Queen Camp meeting and watchers learn fun things about the artist, like her life-long love of Lunchables snack packs. You can watch her full FREQUENCIES episode on the free WAV app available on the App Store.
8. Comedies by Ice Cube Are Some of Her Favorite and Most Influential Films
In an interview with Paper Mag, Queen Key names the stoner comedy Friday (1995) and its two sequels, starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, as her biggest movie influences. The original Friday is where the famous line “bye, Felicia” comes from. In August 2019, Ice Cube announced to the media that he is hopping for a fourth and final Friday film, and you better believe Queen Key will be one of the first in line to see it.
9. Queen Key Is Open to Filmmaking
In her interview with Paper Mag, the rap star said she would premiere on-screen as an actor, and even behind-the-scenes as a director. If she were to star in or direct a film, Queen Key would want it to be about someone like her. She “would try to make it mimic today as much as possible, and just make it real as hell and keep it in the day.” Wondering if Ice Cube would be approached to star in this hypothetical Queen Key-led film? So are we! But for now, Queen Key is focusing on her music, so fans’ dreams of movie stardom will have to wait.
10. Queen Key Ranked Her Top 5 Qualities in a Man with The Fader
5. “You gotta be strong, you can’t be no bitch”. She doesn’t mean physically strong, but rather protective. 4. “Be my biggest fan.” Queen Key wants a man who is attentive and supportive of her dreams. 3. “You gotta have a big dick. It just is what it is.” Queen Key likes men who are *ahem* well endowed. 2. “You’ve got to be having something going on.” Queen Key wants a partner who is employed and has future ambitions. 1. “I need to know that I can sleep next to you, you know what I’m saying, and you ain’t going to try to kill me, set me up.” Queen Key requires loyalty and faithfulness above all.
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