We’re in love with this mixtape from our blue-haired queen
WORDS EMMA FLINT, IMAGE VASSO VU
In March 2021, everyone’s favourite blue-haired queen announced the upcoming livestream of her album, DEMIDEVIL.
When Ashnikko released the album back in January it quickly amassed wide acclaim. The way in which she unapologetically takes down the misogyny and ignorance of cisgender men, coupled with her playful lyrics and quick witted quips, is arguably what makes DEMIDEVIL so unique and different.
WAP, which was released in mid-2020, came close to offering a feminist powerhouse of a song, but it’s Ashnikko who delivers a whole catalogue of feminist anthems. What’s more, she does so from a proudly queer perspective, similar to Peaches and her uninhibited way of talking about sex and pleasure with women.
The one song that really emphasises the queer triumph of this album is Slumber Party, featuring Princess Nokia.
From the beginning, this track explicitly details how it feels to be attracted to women, and how we’re far from quiet when expressing our attraction to one another. Of course, it wouldn’t be Ashnikko without her playing with the stereotype of sapphic friends sleeping together at a sleepover, but there’s still real experience behind the humour she brings.
As someone who’s longed to listen to songs that unashamedly talk about women and people who are assigned female at birth (AFABs) having sex with one another, from someone who isn’t selling it as a drunken experiment (like Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl), this song meant everything. I was able to sing along about giving women oral sex, much like the way straight, bi and pan folks were able to sing about blowjobs when they danced to WAP all last summer.
Slumber Party has touched so many listeners – it’s been streamed 21 million times and counting – so clearly, I’m not the only one who’s been longing to hear a track that relates to me and my experiences. Through the power of her lyrics, I feel seen. The queer community feels seen, and in a way that the mainstream tends to shy away from due to the fear of backlash. Well, shying away from a topic isn’t something Ashnikko is known for, nor should she be.
The rest of the album, while not specifically talking about sex in the same way as Slumber Party does, still delivers queer feminism that gives the middle finger to toxicity masculinity. Most notably in Clitoris! The Musical, a surprisingly light ending after the heavy and emotional track, Good While It Lasted.
Ashnikko’s finale to DEMIDEVIL voices frustration at the number of cis men who can’t find the clitoris, with the singer herself commenting on how it isn’t hard to find… if they so cared to put the effort in.
No matter your sexuality, I think there’s many AFAB individuals out there who know this feeling all too well, be it because you’ve experienced this frustration firsthand, or because you have friends who have. AFAB sexual pleasure has long been secondary to that of cis men, and Ashnikko, for one, isn’t going to take it lying down.
For those who’ve yet to experience this fiercely empowering album, I implore you to go and listen to it right now. You won’t regret it. Then, once you’ve relished the way in which Ashnikko gives zero fucks about owning herself and her sexuality, you might want to grab some tickets to her livestream. The Songkick presented gig will take place on 30 April, available to both UK and mainland European viewers.
It’s a shame that we won’t be able to dance en masse at an intimate, sweaty gig, but this livestream is the next best thing while we continue to navigate pandemic living. Although we can’t be physically together, we’re going to dismantle the patriarchy virtually, with Ashnikko firmly at the helm.
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