New school pop punkers Baby Got Back Talk are debuting their latest single/video “Model Minority” off their upcoming Wiretap Records debut EP, ‘Existential Shred’, due out September 9.
Vocalist/bassist G’Ra Asim says, “Our new single “Model Minority” is a wry send-up of a classic hater’s lament, namely that historical marginalization is currency nowadays and social outgroups are fashionable. It’s a gripe that tends to reach your ears when you’re in a rock band that foregrounds queer punx and punx of color. We took that idea and ran with it: why not have a rallying cry (akin to Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock”) repping all us twinkling tokens? For the video, we teamed up with the brilliant Carla Troconis to shoot an homage to a certain hallowed 2000s emo staple–with a contemporary twist. We hope it puts your Juneeteenth and Pride Month over the top!”
Tuned Up writes: “The video is an homage to “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” by My Chemical Romance, borrowing its juxtaposition of inspiring title cards between scenes of private school life. It’s not out of the question that “Model Minority” could become an anthem of similar importance for queer folks and POC in the punk scene today.”
Stream Baby Got Back Talk’s “Model Minority” music video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAZGw2Uqx5o
In other news, the paperback edition of G’Ra’s first book, Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother, was released in May through Beacon Press. With each chapter anchored by a song on a mixtape, the nonfiction book explores race, gender, class and sexuality as they pertain to punk rock and straight-edge culture. The hardcover version of Boyz n the Void was released last spring, and the book has earned strong reviews in Kirkus, The Washington Post, Shelf Awareness and the Boston Globe. Boyz was also named one of Kirkus’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2021.
++++
About Baby Got Back Talk
Baby Got Back Talk is a D-I-why?-because-we-gotta punk party from New York City. The band teamed with producer John Naclerio (Just Surrender, The Audition) at Nada Recording Studios for their latest EP, ‘Existential Shred’ due out later this Summer 2022 on Wiretap Records.
Formed in 2017, Baby Got Back Talk initially consisted of vocalist/bassist G’Ra Asim, synth op/vocalist Rhiana Hernandez, and lead guitarist/vocalist Jake Lazaroff. After years of sharing bills with local compatriots like Choked Up, Universe Ignore Her and Gibbons– acts that were all anchored by the propulsive stick work of drummer Wes Ruiz– Baby Got Back Talk welcomed Ruiz into the fold.
“We’re what punk looks like in the 2020s: driven by a DIY ethic, conversant with social issues–especially as they pertain to gender and race, enabled by inter-web, bankrolled by day jobs, powered by a rad likeminded community, resonant with the most venerable iterations of rock ‘n’ roll but firmly committed to injecting some new flavor into the mold.”
The band has released a pair of EPs in 2017’s Take This The Wrong Way and 2018’s Up In Open Arms. Their full-length debut, 2020’s Genre Reveal Party, was mixed by Paul Leavitt (All Time Low, Senses Fail, Yellowcard).
