With a dry tone like Daria and the general vibe of the girls from The Craft, when LILPIXIE (fka Pixie) raps “Baby, I’ll take you to wonderland”, it sounds like they’re luring you into a trap.
They’re an outcast by choice that just skates around and smokes weed with their coven of besties, dodges fuckboy-related drama but occasionally falls head over heels and, along the way, flirts with rituals, the mystical and the spiritual. Nineteen years old and operating out of Western Sydney, Pixie’s a good songwriter with a great ear for beats and a very unique presence on the mic – somewhere between a personified eye-roll, a starry-eyed tripper, a human (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ and a creepy, The Ring-like horror girl you see at the end of a hallway.
LILPIXIE, who uses they/them pronouns, was born in Bangkok but now calls Western Sydney home. It was no surprise to learn that, among other artists like Mac Miller and Isaac Puerile, Pixie cites the hushed, dead-eyed-flexing, Atlanta pop-rap girlies Coco & Clair Clair as a major influence.
Pixie released their second tape ‘WONDERLAND’ in July 2021 and much like Mac, they tackle a host of different sounds across the seven-track project, from the dreamy knock of ‘wonderland’ and the smooth, guitar-driven RnB of ‘pixie dust rd’, to the cemetery-core stuntin’ on ‘lil pixie (freestyle)’, and the melancholy-drenched lamentations on ‘TEMPERANCE’. ‘lil pixie (freestyle)’ is a particular highlight, featuring Pixie at their shit-talking best and a sparse beat that fits their cold delivery, tapping into a breathless Valee-like flow. ‘hotbox’ is a fun picture of a moment of solitude in a period of transience, mixing a stew of the trebidation and the hope that change can bring as Pixie recounts the first hotbox of a new bedroom. With the track’s light, bubbly production, you can practically hear the weight being lifted from Pixie’s shoulders. Wherever they’re goin’, they’re goin’ with it. It feels like they’re trying to create something new with every track; how they rap or what they rap about is always in flux.
With that said, Pixie tends to toggle between two primary modes: “real pretty bitch I don’t like nobody”, and hopeless romantic. That quote is lifted from the dramatic, hyperpoppish title track from their first tape ‘In My Mind’, where the extravagant synth riffs and thick, fuzzy bass of the beat make Pixie and co-star AngelTT feel like all-powerful entities suspended in mid-air at the centre of a bright pink electrical storm. Maybe, IDK. Really they’re just cool teenagers who feel powerful by dodging all the riff-raff and focusing on themselves. The beat’s giving ecstasy-fueled party but the raps are giving “too blazed, i’m not talking to nobody”.
Two of their more recent singles – ‘stay‘ and ‘C U‘ – reflect the other end of the Pixie spectrum, both beautifully gentle, singing-heavy cuts where Pixie is yearning for the company of a special someone. The soft, under-stated delivery, which often accentuates their apathy or disdain, here gives their voice a wonderful intimacy and vulnerability.
On Halloween this year, LILPIXIE returned with a banger entitled ‘Abstinent Fuckboy’. While I had assumed prior to release that it would be Pixie talking (shit) about a fuckboy, I now believe it to be Pixie starring AS the Abstinent Fuckboy. Which is tight.With a heavy beat fit for a G Herbo song, Pixie’s sliding with their own fuckboy swagger and, to my ears, channeling the bad bitch rappers of tha birthplace New York City in their delivery, while keeping their voice relatively low in the mix and playing around with some cool vocal layering. Pixie loves a bad bitch, pulls a plenty and hates misogyny but gives it a try anyway. And this fuckboy’s abstinent cause they ain’t ever got time to do the dirty deed, they gotta get to the bag. Basically, Pixie’s better at being a fuckboy than actual fuckboys.
I used to think that Pixie was putting on an American accent at times, and thought that their ‘natural accent’ would better fit their non-conformist personality, but they seem to be switching between accents on a whim here. I think they just talk like that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s only recently that LILPIXIE has added the ‘lil’ to their name, but I should note that, on Spotify, their catalog is spread across two artist profiles with that same name, while on Apple Music, they can be found under the name ‘cosmicpixie’. Their first tape ‘In My Mind’ leans heavier on the crystals and the manifesting and the hexes being placed on the moon – as well as the “struggles with love, heartbreak and drug use” – with the cool beats and the distinct Pixie-style all there and is very much worth a listen as well.