How Food Influences Hip-Hop Duo Flyana Boss’s Creative Visuals and Lyrics

If you spent any amount of time on TikTok, Instagram, or even X (formerly Twitter) during the summer of 2023, chances are you saw the video that started it all: two Black women running through the street toward an impressively steady camera. In later videos recreating that first one, they sprint through grocery store aisles, restaurants, and more, all while rapping about brand deals, synthetic hair extensions, and dividends: “I’m made of sugar, spice, Kanekalon, and cinnamon.”

The Los Angeles-based hip-hop duo Flyana Boss has garnered a major following online with their social media challenges and carefree, vlog-style cooking videos, each of which is defined by the welcoming and sincere charisma of best friends Bobbi and Folayan. At the time of publication, the official music video for last summer’s “You Wish” has racked up more than 883,000 views on YouTube, more than 41.6 million streams on Spotify, and inspired multiple remixes and verses from Missy Elliot and Kaliii. In 2023, they secured a place opening for Janelle Monaé during The Age of Pleasure tour.

With Flyana Boss’s rising popularity, it is no surprise that brands have jumped onto the opportunity to collaborate with the duo. Like many up-and-coming artists, the two took advantage of these opportunities. Food brands in particular seem to fit perfectly into their sensibility. After filming themselves running through McDonald’s, Chipotle, and the supermarket, they’ve scored official brand deals with big names like DoorDash and Pizza Hut.

Crucial to Flyana Boss’s success is the palpable connection between the two self-described weird, carefree Black girls who are unafraid of judgment or being misunderstood. It’s a departure from the tedious advertising ploys, dubious sponsored content, and influencer marketing that have come to define branded content on TikTok. And Flyana Boss’s love for food is clear even beyond brand deals. The duo has found ways to organically incorporate food references into their songs and accompanying visuals, regardless of whether the creative endeavor has a major food sponsor, as with their 2022 single “Mango Bananas,” and their Valentine’s Day track “Candyman.”

Now, they are traveling the country on a different kind of run as they headline their first national tour, playfully titled The Bosstanical Tour and timed to the release of their new EP This Ain’t the Album on March 29. As they prepared for their second sold-out show at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right, Eater spoke to Flyana Boss about the inspirations behind their lyrics and their dream snack collab.

Eater: From songs like “Fondue,” “Mango Bananas,” “Hot Tea,” and your recent Valentine’s Day single “Candyman,” you have quite a few references to food across your work. So, my first question is pretty simple, why food?

Bobbi: Almost every song.

Folayan: We love food references.

B: We’re both hungry girls.

F: And it feeds our soul! Food references are always funny and punny. They make a good pun.

B: And they’re abundant! There are so many euphemisms you can make with food. Food is universal, and we both really enjoy it.

Did you set out to make songs and visuals with food references, or did it happen naturally?

B: It happened naturally! It’s just always been a thing, ever since we started writing together. We wanted to do a food EP at one time. It hasn’t come to fruition yet, but maybe one day.

From lyrics like, “Me and my bestie are the same, like a synonym,” it’s obvious you two are genuinely close in addition to being creative collaborators. Are you also each other’s dining companions? How would you describe your tastes in food and the experience of eating out together while on tour?

B: For sure.

F: We’re always together in general.

B: And we don’t judge each other’s eating. I hate when people do that, like when someone says, “Why’d you order that?” just because it’s different from what they know. We never do that to each other. Folayan also has a lot of recommendations. She’s very cultured, and has a cultured palate.

F: Bobbi doesn’t like cheese, and though it doesn’t feel like she’s judging me whenever I order something with cheese in it, she will say, “Ew,” every now and then.

B: Yeah, I don’t like cheese unless it’s on pizza. [Laughs] But if we go places, she’ll always recommend something to me. She’s always like, “Why don’t you try this?” Or, “You would like this!” Pad see ew is my go-to Thai dish because of this one.

You’ve shown fans for years how much you love to talk about what you’re eating. When you are on tour, do you find yourself trying new places, or do you seek out your familiar comfort foods? Has any one restaurant stuck with you?

F: A little bit of both! We love an Asian restaurant, and she found this spot randomly. It was a Thai spot in Toronto, just a random find! Sadly, we don’t even remember the name of it off the top of our heads.

B: That was the best food we’ve had on tour. I wish we could try more food places though, too. We could plan it out and try the best places everywhere we visit on tour.

F: It’d be really cool if we pulled a Guy Fieri and did a food tour. It would be cool if it was filmed and on the Food Network.

B: Yes! A food show. We love to food.

Name it something like “The Flyana Foodie Fest.” Speaking of visuals, many of the social media posts and videos that come to mind when they hear your music have taken place in food-centered locations, from supermarkets to a McDonald’s to various other spots. Did you plan from the start to recreate the videos and choose where you would film?

B: With the running, people were just asking us. We got comments on social media saying, “Run at McDonald’s! Run at Costco!” So, we just did it.

F: And the more people the merrier. So if there was a crowd at In-N-Out or wherever we were at the time, then that was even better.

Did you have to get permission to do that each time? Or did you just show up, film, run, and hope you don’t get kicked out?

B: We ask for forgiveness, not permission. [Laughs] But, generally, if we mention a food in our song, we will put it in the visuals.

That kind of infectious confidence and carefree attitude is a constant thread in your music. From all of your food-related lyrics, do you have a favorite line that you’ve written, even if it’s not the most insightful or literal?

B: I mean, I don’t eat meat, but I do say, “Eat that meat like I’m at Ruth’s Chris.” And that’s an obvious innuendo.

F: I didn’t write this one — Bobbi wrote it — but, “He ‘bout to eat my opples and bononos,” based off of the children’s song.

B: Yeah, that is a good one! That is why I love the food references. You can say whatever and they will really click with people.

You’ve secured multiple major brand deals recently with companies like Pizza Hut and DoorDash. Are there any other brands you would love to work with?

F: I want a Lay’s brand deal! Frito-Lay! We’re chip lovers!

B: We do love chips.

Looking to the future, are you working on anything — music, videos, collabs — that is food-related that we can expect?

F: We have this song we just released called “Money At,” and it mentions cheddar cheese.

B: I hate cheese, but I love money.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Additional photo illustration credits: All photos by Frederic J. Brown/Getty