Ones2Watch Home

Whether it’s through Reels, TikTok, or projected on the back of your eyelids, it’s been impossible to escape the all-consuming intoxication of Flyana Boss. 

Composed of Detroit’s Bobbi Lanea and Dallas’ Folayan, you would think the duo has known each other since wombhood, though the two only met while attending the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. Classically trained, both were on track toward promising individual careers, yet the charisma in their collaboration was too palpable to be ignored.

Carrying out the mission preceding acts like Missy Elliott, Leikeli47, and Nicki Minaj catalyzed, Flyana Boss is theatrically uninhibited. Making art solely sourced from Black joy, they’re playing dress-up, reclaiming their bodies with reverence, and redefining the fracture between silly and sultry. 

But even so, their childlike essence is at no expense to their lyrical ability or musicality. Many may try to box them within their viral running antics, confusing them for fleeting internet acts trying to capitalize off sudden steam. Undoubtedly, Flyana Boss can rhyme circles around anyone foolish enough to doubt them, pairing seasoned wit with an unforgiving bite.

They’ve collected well-earned accolades, with “You Wish” hitting #1 on the US Spotify Viral 100 chart and countless celebrities, including Timbaland and Lupita Nyong’o, acknowledging them as peers. But the most profound, immeasurable accolade is the solace they’ve provided young Black girls too stunned by shame to live in the fullest expression of their awkward color. With pointed ear tips and fluorescent braids, they’re platforming weird in a way I wish little me got to witness but beams with pride knowing the generation ushering in is.

Sitting across from the two fairies come alive, there’s an impenetrable vibration between the two, a magnetism that heightens in charge when they’re together. With synchronized responses and mirroring astrology, the secret ingredient to their inevitable stardom is home-cooked love. With blinding smiles and eyes full of wonder, they keep the inner children within each other safe and leave everyone around them drunk with giggles. 

We had the honor of discussing everything with the duo destined for stardom, from braiding their own hair to running around Drake’s house (pending Aubrey’s approval, of course.)

Ones To Watch: Congratulations on how big of a moment you guys are having right now! Have you gotten the time to breathe it all in?

Folayan: It really went from 0-100. I haven’t had my big cry moment yet and I’m a big crier. I’m waiting, like when is it going to happen?

Bobbi: Yeah, we’re both big criers. I’ve had a couple baby cries here and there, but I want that one that’s like, “THANK GOD I FINALLY DID WHAT I CAME ON EARTH TO DO.”

On your knees, ripping off your shirt, Ray J style.

Bobbi: Exactly. That hasn’t happened yet but I’m sure it will.

You’re taking over in a way that I think is important particularly for Black girls to witness, because you’re not pretending to be anything other than yourselves. And now you got the girls talking bout Kanekalon! What role does your hair play in your sense of expression?   

Folayan: We both braid our own hair! Like we’ll just take two days off and be like, “We’re braiding our hair.”

Bobbi: A big part of our life is braiding our hair. We both feel a lack of self when our hair isn’t done. Like when neither of us is ready to change our hair we’re like, “Ugh, I hate myself.”

My brain shut off after you said that you braid your own hair.

Folayan: Yeah, my mom had a braiding salon when I was little! She had me doing other people's hair when I was like, 14 or 15? 

Bobbi: I was a silk press girl for a long time. I didn’t know what to do with my curls.

It’s giving Kamala.

Bobbi: Exactly! It wasn’t until I started to accept my curls that I had to figure out how to do my hair. But I always had a knack for braiding, I used to braid my niece’s hair and my doll’s hair. I’m better at doing my own hair than anyone else, though.

Folayan: She can cornrow her own hair! I haven’t unlocked that skill yet. I’m not a parter. Like even when I do my own hair, I just grab. 

Bobbi: I’m a big parter, parting is very important to me. This is where we differ. 

Describe your “weird girl” style, who are some of your OG pioneers?

Bobbi: Our aesthetic is weird Black girls who are cute and rap.

Folayan: Missy Elliott was a big influence for sure, for both of us. Also Lizzo.

Bobbi: Tierra Whack was a big inspiration for us too. Rico Nasty, Doja Cat.

Missy Elliott shouted you guys out, didn’t she?

Folayan: WOW! Wow.

Bobbi: We haven’t fully sat in it. It’s so crazy and outrageous. Someone tweeted her a video of us and Missy replied “Fun!” and we both lost it.

Real recognize real, and I think you’re doing what she did, which was standing in her authentic expression and birthing something new from that. Including Missy shouting you out, what other moments thus far have been surreal? 

Folayan: Lupita doing her own video to our song! 

Bobbi: She ran around Paris in all Chanel to our song and it was absolutely crazy.

Folayan: I think I watched that video an unhealthy amount of times.

Was there ever a moment when you felt like you had to dilute yourselves or follow trends in order to be more easily marketed?

Folayan: Luckily, our social media was responding to us when we were being our authentic selves, and it wasn’t reacting to us when we were trying to follow trends. 

Bobbi: Yeah, we tried a couple trends. Not like musically, but more like using popular sounds on TikTok. People did not care.

Folayan: But as soon as we posted our own music or us being us, that’s what got the most attention. 

Once you reach such a level of viral, is it ever accompanied with a sense of pressure to maintain the same leve of attention?

Folayan: “You Wish” put us in a sphere in which now we feel like we can create our own world. The people that fuck with us will fuck with us, we don’t have to worry about what to do next because it’s more of us just continuing to create in our little world.

Bobbi: Yeah, we’re only making music for the people that really fuck with us, so we’ll see what we retain after the “You Wish” of it all. 

So are you guys up in your cardio or are you ever winded after doing one of your videos?

Folayan: Yes! But it’s getting easier and easier. I might have asthma, I don’t know.

Bobbi: Less winded each time I think! The first couple of runs were like, goddamn. I for sure have runner’s asthma. I don’t really know what that is. But someone said it before and I think I have it. 

Keeping you in our thoughts and prayers. Is there a dream location you guys want to run in, like Drake’s house or something?

Bobbi: Oh my god, I never thought of Drake’s house but yes.

Folayan: I would love that. I wonder if the house in the “Popstar” video is his?

Bobbi: I’ve seen YouTube videos about his Toronto and Calabasas houses and they look massive. Aubrey, we are down.

We’ll be on standby for his approval. As silly girl advocates, how are you keeping play alive? How do you balance being grown and being silly at once? 

Bobbi: We keep play alive by having each other. We are ALWAYS silly together. 

Folayan: Yeah, we’re always keeping things light and happy.

Bobbi: And you can be both! Silly and sultry.

Folayan: You just need to be in on the joke. The joke of life is hilarious. Be in on it. 

Bobbi: Break the fourth wall. It’s not that serious. It never was.

You can feel in your music how alive your inner children are, yet you don’t stray from being provocative or talking about your body before anyone else can. Was your level of comfort with your sexuality innate or did you have to learn your way there?

Folayan: We had to learn it, we’re still learning it, it’s a process. 

Bobbi: It’s been over time. Both of us have been sexually awkward or insecure with our bodies at one point and even sometimes currently. It’s a journey. 

And lastly, who are yourOnes to Watch; who are you listening to?

Folayan: I’m back in my Smino bag! I was in a big, heavy Smino bag and now I’m back. Happy to be here. Eager to stay.

Bobbi: TisaKorean has my heart. He’s got cute little bars.