I had the absolute joy of encountering Bbymutha’s genius in Atlanta in August 2022 when she opened for my number one inspirational icon, Peaches. Bbymutha is an indie hip hop artist from Chattanooga, TN and currently living and working in Atlanta now. I have no idea where to start with my love and obsession with Bbymutha, but all I can say is that she is a queen, icon, inspiration, and I admire her on so many levels from craft to style and just every day living. She’s the real deal and I hope to one day be on her level.

Bbymutha is a solo hip hop artist, mother of four children, two sets of twins, and her identity as a mother is a huge part of her work. I admire this specifically because she really brings to the table the idea of being creative, what does it mean to be sexy, what does it mean to be creating art that is messy, and challenging ideas of what is a good mom vs bad mom. What I love about her the most is that during the show in Atlanta she just took a shot of tequila and then her two kids came out onto the stage. Something I love about her is that she fully embraces this idea of being what others might perceive as “a bad mom” and just incorporates it into her art, calling attention and challenging respectability politics. I love that she doesn’t shield her children from a fun, playful, wildness about her in a way that I think, personally, I struggle with as a mother.

NYLON Magazine interviews BbyMutha.

Since being a mother, I have had to wrestle with some inner censorship around the kind of art and writing that I create and this idea of good mother vs bad mother. I’ve worked in the public library for almost a decade and have seen upclose the ways in which the identity of “mother” is so policed and judged and anything that drifts away from needless, wantless, sacrificing mother is chastised. To see a female artist be as free with her own creative expression while also including her children within that creative expression that doesn’t depict her as some “wholesome” angelic suburban woman making meatloaves and cookies at home has just meant the world to me.

inspirational icon series: bbymutha