At this year’s Billboard Music Awards in May, sandwiched between Cardi B and Nicki Minaj in the Top Rap Female Artiste category was Bhad Bhabie (pronounced ‘Bad Baby’). She didn’t win the trophy but she has won our attention. Born Danielle Bregoli, the 15-year-old rapper is winning millions of viewers online, while improving her US chart history gradually. Who’s she?

BHAD STAR RISING

Credit goes to Adam Kluger, celebrity and brand placement arranger, for this ‘good Bhad’ discovery. In 2008, Kluger wanted to sell music labels an idea: making brands pay for placement in songs. He approached Interscope’s vice-chairman Steve Berman, who said his label wasn’t into brand dropping but helped Kluger with a list of new artistes who could help. One of his early deals was between clothing brand Vixen’s Visions and the then rising star, Lady Gaga. He went on to make arrangements involving Christina Aguilera, Flo Rida, Jason Derulo and others. In 2016, he was working on a big deal between Britney Spears and the dating app Bumble, which led to some drama.

This came at a time when an absurd clip featuring a Florida teenager had hit the web. Danielle Bregoli, of Boynton Beach, was a guest on a September 2016 episode of Dr. Phil titled I Want to Give Up My Car-Stealing, Knife-Wielding, Twerking 13-Year-Old Daughter Who Tried to Frame Me for a Crime! According to The New York Times, Bregoli had done all that and more, leading her desperate mother, Barbara Ann, to contact the television shrink for assistance. The live studio audience appeared to celebrate the “spectacle of conflict”, making Bregoli call them “h**s” and inviting them to fight: “Cash me outside, howbowdah?”, which meant “catch her outside”.

Following her appearance, she was sent for a stay at Turn-About Rance, “a residential programme for youths with emotional and behavioural problems”. She fed and groomed horses there while Walmart sold a T-shirt with the phrase CASH ME OUTSIDE HOW BOUT DAH.

Kluger found out about the troubled girl and wanted to make a star out of her.

EYEING THE SPOTLIGHT

Months later, Bregoli was reborn as Bhad Bhabie, the rapper. In February 2017, she and her mother made their second appearance on Dr. Phil and within a few days, appeared in a video for the rapper Kodak Black, who’s one of Bregoli’s favourite artistes. Meanwhile, keeping her online presence steady was a pow-wow episode. She was caught on video — of course! — landing a punch on a fellow passenger on Spirit Airlines. She uncorked a punch and the police arrived.

From there on, Bregoli decided to focus more on rapping. Her video for Mama Don’t Worry (Still Ain’t Dirty) details some of her childhood trauma. Equally popular are tracks like These Heaux, Gucci Flip Flops (featuring Lil Yachty) and Trust Me (featuring Ty Dolla Sign).

“I always told myself, no matter where I was in life, I’m not gonna end up like other people. I’m always gonna do my own thing. I wanna be something — whether I’m 19 years old working at a pet store or I’m 19 years old with a No. 1 record — I wanna be the biggest I can be to my crowd, no matter what my crowd is. I’ve always been the popular one in my school, in my town. Everyone always knew who I was,” she has told Billboard.

SHE PACKS (AND LANDS) PUNCHES!

Though new to the music industry, mincing words is not Bregoli’s style. In April she did just that by telling TMZ her winning pick among Cardi B and Nicki Minaj: “Cardi’s way better than Nicki. I don’t care what anyone says. Cardi actually says stuff, Nicki just has attitude. So what? Wow, big deal,” said the rapper. Later she defended her statement on Instagram.

This went well... unlike the feud she has been having with social media star, the 18-year-old Woah Vicky (in picture). What started after Vicky apparently called out Bregoli in a post, tumbled on to the streets of Los Angeles in April. The two came face to face and tried to settle their beef with some “Bhad” talk and punches.

HOW BAD IS BHAD?

Cars have always fascinated the caffeine-gum-chewing 15-year-old. The first time she sat behind the wheels was at age 12 with “one of these dudes her dad knew.... I was good!” The next time, the girl with a small frame and long acrylic nails stole her mom’s car: “I took my mom’s keys. I said: ‘Mom I have to get something from the car.’ [Waves goodbye] I took off.”

What’s the ‘baddest’ thing you have done? Tell us in 50 words at t2@abp.in