To Malibu Babie, blonde isn’t just a hair color — it’s a lifestyle. The producer-singer’s latest single “Blonde” is a gritty, synth-pop cut all about embracing the descriptors (both stereotypical and not) that come with the hair color. With the help of early aughts TV icon and singer Heidi Montag, Malibu Babie takes aim at detractors and the age-old stereotype of being a “dumb blonde.”
Malibu Babie made history as the first female producer this millennium to debut a song (Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl”) at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Alongside Minaj’s hit, Malibu Babie has worked on pop and hip-hop confections including Megan Thee Stallion’s “Her” and Katy Perry and Kim Petras’ “GORGEOUS.” Her latest venture as a solo artist is a sampling of what’s to come this summer on her upcoming Malibu Drift mixtape, a project that the artist promises will be filled with “hot girl anthems.”
On the release day of “Blonde,” Malibu Babie chatted with Melodic Magazine about the song’s genesis, getting Montag featured and reclaiming power of the “dumb blonde” narrative.
Congratulations on releasing “Blonde,” how are you feeling?
I’m feeling good! Release day is always an exciting day, an anxious day, but I’m really happy. I’ve gotten a lot of editorial support, the response from fans has been really good, so I’m feeling celebratory.
How did “Blonde” come to be? Was it an idea that was sitting around for a while and you revisited it, or a new concept that you developed?
I have had the concept for the song “Blonde” for years. It was one of the first songs when I signed my publishing deal I ever had, and I could never quite get it right. It’s been written and rewritten a million times, but I knew when I was putting together this [upcoming] project that I really wanted to do it, and I really wanted to do something that I had produced by myself. The stereotype of “dumb blonde” is so prevalent, so I was like, this would be pretty badass if I self-produced the song. For “Blonde,” I was like, “Okay, I have to find an iconic blonde to be on the song,” like an iconic pop culture, pop princess. So I actually DM’d [Montag’s husband] Spencer, thinking he’ll never see this and he hit me back right away. It was like 48 to 72 hours later, [and] Heidi and I were in the studio finishing the record together. It was the easiest, most chill process of working with another artist I’ve ever had.
Do you usually work pretty quickly like that or do you tend to take your time with things and try on different lyrics or production styles before it gets to the finish line?
I am definitely a psycho OCD producer. So this song “Blonde,” this is the fourth production [style] that I’ve put under it. But I think the beautiful thing was, once I knew Heidi was the feature it allowed me some clarity to finally pick the right version that I felt like fit both of our brands — even just to have another set of ears in the studio be like, oh yeah, this is the one. So I do typically play around with things, but I usually, honestly, end up going back to my first instinct.
On this song, your voice is like an instrument in itself. Is that “baby voice,” so to speak, a conscious approach that you bring when you’re singing or is that just sort of a natural place that it goes to?
So I do remember, even from the time being a small child, when I’d have to do public speaking and things my parents would be like, “Stop talking in your baby voice,” [but] that is naturally where my voice goes. I think people think I’m running it through this, like, really crazy thing where I’m shifting my throat or doing weird stuff to it but that is just kind of what I sound like when I sing. I definitely think it’s cool, I love being unique so I definitely lean into that.
Can you tell me about this upcoming project of yours that’s coming out this summer?
Okay, so it’s a mixtape called Malibu Drift — you heard it here first. The theme of the record is songs that you want to jam in your car to, that are just like hot girl anthems. It’s extremely collaborative. I intentionally wanted to put together a mixtape that was very diverse sonically like I was telling you. So we have Flyana Boss on a crossover hip-hop [and] pop track, we have “Trillion$” with bludnymph, which is dark-pop, also hard-hitting. We have this record [“Blonde”], we have more coming. They all play with just a little bit of a different sound, a little bit of a different genre and I am just so excited. It’s my first really intentional body of work that I feel like I’ve personally curated, and I’ve been working so hard on it, I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.
I got really inspired by Fast & Furious, I think because it’s a combination of, like, girly and sporty [aesthetics]. I feel like as a producer, as you know, there’s [little to] no female producers. There was once an entire year [that] I think I saw like, two other girls in the studio. So I always love to play with ways to combine both parts of me in that. I just want people to drive down whatever the coolest street in their hometown is and jam to it.
Is there anything that you want people to take away from “Blonde,” and by extension your upcoming mixtape?
When you listen to the song, it sounds very glossy, high fashion, kind of just a bitchy blonde, hot girl anthem — and I love that. But at the same time, I definitely was playing into that persona very intentionally because, I think specifically as a female producer, when I walk into the room, just because I’m a blonde girl, people are so confused constantly. This song is kind of like an “FU” to that. You can be a hot girl and you can also be extremely intelligent. The two are not mutually exclusive. You can be an amazing pop artist and an amazing producer. I think the moral of the story is you really are unlimited in your creativity, and just because somebody has not done it the way you want to do it before does not mean it should not be done that way. So that’s kind of my feminist theme.
