Making music from memes, Abe the Kid, Blkchrist, and drinkabir inspire laughs and critical thinking on “We Need You Karen,” a provocative collaborative single that highlights the creativity emerging from New York City’s underground hip-hop scene.
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“We Need You Karen” – Abe the Kid, Blkchrist, & drinkabir
An essential part of humor is self-awareness, as a great deal of levity can be found in some of the heaviest topics.
Comedy not only has the potential to offer an escape, but also build bonds, as laughing with another person immediately creates an increased sense of intimacy through mutual understanding. Similarly, music as an art form has the potential to operate as an engine of connection, but finding a balance of quality, substance, and accessibility is often extremely difficult. Many songs end up sacrificing in one of these areas in order to broaden a potential listener base and avoid alienating any prospective fans.
New Yorkers, though, tend to have a habit of not abiding by any of these social expectations, and hold the value of blunt honesty above all else. With their new song, “We Need You Karen,” a trio of emerging New York artists – Abe The Kid, Blkchrist, and drinkabir – team up to wade into a fraught political climate with a wink and the confidence to throw all caution to the wind.
The song finds Abe the Kid and Blkchrist trading bars over a drinkabir production, with their verses oscillating between satirical diatribes and genuine self-reflection. Their lyrics are dense with double entendres and nuanced jokes to prompt hearty laughter, followed by moments of pause and deeper consideration. The production underscores the entire musical effort.
An earnest vocal sample grounds the song in the realm of a smooth and romantic serenade, only to be inverted as Blkchrist begins his verse, which initially retains a certain level of ambiguity only to emphatically reveal the purpose of the song: An exploration of the 21st Century rise of “Karens.” Karens are an archetype most associated with privileged suburban white women, who are particularly scared of POCs and have an over reliance on the police to solve their nonexistent problems.
In 2020, as a great reckoning occurred in response to police brutality, the behavior of Karens came into the spotlight with greater scrutiny, leading to a nationwide phenomena finding various shaky cell phone videos, exposing the racial profiling experienced by Black Americans simply existing on a daily basis. At the heart of the issue is a deeply troubling prevalence of subconscious bias, but rather than dwelling in sorrow, the internet and particularly Black twitter invented the Karen, which harnesses humor to vanquish racism through memes and now songs.
We need you Karen
Somebody’s outside
And I can’t call the cops
The people staring
Hold me accountable
We don’t f* with opps
We need you Karen
Somebody’s outside
And they got a gun
I’ll slide the phone
Keep it real low
Dial Nine and two Ones
In support of their new single, Abe the Kid, Blkchrist, and drinkabir, joined creative forces with filmmaker Yoandi Garcia to build a visual world complimentary to “We Need You Karen’s” imaginative and unapologetic spirit. Situated in a hyperbolic reality mimicking the imagined anxiety of a Karen registering the prospective threats of Abe the Kid and Blkchrist, the video moves like a cinematic fever dream driven by paranoia surrounding the Other. In the sheltered American imagination, two black rappers from New York showing up at your doorstep is the worst nightmare for most white suburbanites. The potential horrors conjured by one’s own mind far outweigh any potential danger in an interaction with an unknown stranger.
The video expertly materializes this discordance in expectation versus reality. Without moving too far in a singular conceptual direction, the video avoids falling into the pitfalls of genre by solely being a comedic skit or a heavy handed drama, instead opting for a uniquely refreshing blend of absurdism, aesthetically pleasing vignettes, and an accessible storyline. The harmonious relationship between the visuals and the music further feed into the performative embodiment of Abe and Blkchrist stepping into the mind of a Karen and attempting to understand and contextualize their own existence through her eyes.
When the cop comes
I’ll flip em the bird
Say f* the PO-Lice
But double check
on them handcuffs
In case they don’t link
I can’t take the blame
if these badges shoot
And they don’t think
Especially if the hand
With the gun
Looks just like me
On the surface, the subject matter of Karen is extremely serious, and although there are dark moments and tones sprinkled throughout, the song veers away from defeatism in favor of defiance, invoking a subversive punk rock flair, using mockery as a means to disarm and alleviate the genuine racial traumas. Although abrasive at times, the song is neither aggressive nor mean spirited, despite what a Karen might hear upon listening. Rather, it’s an investigation of the self and how one is perceived.
This inventive manner of music making exemplifies the bounds of sound as an artistic medium, for “We Need You Karen” is both a thought provoking work that vividly implants intriguing images, as well as just a really fun song to listen to. As seen in their previous collaborative work, Abe the Kid, Blkchrist, and drinkabir have a palpable musical chemistry that leaves room to take risks and push the boundaries of Hip-Hop as a genre.
Juggling social commentary, hysterical punchlines, and infectious production, “We Need You Karen” is indicative of the multiplicity of rap music in 2025.
We need you Karen
Somebody’s outside
And I’m scared for my life
I got a bad history
With calling out for protection
I don’t f* with police
‘Cause I don’t believe they’ll protect me
We need you Karen
I just can’t let anybody else know
My confidence,
my talking sh*
is really just for show
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:: stream/purchase We Need You Karen here ::
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“We Need You Karen” – Abe the Kid, Blkchrist, & drinkabir
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© 2025
© 2025
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