Header photo by Lindsay Brownfield
Flint native Harvey Ari, known on stage as THOT SQUAD (and Blvck.Bunnie), didn’t initially set out for a career in music. In fact, Harvey’s initial dream was simple: record one major hit and then relax.
“I would always be like, ‘Make me a city girl. I wanna be a city girl, I wanna have a city girl life,” Harvey said. “I wanna be a one hit wonder. I wanna go viral on the internet, and then that’s it.”
Harvey, who grew up on the city’s northside, has multiple talents that have led to multiple career and artistic options, starting with a love for musical theatre and involvement in Flint Youth Theatre, eventually graduating from the University of Michigan-Flint with a degree in theatre. Harvey pursued stage opportunities in New York and on the East Coast and also locally with Flint Community Players and also organized her own theatrical performances at venues in Flint.
“I was trying to audition for Broadway shows, for regional shows, anybody who would put me in a show,” Harvey said. “My whole life, I was trying to be an actor.”
While auditioning and chasing theatre dreams, Harvey was simultaneously pursuing a master’s degree in public administration with a focus in nonprofit management from Clark University in Atlanta and later Johns Hopkins University, substitute teaching, working in nonprofit jobs, and even launching their own nonprofit to bring theatre programming to kids. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when live performance opportunities for artists were paused, Harvey added another skill and began rapping and recording music with the help of their then-boyfriend and now-husband Benny Ari, a DJ, musician, and beat maker who worked for a studio and also happened to have a basement recording studio.
“I thought, ‘This (music) will be a fun little thing while the pandemic is pan-demicizing,’” Harvey said. “At first he was like, ‘Girl, no, this is my real job.’ He had just got that job (at a studio) and was like, ‘I don’t gonna get fired. Leave me alone.’ And then when the pandemic came and he couldn’t go into work, he had a studio in his basement, so I said, ‘You have your own studio, so you know that I have a studio.’ And so we made one song, it went out, and then we made a couple more.”
A Big Break
THOT SQUAD’s debut single, Super Soaker, was released in January of 2022, and Harvey continued making music while also preparing for and attending grad school at Clark, which is located in Atlanta. That’s where Harvey noticed rapper CupcaKKe, a major influence and a performer who tours nationally and has independently built a large following through her social media presence, was performing nearby.
“I’m down in Atlanta, looking for a job. We were on the phone, and he’s (Harvey’s husband) like, ‘Oh, Cupcake is coming to Lafayette, wouldn’t it be crazy if you opened for her?’” Harvey said. “I sent an email and then six days before the show, the promoter got back to us and was like, ‘Yeah, can you do 30 minutes?’”
Harvey took a chance and said yes – even though at the time, THOT SQUAD had about four songs and each was only around two minutes long. They quickly strategized on how to fill the stage time.
“We did everything we had ever recorded,” Harvey said. “We did songs that no longer exist. We did songs that exist, but now they’re completely different songs. We had a twerking competition in the middle to fill some of the time. When I stepped onto the stage, the people were just locked in from the very first song. I love going to concerts and to see a live show. I expected people to not all be really engaged because no one knew me. But then people started singing songs back even though they never heard those songs in their life. When the set was over, Ben had to switch over with the next DJ, so I’m just downstairs with my family and my friends, and we’re like, ‘Oh, that was awesome.’ And then when he comes downstairs to the green room, we just look at each other and we just start crying and hugging. And we’re like, ‘Oh, this could be real.’ This is something with an impact. It’s something that we can really make happen.”
Harvey then began balancing music with her education pursuits and was trying to keep everything separate or an “alternate identity” at first. Harvey would return to Michigan regularly while in school because the goal was to put out a new THOT SQUAD song monthly and record TikToks and videos. Humor and silliness are a theme in Harvey’s music, and accompanying social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) content has helped build a large following in a relatively short amount of time. SCAMLANTA went “baby viral” as Harvey says, with about 300,000 initial views after its release. In all, THOT SQUAD released 16 singles in 2022-23, but a breakthrough came thanks to a familial story.
“My grandmother on my mother’s side, when I was a kid, she taught all of the grandkids how to make a pound cake because my grandad’s diabetic and he needed something sweet in the house,” Harvey said. “Fast forward to 2023, I’m on TikTok live with five people, and they asked what I was making for Thanksgiving. I was like, ‘Imma show you how to make a pound cake.’ In the background my husband is working on a beat and we didn’t know what we were gonna do with it yet. For 15 minutes (on the live) I was like, ‘This is how you make a pound cake. First you get the eggs out the night before or else it’s not gonna work.’ I just went through the steps, and at the very end I said, ‘I’m a short girl making a pound cake.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, that’s something.’ And then after we got off live that night, we recorded it. The next night we made the edits, and then we just put it out.”
The song instantly took off. They also recorded accompanying social media videos with her gramma, who has gone viral in her own right.
“It was just the silliest song,” Harvey said. “We made the video with my little white friend and that’s when the people were like, ‘Oh!’ They’re more fans of that little old lady than they are of me, okay? Everybody’s like, ‘So where’s grandma?’ I’m like, ‘Y’all paid for a ticket to see me!’ But that’s what really shot me to the moon.”
At the time, Harvey was working for a Flint nonprofit organization and also had a side business printing t-shirts. The success of Pound Cake – both with visibility for THOT SQUAD’s music and popularity of merchandise – allowed Harvey to quit and focus on music full-time. That also further unlocked THOT SQUAD on stage and relieved the pressure of having to have separate identities depending on being in an office setting vs. as an artist.
“I was trying to make just the silliest songs and stuff,” Harvey said. “I was like, ‘Well, what can I say? What’s really in my heart?’ And that’s when I started trying to be more free with what I had to say and more intentional. And it really helped me personally come out of my shell. I was very tenacious, but I wouldn’t say I was confident. And now I have to say it’s all confidence, it’s all tenacity. I was trying to keep everything separate, like this was an alternate identity. Now I can say this is all my voice and it’s all me on the stage.”
More success has followed, including a studio album called ‘Ungovernable’ that’ll be released soon, major tours with national acts like Queen Herby and Rob Apollo and even being cast as a character in the video game Dispatch by AdHoc Studio. Two THOT SQUAD songs, Pound Cake and Hoes Depressed, are also licensed in the game.
“They contacted me to do the audition and at first I thought it was a scam,” Harvey said. “Like, ‘You make video games? Oh, sure you do.’ And then we had a meeting with everybody and it was like, ‘Oh, okay, this is real.’ And they asked, ‘Have you done any acting before?’ I was like, ‘Ask my student loans if I’ve done any acting, thank you.’ And they wanted to license both songs for the game, and that opened me up to a whole new set of supporters and listeners that it’s like on a whole other side of the world.”
The success has helped THOT SQUAD build out a team, so all elements of their music and presentation are no longer just done by Harvey and their husband. In addition to tenacity, Harvey credits consistency and authenticity along with previous life experiences as keys to THOT SQUAD’s rise and success.
“Music wasn’t my main thing, I was in musical theater, but I was doing poetry as well,” Harvey said. “I was a part of, it’s no longer around, but it was called Raise It Up Youth, and the thing that we did was the poetry. I had a great teacher, Natasha Thomas, and so that really taught me how to write in a way that expressed me and was not cliché and not trying to sound like other people. That really helped in the crazy trajectory (in music). And, listen, theatre’s nothing but rejection, okay? You gonna get more no’s than yes’s. So I was used to take a chance, nope. Take a chance, nope. Take a chance, nope. But just keep going and don’t get discouraged. I wasn’t trying this thing just so I could make some money. We weren’t doing things just because that’s the way that this person did it on TikTok and they went viral, so let’s do that. Or trying to be like anybody else. I was just like I’m gonna make my songs. I feel like it’s hard work plus not waiting for anybody to say yes and just doing it.”
Performing in Flint
Because Harvey’s music career has taken off in such a short amount of time and started while attending school in a different city, THOT SQUAD’s trajectory is a bit different than a typical Flint musician that would’ve had local gigs first. Which is why a special 810 Day celebration planned at the Mott Park Clubhouse at 7 p.m. on August 14 is special. The free event will be headlined by THOT SQUAD and also include performances by comedian JeCorey Hawkins and dance troupe Vertical Ambition, which is based out of FLI-City Studios, a nonprofit dance company on Flint’s westside.
“I wanted to create this event where people can feel like, ‘Yeah, I can bring my family to this,’” Harvey said. “It’s really unfortunate that the 810 Day celebrations of late have ended in some sort of tragedy or there’s events where people have to pay to get into it or you have to pay to perform, and it’s all just for the benefit of one person at the very top. I wanted to be able to participate in an 810 Day celebration that makes people feel comfortable.”
Harvey is also excited to showcase Vertical Ambition and FLI-City Studios. The 810 Day event will include a fundraiser for the organization to help purchase a new awning and signage for the front of their building, which is located on Corunna Road. A fire at an adjacent building damaged their existing one. Vertical Ambition has also performed with THOT SQUAD during tour stops in Detroit and Cleveland and appeared in music videos.
Harvey has also taken classes at FLI-City Studios, and loves the community aspect of their mission that tries to make dance accessible and approachable for anyone in the community of any age who wants to try it.
“Any chance I get, I’m trying to promote them to show them to the world,” Harvey said. “We’re gonna have a fundraising portion of the 810 Day so that we can raise money for them to get that new awning, so that people can know they’re out here and they exist. They just want anybody to come in and just dance. Their classes are not expensive. You can be any age. I took their tumbling class, and I am (*cough* *cough*) years old. There was a father and son duo there. The son, he was about to go to college, and the dad, he had to be like 50-something and they were running around together, and I was like, ‘This is magical.’ Anything I can do to push them is fantastic.”
In true THOT SQUAD fashion, there will be a lot of fun and spontaneous aspects of the evening too, including a handstand contest, adult spelling bee, prizes, food vendors, and more.
“I’m gonna close out the night with a family-friendly performance,” Harvey said. “It was a hoot last year trying to do family friendly, so I think it’s gonna be a hoot this year as well.”
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