Back in 2016, Kylie Jenner starred in an elaborate Kylie Cosmetics campaign launch for a new line of lip glosses. In the commercial, she played the getaway driver waiting outside while her friends grabbed the cash. The clip was set to “3 Strikes,” the debut single from a mysterious pop group called Terror Jr, later revealed to be a project from members of the Cataracs. It concluded with Jenner, who at the time denied rumors that she was a member of the group, speeding off in a car with the license plate KngKylie.
Now, King Kylie and Terror Jr are back with “Fourth Strike,” a new single celebrating the 10th anniversary of Kylie Cosmetics — and this time, Jenner is officially on the track.
The song marks the first music release from Jenner, who has set up profiles on Spotify and Apple Music as King Kylie. The moniker revives the 2010s persona she established that ruled over the land of Snapchat filters, dip-dyed hair, and pouty, overlined lips. It arrived with a trailer that showed what happened to King Kylie and her friends after their getaway (spoiler: they got caught).
In an interrogation room, detectives grill present-day Jenner in a deposition. “We’ve got you on multiple counts of being the baddest bitch on Earth, slaying 24/7, just being an all-around impressive young lady,” one tells her. To the surprise of her robbery accomplices, who are still behind bars, she gets released. Kris Jenner is waiting in a Rolls-Royce out front, affixed with the same KngKylie plates and a glove compartment full of the upcoming Kylie Cosmetics lip gloss launch.
“Fourth Strike” itself is pretty unremarkable, as was the case for a lot of songs that belonged to this subset of pop in the mid- to late-2010s. Jenner performs only on the bridge of the track. “One strike, two strike, let me get the mood right/I just wanna tell you, ‘I’m sorry’/Touch me, baby, tell me I’m your baby,” she sings with a cadence that doesn’t lend itself to melody. “Write your name all over my body/Cross the line, I might do it again/Do it on purpose just to see how it ends/King Kylie.”
Despite the fanfare around the return of King Kylie, it seems Jenner is thankfully more interested in selling lip products than in selling music. It’s what’s best for everyone.
