Billie Eilish invited West Philly rapper Armani White to perform the track he named after her
We caught up with Armani White about his performance with Billie Eilish.
A year since the release of his viral track “BILLIE EILISH.” West Philly rapper Armani White got to perform with the song’s namesake for a crowd of 40,000 in Canada.
Over the weekend, while performing at the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal, pop singer Billie Eilish posed a question to the audience: “You know that song that’s like glock tucked, big T-shirt, Billie Eilish?” She was quoting White’s most popular track to date, an under-2-minute single that prompted a viral TikTok challenge.
That’s when the instrumental started and White — who was also performing at Osheaga — ran onto the stage to duet with Eilish. The two can be seen grinning and bouncing around together in videos of the performance that have since gone viral on TikTok — a full-circle moment for the Philly-raised rapper who credits Eilish and the platform to his newfound mainstream success.
“It’s really dope because the song went viral and consistently built and built,” White, 26, told The Inquirer. “The majority of people know the song and have no idea who made it or how much it changed my life. I think this moment was the final piece that brought it together and made it click in those people’s heads on how big this entire thing is.”
While White has performed “BILLIE EILISH.” live before — including at the BET Awards — and Eilish has acknowledged the song, dancing to it in a clip online, last weekend marked the first time the rapper performed the track with Eilish herself.
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White says the idea for the collab came about over a game of UNO.
“I wish there was some big, elaborate story, but we were talking about what times we’re getting to the fest and she just had the idea,” he said. “Of course, I wasn’t saying no to that.”
The viral videos and festival performances are a far shift from White’s life just a few years ago.
White came up in the hip-hop scene in the early 2010s. By 2018, he made the lineup for Philly’s annual Made in America Festival, a feat for the then-22-year-old who grew up attending the fest. He was also named a “Tidal Rising” artist by the festival’s founder, Jay-Z.
» READ MORE: Our 2018 interview with Armani White
In 2020, White’s home caught fire. He and his brother were wrongfully arrested, with all charges dropped a year later, according to Forbes. In 2021, he released his EP Things We Lost in the Fire. Since then, White has taken his self-described “happy hood music” to a bigger stage.
He’s currently nominated for an MTV Video Music Award and his anticipated album, CASABLANCO, is “coming soon,” though he didn’t share specifics. On TikTok, “BILLIE EILISH.” continues to trend, a phenomenon internet culture experts don’t forecast stopping anytime soon.
Now, days since their first joint performance, White says he’s still thinking about how it all went down.
“It’s Billie’s world and she said she wanted to do it, so the earth shifted to make it happen,” he said. “I always dreamed of the ‘What if?’ moment. But actually being on that stage with her was different than any dream I could’ve imagined.”
On Tuesday, White posted a carousel of photos and videos of the performance to his Instagram. He captioned the post with lyrics from one of Eilish’s songs: “I had a dream I got everything I wanted.”