Kristine Meredith Flaherty (born June 30, 1985), better known as K.Flay, is… Read Full Bio ↴Kristine Meredith Flaherty (born June 30, 1985), better known as K.Flay, is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. Her debut album Life as a Dog was released in 2014, peaking on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart at No. 2 and Billboard's Rap Albums chart at No. 14. In 2016, she signed with Interscope Records as the first artist signed to Dan Reynolds' Night Street Records imprint. She was nominated for two awards at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (for Every Where Is Some Where), and Best Rock Song (for "Blood in the Cut").

.Flay was born Kristine Meredith Flaherty in Wilmette, Illinois, on June 30, 1985. She attended nearby New Trier High School. When she was seven, her parents divorced and her mother remarried soon after, bringing in a stepbrother and a stepsister. When she was 14 years old, her biological father—a guitarist who loved all musical genres—died of undisclosed causes related to his alcoholism; many of her songs include references to him. Flaherty's stepfather helped raise her and later adopted her. She has described herself as a tomboy during childhood, preferring baggier clothing and rejecting "all things girly". In 2003, she enrolled at Stanford University, pursuing a double major in psychology and sociology. According to Flaherty, many people she met during her time at Stanford influenced her musical style.

K.Flay began her music career in 2003, believing that most hip-hop hits on the radio were "simplistic, misogynistic and formulaic". After bragging to a friend that she could write similar songs, she wrote "Blingity Blang Blang", which she described as a "low-budget rap parody that contained far too many obscenities". After writing and performing the song, Flaherty realized that she enjoyed writing and recording music. She continued to experiment with music by writing songs and performing and recording them on her computer. She released a mixtape called Suburban Rap Queen in 2005, which she produced on her laptop, and began performing.

In 2010, K.Flay released her self-titled EP, and in 2011 self-released the mixtape I Stopped Caring in '96, which she later remarked was a career turning point. K.Flay signed with RCA Records in 2012, releasing two EPs: Eyes Shut in 2012, with songs produced by Liam Howlett from the British band The Prodigy, and What If It Is in 2013. She parted ways with RCA Records in 2013 because of differences of opinion. Upon leaving RCA Records, she left behind more than 60 songs she had written while signed under RCA Records, but no longer owned the rights to. K.Flay has described her time with RCA Records as similar to "an ill-advised marriage".

In late April 2014, K.Flay announced the release of her album Life as a Dog, by offering fans the ability to pre-order via PledgeMusic, reaching 196 percent of her initial goal. She wanted the project to be "DIY [and] self-motivated". It was recorded and produced in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with the final mix produced at San Francisco's Different Fur.

Life as a Dog was released independently on June 10, 2014. The album reached No. 14 on the Billboard Rap Albums chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. K.Flay toured extensively once the album was released, including headlining a tour and joining tours with AWOLNATION, Third Eye Blind, and Dashboard Confessional in 2014. In 2014 and 2015 she toured Germany, France, and other European countries. K.Flay also performed on the Warped Tour in 2014, saying that it "was almost like an exercise in becoming a better performer".

In 2015, K.Flay collaborated with Louis the Child on their song "It's Strange". The single was praised by Taylor Swift, who added "It's Strange" as one of her "Songs That Will Make Life Awesome" list and was featured on the FIFA 16 soundtrack. The song peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. On March 25, 2016, K.Flay released her single "FML". Later that year, K.Flay announced she had signed to Interscope Records as the first artist signed to Dan Reynolds' Night Street Records imprint. Her EP Crush Me was released 10 days later on August 19. The EP's song "Blood in the Cut" appeared on the soundtrack for XXX: Return of Xander Cage, Netflix's original series BoJack Horseman (season 4, episode 6), and in a 2017 NFL promo commercial drive.

K.Flay's album Every Where Is Some Where was released on April 7, 2017. The album's first single, "High Enough", was released in March 2017. She was the opening act for the North American and European legs of Imagine Dragons' Evolve Tour. In September 2017, Flay released the book Crush Me, a compilation of notes received from fans. At the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, "Blood in the Cut" received a nomination for Best Rock Song, and Every Where Is Some Where was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

On March 1, 2019, K.Flay announced that she was working on her third studio album and released a lyric video for its first single, "Bad Vibes". On March 19, the official music video for "Bad Vibes" was released.[35] On April 29, K.Flay revealed that the new album would be titled Solutions and announced the Solutions Tour. The album was released on July 12, 2019.

In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, K.Flay released a three-track EP called Don't Judge a Song by Its Cover which saw her covering "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit, "Self Esteem" by The Offspring, and "Brain Stew" by Green Day.

In April 2021, K.Flay announced that a five-track EP called Inside Voices would be released on June 11. The first song from the EP, "Four Letter Words", was released with a music video on April 23. The second song, "TGIF" featuring Tom Morello on guitar, was released with an animated visual on May 21.

In early 2021, K.Flay began live streaming on Twitch; she uses the platform to interact with fans, host live interviews with other musicians, and create and mix original songs in real-time. She also performed at the 2021 Grey Cup halftime show with Arkells and The Lumineers.'' On November 19, 2021, K.Flay released a second five-track EP entitled Outside Voices. The EP's first single, "Nothing Can Kill Us", was released on October 15, 2021; its accompanying music video was released on November 4. A second single, "Weirdo", was released on November 17, two days before the release of the EP. On February 4, 2022, K.Flay's fourth studio album Inside Voices / Outside Voices, was released. The album combines the Inside Voices and Outside Voices EPs along with two additional tracks, "The Muck", and "Good To Drive"

K.Flay has cited a wide range of musicians such as Royal Blood, Missy Elliott, Garbage, Lauryn Hill, Tame Impala, Jeremih, Metric, M.I.A., OutKast, Liz Phair, Cat Power, and Shlohmo as influences. Her work has covered genres including hip-hop, alternative hip-hop, indie, and pop-rock. She has described her sound as "genre-defying" and draws from lo-fi pop and hip-hop with a strong indie component in her sound.

Blood In The Cut
K.Flay Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The boy I love's got another girl
He might be fucking her right now
I don't have an apartment
Thought if I was smart I'd make it far
But I'm still at the start

Guess I'm contagious it'd be safest if you ran
Fuck that's what they all just end up doing in the end

Take my car and paint it black
Take my arm, break it in half
Say something, do it soon
It's too quiet in this room

I need noise
I need the buzz of a sub
Need the crack of a whip
Need some blood in the cut
I need noise
I need the buzz of a sub
Need the crack of a whip
Need some blood in the cut
I need blood in the cut
I need blood in the cut

Met back up with the boy I love
Cried on the streets of San Francisco
I don't have an agenda
All I do is pretend to be ok so my friends
Can't see my heart in the blender
Lately, I've been killing all my time
Reading through your messages my favorite way to die
Take my head and kick it in
Break some bread for all my sins
Say a word, do it soon

It's too quiet in this room

I need noise
I need the buzz of a sub
Need the crack of a whip
Need some blood in the cut
I need noise
I need the buzz of a sub
Need the crack of a whip
Need some blood in the cut
I need blood in the cut
I need blood in the cut

Cut

Na na na na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na na na

I need noise
I need the buzz of a sub
Need the crack of a whip
Need some blood in the cut
I need noise
I need the buzz of a sub
Need the crack of a whip
Need some blood in the cut
I need blood in the cut
I need blood in the cut

Overall Meaning

"Blood in the Cut" by K.Flay is a song about heartache, frustration, and anger. The first verse starts with the singer admitting that the boy she loves has another girl and might be with her at the moment. She then reveals that she doesn't have her own place yet, despite her aspirations of making it big. She feels like her situation is contagious and that it would be best for anyone close to her to run away. However, she acknowledges that no matter what, people always end up leaving her in the end. She urgently demands some action and noise to fill the silent room and break her out of her distress. The chorus repeats this need for noise, the buzz of a sub, the crack of a whip, and some blood in the cut to feel alive and escape the pain.

The second verse starts with the singer meeting with the boy she loves and crying in the streets of San Francisco. She admits that she has no actual plan or agenda, and that she only pretends to be okay so that her friends won't see her shattered heart. She confesses that she spends her time reading through his messages, which has become her favorite way to die. She then demands some kind of reckoning, asking for her head to be kicked in and some bread to be broken for her sins. Again, she begs for someone to say something, anything, to break the suffocating silence.

Overall, "Blood in the Cut" is a raw and emotionally charged song that deals with heartbreak and the urge for catharsis through noise and violence.

Line by Line Meaning

The boy I love's got another girl
The person I love is with someone else

He might be fucking her right now
He could be having sex with her at the moment

I don't have an apartment
I am currently without a place to live

Thought if I was smart I'd make it far
I believed that if I was intelligent, I would be successful

But I'm still at the start
However, I am still at the beginning

Guess I'm contagious it'd be safest if you ran
I am toxic and it would be better for you to leave me

Fuck that's what they all just end up doing in the end
But that is what everyone ends up doing eventually

Take my car and paint it black
Steal my car and paint it a darker color

Take my arm, break it in half
Physically harm me by breaking my arm

Say something, do it soon
Speak or take some sort of action quickly

It's too quiet in this room
The silence is deafening

I need noise
I require sound or stimulation

I need the buzz of a sub
I crave the powerful sound of a subwoofer

Need the crack of a whip
I desire the sharp sound of a whip cracking

Need some blood in the cut
I want to feel the pain of a wound

Met back up with the boy I love
I saw the person I love again

Cried on the streets of San Francisco
I wept in public in San Francisco

I don't have an agenda
I have no specific plan or goal

All I do is pretend to be ok so my friends
All I do is fake being alright so that my friends

Can't see my heart in the blender
Won't be able to see how broken and churned up I feel inside

Lately, I've been killing all my time
Recently, I've been wasting a lot of my time

Reading through your messages my favorite way to die
Reading your messages is my preferred method of emotional self-destruction

Take my head and kick it in
Kick my head or beat me until I am injured or dead

Break some bread for all my sins
Offer some sort of peace offering or atonement for my sins

Say a word, do it soon
Say or do something quickly

Cut
Short break in the song

Na na na na na
Melodic sound

I need noise
I require sound or stimulation

I need the buzz of a sub
I crave the powerful sound of a subwoofer

Need the crack of a whip
I desire the sharp sound of a whip cracking

Need some blood in the cut
I want to feel the pain of a wound

I need blood in the cut
I require the sensation of blood and pain

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: KRISTINE FLAHERTY, JUSTIN THOMAS DALY, KRISTINE MEREDITH FLAHERTY

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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