Kylie Jenner has officially entered her pop star era, and it’s every bit as glossy and unexpected as you’d imagine. The beauty mogul just made her musical debut as the breathy vocalist on Terror Jr’s new single, “Fourth Strike.”
The track marks a full-circle moment nearly ten years in the making. It’s a continuation of Terror Jr’s 2016 breakout “Three Strikes,” the mysterious electro-pop song first featured in an ad campaign for Kylie Cosmetics’ debut lip glosses. Back then, the music world went wild trying to figure out if Jenner herself was secretly behind the mic.
Now, she actually is.
Jenner lends her voice to “Fourth Strike,” singing and rapping a flirty verse near the end: “One strike, two strike, let me get the mood right,” she teases before slipping into, “Do it on purpose just to see how it ends.” She closes by whispering her reported artist name, “King Kylie,” a nod to her Tumblr-era alter ego that’s recently resurfaced in full force.
The song accompanies a new campaign for Kylie Cosmetics, drenched in the teal-tinted visuals that defined the original “King Kylie” aesthetic back in 2014 — the same year Jenner began building her now-massive beauty empire. Over the weekend, she announced she’s relaunching a few of her iconic early products under the King Kylie banner, merging nostalgia with evolution.
In the cinematic commercial, Jenner flexes her acting chops as a prisoner just released from jail, before her momager Kris Jenner picks her up in a sleek black convertible. The two ride off into the sunset like a glam duo escaping a movie set.
“This King Kylie Collection is truly for you!!!” Jenner wrote on Instagram. “You’re the reason my biggest cosmetic dreams came true, and I wouldn’t be here 10 years later! without your support.”
For Terror Jr, the collaboration marks another full-circle moment. The group — currently made up of singer Lisa Vitale and producer David “Campa” Benjamin Singer-Vine (with Felix Snow having left in 2017) — first broke through when “Three Strikes” was used in Jenner’s lip gloss commercial. Their faceless aesthetic at the time led fans to assume Jenner was their mysterious frontwoman. She later denied the rumors on Snapchat, but the mythology stuck — and now, she’s officially part of the story.
After dropping their debut EP Bop City in late 2016, Terror Jr leaned into the same glossy, synth-driven alt-pop sound that “Three Strikes” helped define. With “Fourth Strike,” they’re revisiting their origin story — this time, with Kylie’s real voice in the mix.
And it’s not the only time fans will be seeing Jenner in front of the camera. She’s set to star in Charli XCX’s upcoming A24 film The Moment, directed by frequent Charli collaborator Aidan Zamiri. The cast also includes Alexander Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, and Shygirl — a mix that sounds as edgy and chaotic as Jenner’s new musical debut feels.
From reality TV to the runway to recording studios, Kylie Jenner just made her most unexpected move yet — and for once, everyone’s listening.
