| There's a lot of artists who are independent 'cause they don't trust the existing system. They're OK with giving up control. They're OK with giving up more of the economic upside to someone else. But they just don't feel like they can trust the way that the industry will work. |
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 | | My songs, my words: Lizzo in Miami Beach, Dec. 4, 2021. | | (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "There's a lot of artists who are independent 'cause they don't trust the existing system. They're OK with giving up control. They're OK with giving up more of the economic upside to someone else. But they just don't feel like they can trust the way that the industry will work." | | - Milana Rabkin Lewis, co-founder and CEO, Stem | |
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| rantnrave:// |
Choosing Her Words
If you enter the ableist slur LIZZO used in her new single, "GRRRLS," into the search box at GENIUS.COM, you'll discover it's been used in scores and scores of songs over the years, often in the same basic way Lizzo used it. A lot of them are relatively recent songs. A lot are by EMINEM and even more are by KANYE WEST—two hip-hop stars who seem to really, really like the word. You'll also find the word in the vocabulary of underground darlings like PPCOCAINE and Pulitzer Prize winners like KENDRICK LAMAR. (Actually, K.Dot is the only Pulitzer Prize winner I'm aware of having used it, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn there were others.) Some have been called out over the years, but the callouts didn't go viral and none of their careers were damaged. For the most part, no one expected a serious response to their complaints and no one got one.
But Lizzo's usage, in a song released four days ago that Genius describes as "an empowering anthem about women" (and which samples a beloved classic hip-hop group that isn't unfamiliar with the word itself), touched a nerve. It became an issue on social media overnight. Maybe because Lizzo seems like the kind of pop star who should have been aware of who she might be offending. Maybe because she seems unusually approachable. Maybe because we expect more sensitivity from people writing and performing empowerment anthems. Maybe because social media has emboldened more and more people to press their complaints and it's harder to get away with certain offensive lyrics in June 2022 than it was even in January or February 2022.
Or maybe it's because Lizzo neither ignored the complaints nor got defensive about them. Instead, she sat back and listened as pop fans on social media variously scolded her to "do better" or expressed their disappointment in her or tried to educate her about what she'd said and who she'd offended. It unfolded quickly and organically, and the target of the complaints contemplated them, weighed them and acted. She decided the complainants had a point. And she decided they had a particular point in zeroing in on her. "As a fat black woman in America," Lizzo wrote Monday on Instagram, "I've had many hurtful words used against me so I understand the power words can have (whether intentionally or, in my case, unintentionally)."
On Monday, Lizzo changed the lyrics to a single she'd released on Friday. She made it seem easy. Here's the song, with the offending two-word phrase already replaced with a new three-word phrase at the 11-second mark and the whole thing already remixed and reuploaded. It's easy to imagine the kind of people who complain about cancel culture would be appalled by this. I believe, as they presumably do, that artists should have the creative freedom to say anything they want. But I also believe artists should have the creative freedom to edit or update anything they want four days later, if that's what they decide to do, as long as the final call is theirs (whether under outside pressure or not). Creative freedom doesn't end the day a song is mixed or mastered. (And if you really want to keep the multiple five-letter B-words in the same song, creative freedom for that, too, still holds sway.)
"As an influential artist," Lizzo wrote, "I'm dedicated to being part of the change I've been waiting to see in the world." Maybe by removing one instance of one hurtful word from one pop song, she'll influence one less future artist, or fan, from gratuitously using the word themselves. And maybe by engaging a civil debate about the word, and responding in kind, she'll help influence how *that* goes in the future, too. Which might be the most welcome change of all.
Creative Block
The TONY AWARDS, like the OSCARS, typically end with a producer—rather than a writer or composer or actor or director or, basically, anyone the TV audience might recognize and want to hear from—accepting the night's final and biggest award. It's always seemed like bad optics and even worse TV. But the Tonys sunk to a new low Sunday night, wrapping an otherwise successful return to normal by handing the mic to the white lead producer of the year's Best Musical and then literally, on live TV, silencing the gay Black man who created it. It was the kind of embarrassing moment that should, but probably won't, put an end to that tradition.
Imagine the GRAMMY AWARDS giving its final awards every year to an A&R rep or some other label executive with a financial interest in the winning album and song. That would be the equivalent. Kudos to the RECORDING ACADEMY for handing them, instead, to the artists and keeping the focus on the music and the people who make it.
Rest in Peace
Drill rapper FBG CASH of Chicago's Fly Boy Gang, who on Friday became at least the 15th rapper murdered in the US in 2022. It's June. FBG Duck, a rapper in the same crew, was murdered in August 2020... Singer PHLENOID "JAY DEE" DISMUKE of Cleveland R&B vocal group Smooth Approach.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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| | Can CDs Make A Comeback? Reevaluating The CD At 40 | | By Adam Aziz | | The CD was first commercially released 40 years ago and may be having a whole new coming-of-age. With sales on the rise and collectors showcasing their pride across social media, the format might rewind to its glory years. | | |
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| | Clube da Esquina and What Came After | | By Tom Moon | | A half-century ago, Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges and their esteemed colleagues turned Brazilian music into a kaleidoscopic, genre-bending delight. The impact was monumental and immediate. | | |
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