#and acknowledge how she paved the way for female rappers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spicy-ahjumma · 5 years

Text

✨My Unpopular K-Pop Opinions; (part 1 probably)

Y'all can come for me if you want, but these are my own personal opinions and I'm fully entitled to have them.

Disclaimer: I mean no hate or bad-will toward any of the groups mentioned here. These are my own opinions, but of course they are not the opinions of everyone and I'm fully aware of that. I acknowledge the success of all groups. Thank you.

>kpop bands are slept on way too much - at this point y'all are just hurting yourselves because you're missing out on some amazing groups and some top-quality music; day6, n.flying, the rose, lunafly, cnblue, ft.island, and so many others

>day6 has not put out a single bad song. this isn't even an opinion, it's a fact. if you don't stan them, i honestly don't know what you're doing with your life.

>hyuna and e'dawn have paved the way for other kpop artists to be openly in relationships. they made a huge sacrifice, don't think for a second that they didn't know how things would go down when they came out about being together; they made a sacrifice and now other idols will hopefully have the courage to do the same

>related to above point: hyuna and e'dawn are a total power couple. when they do join a new label or possibly form their own, they will be unstoppable and cube can choke

>jyp ent is the best of the big 3, and probably one of the best labels in general. as someone who stans groups/artists from pretty much every label there is, i have to say that jyp really impresses me. despite being a large label, they really care about their artists and let them have a lot of creative freedom.

>i don't like the fact that bts win every single award these days. (i already know i'll get hate for this) bts are a talented group, don't get me wrong, but i literally don't understand where all this attention has come from bc there are groups that have way better vocals, rappers, visuals, songs, etc. i have been an army since debut and ofc it's nice to see them do well, but we might as well just do away with award shows now since bts win everything every year anyway.

>loona's ot12 debut was disappointing. i love loona, have followed every single solo debut and unit, and i think their concept is so unique and interesting (props to blockberry) but i was expecting something more from their group debut. fav0rite was good, but hi high was a bit... i just felt it wasn't up to their usual standards so i hope 2019 will be a better year for loona

>chung ha is kinda boring. she has amazing facial expressions onstage and i know she's super talented, but it's the weirdest thing - i've never come across it before where someone with so much charisma manages to be so boring onstage at the same time. i'm sorry, i've really tried to like her, but i just find that her songs end up being kinda flat

>nine muses' gyeongree's solo debut was slept on. blue moon was a really great song with great presence and choreography, and it was basically the female equivalent of taemin's move, but y'all let that one flop.

>jennie has been lazy lately. i am a blink, i was jennie biased up until ddu-du ddu-du, and i have been a jennie fan since she joined yg years ago. but we can't deny the truth, for whatever reason, she hasn't been putting effort into her group performances lately. solo performances, she's been fine, it's just the group stages. my opinion: i think blackpink peaked too soon, they got too popular too quickly and now jennie doesn't feel as though she needs to put the effort in anymore bc people will support her anyway

>stellar deserved so much better, they cried for help so many times and tried to make changes in the industry so that girl groups wouldn't keep being exploited but people didn't listen, and instead chose to judge them for their sexy concepts (that they literally didn't want to do) and now the members have ptsd and struggle with their daily lives

>mental health still isn't being taken as seriously as it should be. after my sweet baby boy jonghyun left us, people were finally starting to pay attention to the importance of mental health, but i think it's starting to slip again now

>bam is the same as bboom bboom, and that's ok. momoland clearly found a genre that works for them, and given the success of bboom bboom, of course their company would try to cash in on a similar song. y'all have no problems when other groups release really similar songs, like gfriend (literally all of their songs sound the same to me) so why is everyone attacking momoland?

>imfact are some of the most talented idols, but they're not getting any recognition. literally, watch any of their live stages or listen to any of their covers or songs, including their solos they've been releasing lately, and try and tell me they don't deserve the world

>holland can sing. he has a unique voice that isn't very idol-like, but that doesn't mean he can't sing. yes a lot of his fanbase is there just because he's gay but if it'll help his career take off and if it means important conversations start being had in korea, then so be it.

>the way bighit handled jimin's t-shirt controversy wasn't good enough. they donated to korean victims of the atomic bombs but it wasn't the korean victims who were offended, and the t-shirt was clearly an anti-japan propaganda (and yes, i know how bad japan was during their occupation, they were evil and that is another issue in itself but that doesn't excuse the t-shirt)

>labelling a group member as 'visual' is kinda unnecessary bc they're all visually perfect and it puts added pressure onto the member given that title

>shinee are one of the greatest kpop groups of all time. yes, i am quite biased as i've been with them for 10 years now but i honestly never get bored of their music, personalities, tv shows, etc. they are such versatile artists and they have been through so much & deserve so much respect

>starship are doing boyfriend so dirty but nobody is paying attention so they're getting away with it. let them have a korean comeback you cowards.

>cube are never going to promote clc properly, and they will probably disband them soon. they have (g)i-dle now, the group who gives them everything clc unfortunately couldn't, so they have basically cast clc aside. we all saw what happened with la vie en rose.

>iz*one should have a different center. i have nothing against wonyoung she's so tiny and smol and young, but to me she is quite plain and she doesn't have that charisma that i've come to expect from produce groups. i didn't watch all of produce 48 so to begin with i didn't even realise wonyoung was the center, i legit thought it was sakura, i'm sorry

>taemin is one of the most talented idols. he is the best dancer in kpop right now, and not only that, he isn't afraid to experiment with different genres. his japanese music is stunning.

>exo have one of the best vocal lines, every live performance is perfect

#kpop #opinions #unpopular opinions #bts #day6 #exo #momoland #shinee #taemin #n.flying #the rose #boyfriend #starship entertainment #gidle #text

73 notes · View notes

i-am-very-very-tired · 3 years

Text

With the impending release of his fifth studio album — the first since the four-time platinum, Grammy-nominated 2016 Views — Drake has many questions surrounding him. Can he again move a million units in a week? Can he prove all the doubters wrong after two years of ghostwriting allegations? Can he top “Hotline Bling” or “One Dance”? Can More Life overtake Take Care as Drake’s undoubted classic album?

EDITOR'S PICKS

The Best Drake Album That Never Existed

CulturePlay: Rick Ross

Nike hijab opens the door for female athletes of all faiths

‘Get Out’s’ Kaluuya responds to Samuel L. Jackson’s comments about black British actors

25 Books To Save Your Life Right Now

But also, can he, like so many artists in 2016 — Beyoncé (Lemonade), Solange (A Seat at the Table), Rihanna (Anti), Kanye West (The Life of Pablo), Young Thug (Jeffery) — take risks on his new album, exposing a deeper version of himself? Drake and his legion of fans — and his seemingly equal number of detractors — are waiting with bated breath for March 18 to see what the 6 God has been cooking up. But before we can call the new project “classic” or “trash,” before we spend the next few weeks debating the best and worst tracks, here’s the most important question that Drake has to answer: Can he stop attempting to control women?

Over the past eight years, Drake’s built up a reputation as being the compassionate and less threatening (read: soft) rapper who appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, cuddles up with professional athletes, and gets tattoos of Aaliyah. He’s played the role of Nice Guy by constantly smiling, and apparently wearing his heart on his sleeve. This appeals to the sensitivities of the women in his fan base. But, as is often the case with these so-called nice guys, Drake plays the charmer — he’ll call you beautiful, open doors for you and send you smiley-face emojis — but the minute he has sex with you, or you move on to someone else, he turns into Michael Ealy in The Perfect Guy.

Drake’s corniness, outward kindness and lack of sexual aggression has been misinterpreted as an overarching respect for women. He’s even been referred to as a feminist. But Drake is as much a feminist as Rachel Dolezal is a black woman. His entire catalog is steeped in respectability politics, accepting women so far as their body count goes.

Those songs pale in comparison to “Shot For Me,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Practice.” They are Drake at his worst.

While he’s constantly praised Nicki Minaj over the years, Drake belittled the Grammy-nominated artist during his beef with her former boyfriend, Meek Mill — Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour? — implying that it’s emasculating for a man to receive second billing to his significant other.

As with stars of rock and country music, almost every successful rapper today, from Jay Z to Future to Chance the Rapper, has at some point performed lyrics that objectify or exploit women. J.Cole’s music has taken on more social justice elements over the years (Drake has spoken out for black causes as well). But Cole, in a 2013 song, called women “b—–s” —I got smart, I got rich, and I got b—–s still/And they all look like my eyebrows: thick as hell — and patriarchally dismisses female sexuality on 2014’s “No Role Modelz”:

My only regret was too young for Lisa Bonet, my only regret was too young for Nia Long/Now all I’m left with is hoes from reality shows, hand her a script the b—h probably couldn’t read along

Even so-called progressive rappers fall into this trap, namely the androgynous Young Thug and the genderfluid Young M.A.

Sometime between Drake’s early rise and his third mixtape being converted into 2009’s So Far Gone, the rapper known for singing about his romantic feelings and the pressure of newfound fame — with a flow that made every 16 bars sound like the hottest verse ever — became his own worst enemy. Drake, known for hits like 2009’s “Best I Ever Had” and 2010’s “Find Your Love,” became synonymous with quote-heavy memes on social media, and fake Twitter accounts such as @drakkardnoir pumped out fake deep quote after fake deep quote.

But the rapper’s verses about loving and being proud of college-educated, independent women — Sound so smart like you graduated college/Like you went to Yale but you probably went to Howard — paved the way for hypermasculine diatribes against the sexual agency of seemingly any woman he’s ever encountered. Through an examination of Drake’s four studio albums, plus mixtapes, collaborative projects and guest features, it is clear that the man who made music for folks who couldn’t get over their exes was himself struggling with the basic concept of “moving on.”

While So Far Gone doesn’t count as a studio album — it was his final mixtape before signing with Universal Republic — it gave listeners a sneak peek into the troublesome lyrics Drake would release in subsequent years. On the soothing track “Houstatlantavegas,” he raps about “saving” an exotic dancer from a strip club:

You go get f—– up and we just show up at your rescue/Carry you inside, get you some water and undress you.

I give you my all and the next morning you’ll forget who or why, or how, or when/Tonight is prolly ’bout to happen all over again.

Thank Me Later, Drake’s 2010 debut studio album, features the rapper slut-shaming women for having previous sexual partners. From “Karaoke” (I hope that you don’t get known for nothing crazy/Cause no man ever wants to hear those stories ’bout his lady) to “Miss Me” (Work somethin’, twerk something, basis/She just tryna make it so she’s right here getting naked. I don’t judge her, I don’t judge her/But I could never love her) to “Thank Me Now” (Alohas to women with no ties to men/That I know well, that way there are no lies), Drake positions women with previous sexual experience as undesirable. On the Rihanna-assisted “Take Care,” he seems to open up to the idea of women having sexual agency, relenting I’ve asked about you and they told me things/But my mind didn’t change and I still feel the same.

Thank Me Later was also at times a celebration of independent women – appreciating women’s “book smarts and street smarts” on “Shut it Down” and “Fancy” — but set the foundation for 2011’s Take Care, which was, at that point, the peak of Drake’s overt misogyny and objectification of women. On Take Care, which won Drake a Grammy for best rap album — he continues his focus on sex workers with “Lord Knows”:

To all these women that think like men with the same intentions

Talking strippers and models that try to gain attention.

Even a couple porn stars that I’m ashamed to mention.

“Under Ground Kings” (Sometimes I need that romance, sometimes I need that pole dance/Sometimes I need that stripper that’s gon’ tell me that she don’t dance) even creates a binary of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. While Drake has an infatuation with exotic dancers, he also makes it clear that admiration only goes as far as sex. “Trust Issues,” which Drake said he made for “fun” and thus didn’t include on the album, has Drake playing into the thoroughly debunked myth that women can’t want sex as much as men, rapping And it’s probably why I’m scared to put the time in/Women want to f— like they’re me and I’m them.

Those songs, though, pale in comparison to “Shot For Me,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Practice.” They are Drake at his worst, going beyond the behaviors of the paternalistic and disapproving ex. He goes from telling a woman she’s drinking away the pain she feels due to leaving him on “Shot For Me” — Yeah, I’m the reason why you always getting faded — to cursing out another for finding happiness with a new lover on “Marvin’s Room” (F— that n—-a that you love so bad).

Despite admitting that he’s a flawed individual in the latter song, in the former he tells the woman that he “made” her and calls her a “b—-.” This then leads to Drake’s most confusing and disturbing song to date, “Practice.” While acknowledging that women can have sex — the song is about a woman having multiple partners — Drake then spins it to his advantage: All those other men were practice, they were practice/Yeah, for me, for me, for me, for me. He senses “pain and regret” in the woman from her past, and then reluctantly accepts the fact that she has casual sex. He tops the song off with an uncomfortable, familial request: You can even call me daddy, give you someone to look up to.

But, Drake can still change. His lyrics paint the picture of a man who is constantly questioning himself.

It’s 2016’s “Hotline Bling” that ignited the re-examination of Drake’s entire catalog. The song is the rapper’s second-best-selling single of all time (behind fellow Views track “One Dance”), and won him two Grammys at last month’s award show. Not to mention, the visuals for the song will go down in music history as one of the most memorable music videos of all time.

But while the chorus is equal parts infectious and mesmerizing, Drake sneaks in two verses and a bridge full of “reductive stereotypes” and body-policing lyrics about an old fling. Whether about said woman “wearing less and goin’ out more” or “going places where you don’t belong,” Drake makes it apparent that he’s offended that she has the audacity to move on with her life. By the end of the song, Drake’s become so desperate that he’s even concerned that the woman is “bendin’ over backwards for someone else.” Textbook narcissism.

His guest appearances have been a mixed bag as well. On rapper The Game’s 2011 track “Good Girls Go Bad,” Drake raps Who’s still getting tested?/Where’s all the women that still remember who they slept with? and a year later added to 2 Chainz’s “No Lie”:

She could have a Grammy, I still treat her a– like a nominee

Just need to know what that p—- like

So one time is fine with me.

Over the past couple of years, Drake has put out two mixtapes, a solo effort If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and What A Time To Be Alive with Future. His male chauvinism can be found on tracks “Legend,” “Energy” and “Madonna” and repeatedly calls a woman “ungrateful” for living her life without him on “Diamonds Dancing.” As writer Tahirah Hairston pointed out, Drake has also had questionable lyrics on “Wu-Tang Forever,” “Own It,” “Furthest Thing,” “I’m The Plug” and even notable feminist Beyoncé’s “Mine.”

Back in October, Drake released three tracks from his upcoming More Life album — “Fake Love,” “Sneakin’,” and “Two Birds, One Stone.” Looking solely at those tracks, it appears Drake has let up a little on his control, instead rapping about success, fake friends and his long list of haters. Even his appearance on labelmate Nicki Minaj’s diss to Remy Ma, “No Frauds,” he steers clear of trying to preserve women’s sanctity.

For nearly a decade now, Drake has wrapped up his alarming lyrics inside catchy, Instagram-caption-worthy choruses and tunes. The “light-skinned Keith Sweat” gets away with this because he carefully crafted a “nice guy” persona that deflects the criticism that, say, a 21 Savage, Kodak Black or the Migos would receive.

For many men, Drake’s attitudes reflect their own attitudes and desires, which in turn reflect a patriarchal society that views women as sexual objects meant to be gazed at. For women, they’ve had to deal with sexism in the arts since the beginning of time, so choosing to not enjoy an artist because of his views on sexuality would mean giving up on music all together. And at the end of the day, Drake is just that good at his job, unquestionably the most influential and popular musician in the business right now.

But Drake can still change. His lyrics paint the picture of a man who is constantly questioning himself, consistently trying to become a better person, whatever that entails. From So Far Gone to More Life — age 22 to 30 — he’s learned all the lessons life can teach, from whom to trust to what forms of happiness money and fame can buy. But it seems he’s yet to learn that women aren’t sexual objects. They’re human beings. If the only women of the world were all exactly like the women he seems to respect — his mother or Rihanna or Aaliyah or Serena Williams — we’d call him Aubrey the Riveter. But, they aren’t the only women who deserve his respect.

He knows that. But it begs the question: Does he care?

Martenzie is a writer for The Undefeated. His favorite cinematic moment is when Django said "Y'all want to see somethin?"

0 notes

thisisforclasslol · 7 years

Text

You know who we don’t talk about enough? CupcakKe, a.k.a Elizabeth Harris, a.k.a Queen Elizabitch. You probably already know her from her incredible tweets or this iconic vine, but she’s a 20-year-old rapper from Chicago who has released five studio albums since her 2012 debut on Youtube. If you haven’t heard or seen her content before, CupcakKe, on every platform, fights against the passive, non-sexual, heteronormative societal rules on how black female celebrities should act for the public, with regard to expressions of gender and sexuality. In other words, she’s out here saying, “fuck how society wants you to act, act how YOU want to act” by being passionately hypersexual, crass, and body positive to engage listeners into her more serious narrative about self-love and respect.

Hypersexuality and CupcakKe basically go hand in hand, it’s one of the most defining features about her and her music. Just look at any of her tweets, insta posts, videos, or listen to about 10 seconds of any of her songs. You’ll know what I mean. Through her social media presence, lyric choice, and visual gestures in her music videos,

(Fucking GET IT)

She completely, unabashedly, embraces her sexuality in a way that has, in the past, upset people, and encourages her audience to join her. In the lyrics of her most popular song, "Deepthroat," she raps, “Make him bust three nuts, in the task / My panties stuck in my ass / so I pulled them down to show him the pearl / Made his pubic hairs curl fast.” With explicit references of multiple ejaculations, blatantly describing her genitals, and pubic hair, CupcakKe does what female celebrities aren’t “supposed” to do: crudely talk about sex in detail and enjoying it. As an even bigger “fuck you” to those who denounce black women’s sexuality, her twitter and insta are full of GEMS, where she attempts to normalize discussion of sex (“unspeakable” topics) through satire as a way of acknowledging that black women media icons aren’t allowed to act this way.

Another unspoken rule in the world of celebrity icons that CupcakKe’s LOVES to break is women can’t be crass. In modern society, there’s the notion that (cishet) women have to adhere to the myth of femininity, which means being passive, dainty, clean, and all sorts of other bullshit, so that they’re the Other to Man. CupcakKe lives and breathes an ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude. She posts whatever she wants, when she wants because she is her own boss! Her various social media posts are extra to say the least. She Instagrams posts with captions like this:

which is amazing not only in that she ignores the norm where women should dress up when going out with men, and simultaneously asserts her power in her sex life by sayin this dude’s worthless by using “dog ass.” BUT it’s her twitter that really shines with excessive crass humor. My absolute fav is her, “beige just like my discharge” because vaginal health is ABSOLUTELY taboo to talk about in any situation, since it’s uncomfortable to cishet men, and she just compares her dress to her discharge as if it’s the most normal fucking thing in the world!

A QUEEN!

You know what else CupcakKe excels in? Self. Fucking. LOVE. Not only is she viciously proud of her body in a world where popular culture wants women to hate their bodies, just google “womens magazines weight loss” you get a shit ton of magazine headlines like this...

ugh

But she’s as tired of this shit as the rest of us are AND she wants us to love ourselves as much as she loves who she is.

Her song, Biggie Smalls, literally says, “don’t turn to the media looking for what’s hot” (a fantastic “fuck you”) and preaches self love and confidence through encouraging us to drop anyone who doesn’t appreciate our bodies, with lines like “fuck dude if he don’t like small boobs / give him the boot in thigh highs tell that n**** “bye bye” because they aren’t worth it if they don’t like us for us. And, most importantly, preaches that there’s no one “Right”, “Perfect”, etc. type of body through, “Size is just size, one aint better than the rest / body shapes of all shapes no difference they all great.” The end of the video is also super moving in that she has fan submitted content of them loving their bodies through videos of self-expression.

I’m sure some of you are saying, “so she’s hypersexual, loud, and body positive. who cares” and you know what? To a lot of people, it does. She’s using her fame as a way to tell fans that you can still be amazing without adhering to heteronormativity. She’s paving the way for women and any other gender that it’s alright to be yourself, you don’t have to conform to whatever mainstream society wants you to be, and she’s proof, being loud, proud, and herself, and she’s successful as hell, and still rising in popularity. Like, sure, that’s cliché, of course you should love yourself, and yet, there’s still celebrities that endorse body positivity and then body shame other women and white musicians who appropriate and whitewash black culture to make themselves “cooler” while simultaneously devaluing and ridiculing it when done by black artists. There needs to be alternatives to heteronormative femininity for all women, and especially black women, since they notoriously get the most backlash if they decide to go against the grain. As a dark-skinned black woman who radiates confidence in how she holds herself in a society that favors white, thin, able-bodied cishet women, she’s an inspiration to black women, dark-skinned black women, people of non-normative body types, and sexual minorities, and that’s why I completely encourage you to check her out because she’s opening up doors people thought were long closed.

#peggy/jimmy idk if youre even going to see the tags but only reason i was chosen was bc usually any big posts are written in personal form #or at least to my (dom) knowledge #also cishet is slang for cisgender heterosexual its used frequently in lgbt (specifically trans) spaces

0 notes