Lana Del Rey let that Grammy go to her head.
And she didn't even win it. Hi and welcome back to me talking about whatever I want. Today
I want to talk about Lana Del Rey because she had a lot of statements about society
and as somebody who lives in this society, I have a lot to say about those statements.
But first, of course, I'd like to do my comment shout out. The shout out actually goes out
to Ally who says, "It feels like it's been five years since you posted a video, but who's
counting." It honestly does feel like it's been five years. Full disclosure, after all the
absolute garbage that happened in my last two videos, I was not in the frame of mind to
make good content, so I just stopped. I took a one-month break and y'all will not believe, it
was just the most refreshing period of my life. But I wasn't just sleeping on that break. I know
y'all see this camera quality right here. I know you see this new PC that I'm editing my videos
on. I got knocked down and I'm just coming back stronger than ever. But at the same time,
I'm actually not back. I'm, after this video, probably going to take another one-month
break. I just wanted to break up the break, kind of at the halfway point, just so I could
make something nice and lighthearted for you to watch. And because I really wanted to talk about
the topic in this video. I'm also going to do one more video before I go back on my break and
that's going to go on my other channel and it's going to be about Myka Stauffer ... Stauffer?
Myka ... Myka Stauff ... That lady who gave her kid back after making a bunch of sponsorship
money off of him. But that's that video. This video, we're talking about Lana Del Rey.
So, for those of you who might not know who Lana Del Rey is, she's an American musician. She
debuted around 2010-ish and she's released six albums so far. Some of those albums are even
platinum like Born to Die, she's really popular. Even if you don't listen to her, there's a high
chance you probably still have heard her voice, if anything, just on the remix of her smash
hit, Summertime Sadness. (music) Her music's pretty unique, it covers dark themes like toxic
relationships, depression, stuff like that, but she does it through this sound that's very
reminiscent of '40s, '50s, '60s. Her whole aesthetic is kind of taken from vintage films
and literature. I think it's nice, it's nice. But one thing you have to understand is she's
not quite your average, run-of-the-mill, alternative singer because Lana Del Rey is a very
polarizing figure. She's been criticized just to an insane degree. Some of that criticism's not
that serious, like her horrible S&L performance. (music) I promise you, she can sing better than
that. But then again, some of the criticisms she receives is actually very serious, like people who
say her music is dangerous for young listeners, which personally I think is a ridiculous argument.
But at the same time, it's important to note that she's also been praised just kind of universally.
She's won a ton of accolades for her work, people consider her to be one of the most
talented songwriters out there. Basically, the tide of public opinion has turned in her
favor and that kind of peaked with the release of her album last year, Norman Effing Rockwell.
Through it all, though, she's had a very strong connection with her fans, which is good and
bad because some of them are just delusional and that's kind of what we're running into in
this video. Now, for the record, I don't think all Lana Del Rey fans are delusional because
I'm really about to admit this on camera, I'm a Lana Del Rey fan. I'm not here to cancel her,
I've never canceled anyone on my channel before, but look, Cherry, her song is literally in my top
2017 plays. For years, I've been listening to her music and hyping her up kind of behind the scenes,
so I'm going to be fully honest, when she came out with these recent statements that we're going to
be going over today, I was a little bit surprised. So, what did she say? Why are we making this
video? Why are so many people talking about it? Well, Miss Del Rey posted this statement right
here to her Instagram pretty much just out of the blue. As you can see, there's a lot to unpack.
It made a lot of people angry, it made a lot of people agree with her, but it sparked a lot
of backlash. I'm not talking about some people were mad on Twitter, this was in the national
news, everybody on YouTube was talking about it, the post itself currently has over 150,000
comments. She wound up causing such a ... just a wave of backlash that, before I get into that I
just want to give my own opinion of her statement, based off of just the statement.
Even though it's long, she made six main ... that's not six fingers ... she made
six main points, so I'm going to go over those six points and kind of just give the pros
and cons of what I think about each one, because she did have some good points, but as
you're about to see there's also some stuff in here that's just weird. But I have time and
I know you have time, you clicked into a video this long. Thank you, by the way. Behold, my
dramatic reading of her statement, in which I just use the same voice I use for literally
everything, I don't care about it that much. "Question for the culture: Now that
Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have
had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fricking, cheating, etc., can
I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love, even if the
relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money, or whatever I want, without being crucified or
saying that I'm glamorizing abuse?" Okay. So, point one. Other artists make songs about cheating
and other things and they're popular, so can she please go back to making her art without
being criticized so heavily for glamorizing abuse. On its own, that's kind of a good point.
I mean, no, the heart of it is definitely true. I wholeheartedly agree that making art about
controversial topics does not mean that you are glorifying or glamorizing controversial topics
and she has every right to speak up about that. On the negative side, why is she naming six
different artists, one, two, three, four, five ... seven different artists. There's no way
she posted that without knowing that it was just going to make everyone really upset and that's
because she describes their music in such just a really reductive and kind of rude way. "They
make songs about cheating and taking your clothes off." But then she goes on to describe her music
as about being embodied and in love and it's like, you literally just hyped yourself up and put
these people down at the same time. A lot of Lana Del Rey's fans were like, "She didn't
put them down. She didn't come for them." Honestly, though, if I'm like ... now that Drew
Gooden, Cody Ko and Kurtis Connor have all made videos about weird Amazon products, can I please
go back to making my videos about serious topics and important coverage without being accused
of being negative? Okay, maybe I have a point with that statement, but at the same time,
why am I coming after Cody? He didn't do anything. I'm just using those three as examples
because I literally love all of their content. So yeah, I'm just going to be honest, that was
weird and seeing as that was the very first paragraph it sets a really weird tone, because it
comes across like she's jealous ... not jealous, but she does mention that all of these artists
are number one. But at the same time, they're not all number one because Camila Cabello, she
hasn't a number one song this year. Kehlani has never had a number one in her life, even though
that's robbery and she deserves it, but that's not what this video's about. Overall, it's a bad
comparison. "Now that these people are popular, can I go back to not being criticized over
this unrelated issue." There's no correlation. "I'm fed up with female writers and alternative
singers saying that I glamorized abuse when, in reality, I'm just a glamorous person singing
about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive
relationships all over the world." All right so, point two, female writers and singers often
mis-categorize her description of events as her promoting those events. On the positive
side, I definitely think that she's right. I do see a lot of people saying Lana Del Rey's
responsible for the problems that she sings about, which is ridiculous, so I'm really glad that she's
speaking up about that because someone had to say it. I guess my only nitpick is, "I'm just a
glamorous person" is the cringiest statement I've ever read in my entire life today, but
at the same time I have literally no room to talk because I too am just a glamorous person.
"With all the topics women are finally allowed to explore, I just want to say, over the last 10
years I think it's pathetic that my minor lyrical exploration detailing my sometimes submissive
or passive roles in my relationships has often made people say I've set women back hundreds of
years." All right so, point three, it's not right that she's been called a detriment to women's
rights just because she's been honest about her experiences as a woman and those experiences
are different from other people's. That's kind of deep, honestly I have nothing to say about that.
It was worded perfectly and I totally get her point, but I find it weird that, seeing as this
is her main issue, why did she need to name the artists in the beginning, why are we talking about
number ones and ... it's a little weird. It really should have just been her full statement. I don't
think anyone would have gotten mad at her if this was the whole statement, but unfortunately the
rest of this is just kind of her digging a hole in the ground and then proceeding to jump into it.
"Let this be clear, I'm not not a feminist, but there has to be a place in feminism for women
who look and act like me, the kind of woman who says no but men hear yes, the kind of women who
are slated mercilessly for being their authentic, delicate selves, the kind of women who get
their own stories and voices taken away from them by stronger women or by men who hate women."
Okay so, point four, she's not an anti-feminist, but she feels feminism is intolerant of more
delicate women who get talked over by other people. I don't ... that's what she's saying,
right? I don't think that's me mis-characterizing her statement. But at the same time, what is
she talking about? I guess I don't understand how you could claim to be more delicate than
other people? Do you ... How does that work? Also she, at the end of that statement, lists
strong women and men who hate women in the same category as people who talk over her and doing
that directly after claiming to be more delicate than other people has super weird implications.
Also, I'm just ... I'm going to have to point out, "I'm not not a feminist" is terrible wording and
95% of the people I saw react to that misread it as "I'm not a feminist" and I'm talking about
smart people that I follow and love and I know they ... they know ... they know how to read. I
was about to say, "They know reading." I don't know reading, but they know. Why not just say,
"I'm a feminist," you know what I mean? I know a lot of her fans were like, "It's a double
negative, obviously." And yes, I understand double negatives are important for emphasis,
but this is coming from a woman who's claimed point blank she doesn't care about feminism.
Someone who said, and I quote, "Whenever people bring up feminism, I'm like, God, I'm just
really not that interested." I can understand why people are thinking she's writing, "I'm not
a feminist." Also, the whole idea that feminism needs space for women who look and act like her.
Have you looked at yourself? Feminism has always had space for women who look like Lana Del Rey,
let's just be completely honest. And lastly, just my input as a man. "The kind of woman who says
no, but men hear yes," that not a kind of woman, that's a kind of man. That's the same argument
I hear people use when they try to blame women for bad things happening to them. I think it's
important to push back against that because there is no kind of woman who says no and men hear
yes. That's just 100% going to be on the man, you know what I mean? Overall, that was
a weird statement and I epic-cringe, bro. "I've been honest and optimistic about the
challenging relationships I've had. Newsflash, that's how it is for many women and that was
sadly my experience up until the point that those records were made. So, I just want to say
it's been a long 10 years of BS reviews up until recently and I've learned a lot from them, but
I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop putting on a happy face and to just
be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music, unlike my experience, where if
I even expressed a note of sadness in my first two records, I was deemed literally hysterical
as though it was literally the 1920s." Okay so, I guess, point five, she's saying she's
just been singing about her experiences and even though that's led to her getting
shamed and criticized, by doing so she's paved the way for others to do the same.
The positives of that, I'm glad that she has continued to just stick up for what she wants
to do in the face of criticism and I'm also glad that she recognizes the space has changed a bit
and it is much more accepted to tell your story. On the flip side though, just "I paved the way
for other women to say whatever they want in their music"? For any one person to claim that
is insane, but I think especially somebody who debuted as late as 2010? By the time 2010 rolled
around the way had been paved by all the other artists that came ... The artists that Lana Del
Rey tries to sound like on her albums, those are the ones who paved the way. That's just a very
martyr-ish and self-important stance to assume. I could definitely understand why people reacted
negatively to it. I feel like, if anything, she more so paved the way for her listeners to
speak up and not have to put on a happy face and all that stuff. That makes sense, but claiming
that you've had that kind of impact on the music industry as a whole, I'm not sure about it.
"Anyways, none of this has anything to do about much, but I'll be detailing some of my feelings
in my next two books of poetry, mostly the second one, with Simon and Schuster. Yes, I'm still
making personal reparations with the proceeds of the book to my choice of Native American
foundations, which I'm very happy about. And I'm sure there will be tinges of what I've been
pondering in my new album that comes out September 5th. Thanks for reading. Happy quarantining."
All right, so that was her last point and I know some of y'all saw it come ... y'all saw it
coming, right? You saw the album plug coming? So, point six is, she's going to talk about this
more in her upcoming two books and her album, which comes out September 5th, and also she
donates to the Native American people, apparently. On the one hand, I think that's kind of inspiring
that this lady has enough material to work with for two entire books and a full-length album,
that's crazy. And another positive thing is it's never a bad thing to donate. It's really good
that she's donating to these causes. But on the other hand, wow, this statement just really puts
this whole thing into context, doesn't it? Now, all of a sudden, the random name-dropping is
just ... it makes complete sense. She got the attention of millions of people with the drama
that she's bringing to the table and then she ends the same statement with an announcement for
her album. And this is literally the first time she's announced the date for her new album,
too. Honestly, that's kind of impressive. Also, I have to point out, mentioning the
charity at the end is super weird. As I said, I'm not into donation-shaming, if you donate
two dollars or two million dollars, you did the right thing, but mentioning it at weird times
I'm totally into shaming because it's like, why is that relevant to this conversation in
any context other than the fact that you're trying to use it to deflect criticism? But
hey, that's just a theory, a game theory. So, that was the statement, y'all, face value.
Honestly, my personal opinion about it, it's fine, it's not that bad. It's worded terribly and I
think if you don't read it graciously you will definitely pick up negative vibes. I think even me
admitting that it's an okay statement, I also have to concede that it has negative energy all over
it, especially with the comparisons and the weird statements about feminism. But was it worth her
getting canceled over on Twitter? No, nothing is, really, but I also think it's important to note,
she wasn't just getting canceled on Twitter. People like to pretend, oh my gosh, they're
getting all this hate because people are just mad for no reason. No, I was reading these Tweets,
people had some really, really good points. So, I picked four Tweets out of the storm to illustrate
what people were saying at the heart of it. "I don't know who's giving Lana Del Rey a
hard time, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't black women." Now, if you're wondering how this
happened, she did compare herself to a group of mainly black women, which didn't cross my mind
the first time I read the post, but looking back is interesting. I don't really agree with this
post, though, because I don't feel that Lana Del Rey was saying these people gave her a hard
time and they're responsible for her criticism, but at the same time, it's really hard to decide
what Lana Del Rey was saying at all, so I can understand why people are interpreting it.
This Tweet says, "Lana Del Rey really threw a bunch of black women under the bus before saying
that feminism needs to accommodate women like her." This I do agree with because when I read
her say, "Feminism needs space for women like me," I knew they were going to come after her,
I knew they were going to drag her. Whether it's about race or not, she did mention seven different
artists and then proceeded to work very hard to distinguish herself as being different from them.
It has very "I'm not like other girls" energy. And the thing is, she kind of is like the
other girls because Kehlani specifically, I listened to her album after reading that
post because I was curious and her last album, It Was Good Until It Wasn't, is literally about
assuming a passive role in a toxic relationship. It's a great album, by the way, you should
listen to it if you're bored. But when you look at how the only difference between Kehlani's
album and some of Lana Del Rey's album are just the vernacular and the beats, her comparison
does start seeming like it has undertones of her thinking she's better than them for reasons
other than the ones she disclosed. I can admit that and I can also admit that that's not what
she explicitly said, you know what I mean? This third Tweet right here says, "The optics of
Lana, a white woman, complaining about feminism lacking space for her, while critiquing the
acclaim allotted to several black pop artists is mortifying." I mean, this Tweet is very hard to
disagree with. I like that this person mentioned optics specifically because that's just a whole
realm of PR where you work hard to make sure that things aren't coming across the way you
don't intend them, not because people are dumb or because you want to censor yourself, but just
because so much of this could have been avoided with some extra clarity. I also really like that
this person mentioned she critiqued the acclaim allotted to those artists because that's kind
of absolutely what she did. She really didn't need to mention that they all have number
ones, it just makes her sound really bitter. This last Tweet I want to read says, "I think
Lana's post would have been fine if she hadn't compared herself to a group of mostly black women
with the clear tone that she thinks she's been treated worse by the media when that's observably
untrue." And yes, I also agree with that. Even if, again, it wasn't really about the race, she still
did mention them to prove that she's had it harder than them, which is just, as this person said,
observably untrue. Now, my personal opinion, I don't believe she wrote it with the intention
of singling out black artists and just sparking a ton of black outrage. My personal opinion, I
do think she mentioned them on purpose to spark general outrage, that way we would be doing things
like making really long videos about her in which we also mention that she's releasing an album on
September 5th. Every single article that mentioned her and this post mentioned that her album was
coming out on September 5th. She just got free promo just by being messy. If you really think
about, why would she not do that on purpose? So, was Lana Del Rey profiting off of
black outrage to sell her album? Yes. Now, I know you're thinking, you just said she didn't
do it on purpose! And no, I don't think she did it on purpose, but once she realized who she was
making mad and that it was getting her even more attention than she initially was looking for,
bruh, she made four follow-up comments, four, and they were all about the outrage part of it.
I'm going to read parts of these comments out and I'm just going to be honest, this is where my
respect for her started to dip, because holy crap, man, just listen. "To be clear, because I know
you love to twist things, I love these singers and know them. Hashtag, that is why I mentioned them.
I would also like to have some of the same freedom of expression without judgment of hysteria."
And it's kind of like, if you know we love to twist things, why wouldn't you mention that
in the post, that you're bringing them up as positive examples, even though you were describing
them negatively? Maybe because if you did that, then we wouldn't be having this conversation
now, now would we? "I haven't had the same opportunity to express what I wanted to express
without being completely decimated." The same opportunity? As Beyoncé? Beyoncé?
Beyoncé? Beyoncé? Beyoncé? Beyoncé, sweetie, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.
Beyoncé got blamed on national TV for teen pregnancy. And if we're just talking about
criticism from the feminist space, like Lana was allegedly doing, Beyoncé's album Lemonade
sparked a discussion in the feminist community among some of the top scholars there about, and I
quote, "the perception of femme women, those who, like Beyoncé, present themselves as traditionally
feminine in the black feminist movement." In other words, Beyoncé's gone through the literal exact
same thing you're complaining about in the post, so the fact that you brought her up
to prove that you have it harder is just ... it's not just tone deaf, at some
point it just starts bordering on delusion. "If you want to say that has something to do with
race, that's your opinion, but that's not what I was saying." Okay, that's fair. She should have
left it at that, I think that's a fair response to accusations of that, but, no, no, of course she
didn't. "This is the problem with society today, not everything is about whatever you want
it to be. It's exactly the point of my post, there are certain women that culture doesn't want
to have a voice. It may not have to do with race, but I don't know what it has to do with. I
don't care anymore, but don't ever, ever, ever, ever, bro, call me racist because that
is BS." So, "don't ever call me racist" is, hands down, the single most disappointing reaction
to accusations of racism just in the book. You're basically expressing that you're more upset about
the fact that somebody called you racist than the possibility that you could have unintentionally
made people think that you were racist. So, that's interesting. But wait, there's more.
"And my last and final note on everything. When I said, "people who look like me," I meant
the people who don't look strong or necessarily smart or like they're in control, etc. It's about
advocating for a more delicate personality, not for white women. Thanks for the Karen comments,
though, very helpful." I mean, first of all, literally imagine being upset over the Karen meme.
But on a more serious note, when you use the words "people who look and act like me," then people
are going to assume you're talking about physical appearance, because if you were just talking about
people who act like you, then why did you go out of your way to make the distinction that you're
also talking about people who look like you? There's no flattering way of interpreting this. I
don't know if you can tell, but I'm really sitting here trying to make excuses for this person, but
at this point, it's either one of two things. She meant something, got backlash and then pretended
that she meant something else, which is super disappointing, or she's just so incredibly bad at
expressing opinions in a public space that this is how much room people had to misinterpret what
she was saying because she worded it so terribly. In other words, she's either just a bad person or
a bad writer and she's going with the bad writer angle. She's going with the bad writer angle in
the same breath that she's announcing a new poetry book, so can't wait to read that. Actually, if
this video gets any amount of likes at all, over zero, then I will purchase Lana Del Rey's poetry
book and read it. Can we get one like? That'd be crazy. I don't know if we can do it, guys.
So, you know how she said, "I don't care anymore," and "this is my last and final note
on everything"? After that, she released another statement, an entire statement on Instagram.
Can you say desperation? But she has an album to promote so, honestly, can you blame her? I
mean, yes, you can and I will. As disappointing as her follow-up statements were, just this final
statement, final statement, was the nail in the coffin for me. "A couple of final notes on my
controversial post that is not controversial at all." So, now we're just ... we're just lying. It
literally was controversial. Even if she somehow wasn't trying to start drama, it got national
news coverage. That's called controversy. It reminds me of the fake apologies ... it
reminds me of the fake apologies I would do when I was a kid and I thought I was so smart.
I would throw a ball in someone's direction, with the intention of them catching it,
but then it would hit them in the face, right? And the teacher made me apologize, but
I was just so offended that you would make me apologize for something that I wasn't intending,
so I was very intentional with my apology. "Oh, sorry I threw that ball and it hit you in
the face, even though it didn't hurt." And I really ... I really thought I showed them. I
thought I was the wittiest person on planet Earth, when in reality I was just mad over nothing.
"Despite the feedback I've heard from several people that I mentioned in a complimentary
way, whether it be Ariana Grande or Doja Cat, I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity and
stance and that what I was writing about was the importance of self-advocacy for the more delicate
and often dismissed softer female personality and that there does have to be room for that type
in what will inevitably become a new wave/third wave of feminism that is rapidly approaching.
Watch!" So, she didn't mention those women to stir up drama, but now she's going public with
the information that Ariana Grande privately contacted her and expressed unhappiness with
her post. Because that's not going to cause any drama. Also imagine saying, "I remain firm
in my clarity," when the reason you're in hot water is just because of how decidedly unclear
your original post was. And that third wave of feminism she's talking about? It started almost
20 years ago. And it took me almost 20 seconds to Google that before saying it just now.
So, she's mad that feminism doesn't have space for her, but she doesn't even know what feminism
is. That's like calling out your friend publicly, just like, "You refuse to compromise. When will
you admit that there's not enough space in your house for me to live there and be happy?" And
your friend's just like, "M-my house? You don't live there. And you've never even been to
my ... you don't know what it looks like." "Perhaps I could have given more context to my
post by mentioning the title of the second book that will be out next March called, Behind the
Iron Gates: Insights from an Institution." Now, how in the world would that give us more context
to her terrible post? The only context that gives me is that she's read Sylvia Plath at
least once. Also, nice book plug. I get it. "I'm sorry that the folks who I can only assume
are super Trump/Pence supporters or hyper liberals or flip-flopping, headline-grabbing critics
can't read and want to make it a race war, when in fact the issue was with female critics
and female alternative artists who are dissociated from their own fragility and sexuality and berate
more sexually liberated artists like myself and the women I mentioned." All right, so this just
makes me, not upset, but tired. First of all, calling some Tweets and Instagram comments a
"race war" when you can look around and see what's happening in the world today, that's
beyond disappointing. And you know what? I don't think she's being insensitive. I think she's
being inflammatory. And there's a big difference. I think at this point she's just trying to make
people mad. If you're trying to dispel something, do you think that's going to work by calling
people Trump supporters and/or hyper liberals? What? That's such an immature and intellectually
weak response to criticism. Instead of sorry, she's like, "Sorry that you're a Trump
supporter and you're trying to get into a literal race war." And I think, on another
level, instead of just accepting that people are allowed to have a different opinion than
she does about these issues, she's like, "Sorry that you're too dissociated from your own
fragility and you're just mad at me because I'm more liberated than you." What in the pretentious
is happening? Lana Del Rey let that Grammy go to her head. And she didn't even win it.
"But in truth, making it about race says so much more about you than it does about me. You
want the drama. You don't want to believe that a woman could be beautiful and strong and fragile
at the same time, loving and all-inclusive by making personal reparations simply for the joy of
doing it." We want the drama, said the person who made an entire unprompted Instagram statement and
then four follow-up statements. And then another follow-up statement on Instagram, literally all
of which just proceeded to cause more and more drama. But, no, we just hate women, apparently.
Good to know, because personally I had no idea, but you learn new things about yourself every day.
"Nothing new here in your reaction. Same as 10 years ago when a million think pieces came out
about me feigning emotional fragility or lying about coming from no money, when that was
the truth. My aim and my message are clear, that I have control of my own story. If the women
I mentioned don't want to be associated with me, that's absolutely fine with me." And that
was her statement, her final statement, after her other final statement, after the three
other statements after her first statement. And then she made a video and, no, I'm not kidding.
All right, so for the final part of this video, in this six minute video of hers that I cut down
to four and a half minutes because, you know, editing, Lana Del Rey proceeds to make things even
worse. Don't ask how, don't ask how, just observe. Hey. So, I don't want to beat a dead horse and I
don't want to go on and on about this post thing, but I ...
Are you sure about that? I just want to remind you in that post, my one and
only personal declaration I've ever made, thanks for being so warm and welcoming, was about the
need for fragility in the feminist movement, it's going to be important. And when I mentioned women
who look like me, I didn't mean white like me, I mean the kind of women who other people might
not believe because they think, oh, well, look at her, she deserves it, or whatever.
Then maybe that's what she should have said in her original post. Just a suggestion, I
don't have a PR degree, what do I know? Honestly, though, I don't want to lecture on feminism
or what we need in feminism from somebody who doesn't know what wave of feminism we're on.
There's a lot of people like that. I just think it's sad that the women I mentioned about, whether
they sing about dancing for money or whatever, the same stuff by the way that I've been singing
about and chronicling for 13 years, that's why I'm in that echelon, yes, they are my friends and
peers and contemporaries. The difference is, when I get on the pole, people call me a whore,
but when Twigs gets on the pole, it's art. Okay, so now we're comparing ourselves to FKA
Twigs. I'm so tired. First of all, I've found people making disparaging remarks about FKA Twigs'
pole dancing in the comments section of Twigs' own videos, so to pretend like she doesn't get called
names as well is just ... Also, since we're here, I just have to point out, Twigs did so much more
for that video than you did. (singing) It's like comparing apples to apple seeds. What I've still
failed to understand throughout all of this, from the very beginning of her first statement is
why it has to be in comparison at all? Why does it have to be that Twigs had it so much easier
than you, even though you know she didn't? Why do you have to believe that? Lana Del Rey wants
to be the less fortunate person in the ... she's playing the victim. I don't know why I'm trying to
word it so weirdly. Why are we playing the victim? I'm reminded constantly by my friends that
lyrically there are layers and complicated psychological factors that play into some
of my songwriting, but I just want to say the culture is super sick right now and
the fact that they want to turn my post, my advocacy for fragility into a race war,
it's really bad, it's actually really bad. You know what's actually really bad and super
sick? Actual race wars. Getting dragged on Twitter is just another Monday. I have been
dragged on Twitter. It sucks, I will admit, but I hate to be that person, you can
log off Twitter, you know what I mean, my guy? We can't log out of a race war, Lana.
Especially when, in that same declaration, I was talking again about the idea of how
important it is to make reparations to the ... for me to the Navajo community because
they touched me so much in my youth that I believe in personal reparations because it's the
right thing to do. And I think what's really sad, as a personal advocate, as a girl's girl, as
somebody who wants the best for every culture, when Marianne Williamson was talking about
reparations to the black community that never got done during the emancipation period, that was
why I liked her because I always felt that way. There it is, folks. "It's really bad that I'm
being called racist, especially since I've donated money to Native American." I knew that's why she
mentioned it at the end of the post. I've seen it too much, I've seen it too much. I knew that's
why she brought it up at the end of her last post, so she could fall back on that if anything
happened to her. When I look at it in hindsight, everything is just so clear to me. Also,
I like how she didn't go the "I have black friends" route, she instead went the "I
follow somebody who has talked about black people before." We're evolving. Evolving?
Devolving. That's the word I'm looking for. So, I just want to say, to all of the other
women out there who are like me, good girls, good intentioned, who get ... up the ...
constantly by the culture just because you know you say what you really mean, I'm with you.
I feel for you and I know that you feel for me. And I'm super strong, you can call me whatever.
"You know those girls. Those girl ... the good ones that everyone misunderstands, like me,
because we're not like other girls." Also, I don't doubt that she's super strong because you
kind of have to be to purposely invite this kind of storm into your life. But I will say she
does seem super bothered. I mean, one, two, three, four, five, six posts, two of which
were supposed to be her final post and then a whole video to finish that off, that's not
really the mark of somebody who's unbothered and doesn't care, but what would I know?
I'm sorry that I didn't add one Caucasian, 100% Caucasian person into the mix of the women
that I admire, but it really says more about you than it does about me. And I think that what's
interesting is the very first time I decide to tell you anything about my life or the fact that
I'm writing books that chronicle that fragility, 200,000 hateful, spiteful comments
come in, my phone number leaked, comments like, "You ... white ..." It's
the opposite of the spirit of the advocate, it's ... it's what causes fragility.
There were not 200,000 hateful comments on her post. Of course there were some hateful
comments and there was name-calling, but you're going to get that just by breathing on the
Internet, but to group all of the criticism you're receiving in the same box as the people who leaked
your phone number and were calling you names, that way you don't have to address any of it at
all, just ... She must be our YouTube fan, she watches YouTube, I know she's taking notes from
our apology videos at this point, she just removed the apology itself and honestly that's kind of
genius. Just the dishonesty, super cringey. But this is the same person who says she had it harder
than Beyoncé so, what did we expect at this point? But it's not going to stop me, period. So, I just
want to say, nobody gets to tell your story except for you and even if that means it's kind of messy
like this along the way. Because unfortunately, when you have a good heart, it doesn't always
shine through and you trudge on anyway. You make those personal reparations to heal your own family
karmic lineage and the sickness of this country. She said, "Period, nobody's
going to stop me." Period. But it's not going to stop me, period.
Period. Domestic abuse, mental health problems is
the second epidemic that's arising out of this pandemic. It's a real thing, that's what I
was talking about. As ever, I'm grateful that my muse is still here and that I have, over the last
three years, been blessed to have the insight and ability to channel two books worth of beautiful
poems. And I think my new record, Chemtrails over the Country Club, is special, as well.
So, she's finally announced the album name. I can't lie, Chemtrails over the Country
Club sounds like exactly what I would name a Lana Del Rey parody song if I was making one.
Sorry that a couple of the girls I talked to, who are mentioned in that post, have a super
different opinion of my insight and especially because we've been so close for so long, but it
really, again, makes you reach into the depth of your own heart and say, am I good-intentioned?
And of course for me the answer is always yes, I barely ever share a thing. And this is why ...
Why is why? Why do you never share things? Because you're bad at it? Honestly, this idea that
everyone hates Lana Del Rey and we're just here to pick apart everything she's saying
and spin it into some negative thing is not true. You can go into her comment section and see
that she gets overwhelming support on most of her ventures. You can go into the criticism she was
getting and see that there's a lot of people still defending her because they saw the good points.
You can look at this video in which I can see that there is a lot of good points in her original
statement, it was just kind of buried under a lot of things that didn't need to be there.
And the reason why I'm making this post, and I know it seems a bit much, right, but there are
women out there like me who have so much to give and don't quite get to the place, spiritually or
karmically where they're supposed to be because there are the women who hate them and try and
take them down, whether in my case it's certain alternative singers or mal-intended
journalists or men ... men who hate women, but I'm not the enemy and I'm definitely not
racist, so don't get it twisted. Nobody gets to tell your story except for you. That's what
I'm going to do in the next couple of books. So, God bless and ... off if you don't like the post.
Wow. Three out of 10, this video gets a three out of 10 for me. It would be a zero
out of 10, but I must be honest, I did derive some sick entertainment value
out of just the blatant dishonesty and how she said "period," that was really funny,
unironically. All right so, in conclusion, my thoughts on Lana Del Rey have not changed.
In fact, I don't even think she's a bad person, it's not the vibe I was getting. Now, I will be
honest. There is now a bit of a disconnect in my head when I think about her because I didn't
think she was this kind of person, but you got to do what you got to do for album sales, I guess.
I think, if you'd asked me before this, I would have just said, "She's chill." But now I
have the knowledge that Lana Del Rey is kind of ruthless in her pursuit of getting people to talk
about her and she doesn't seem to care who gets angry in the process or even if what she's saying
is right, so that's a lot. It's kind of iconic, but it's also kind of ironic because if anyone's
music is strong enough to stand on its own without needing the drama-stirring and the inflammatory
comments, I really would have thought it would be Lana Del Rey. But ultimately, I'm still going
to be streaming her album on September 5th. She might be bad at all of this and she might
really hold some really problematic views, but that does not change the fact that
her last album slapped. So, who cares?
I love D'Angelo! I appreciate that he often has the same opinion as the majority (and usually myself, as was the case with the Lana drama) but is also clear he doesn't support cancel culture/mob mentality.