Lorde accused of being a racist. C'mon, son.
Major news outlets are picking up a story today about our First Look Friday crushLorde but instead of focusing on her distinctive voice, her live show or her catalog of great songs (even 2 or 3 great songs is a deep catalog for somebody who's 16--she's got a whole album of them) they are seriously debating whether or not she is racist, based on the lyrics of her hit "Royals" (reprinted in full below, for context). The bullshit started with a blog post on femisting.com, authored by Veronica Bayetti Florés and posted on October 3rd with the headline "Wow, that Lorde song 'Royals' is Racist." Florés prefaces an excerpt of the Cristal/Maybach stanza with "Holy. Shit. What did this white girl just say?" and then goes on to make this argument:
While I love a good critique of wealth accumulation and inequity, this song is not one; in fact, it is deeply racist. Because we all know who she’s thinking when we’re talking gold teeth, Cristal andMaybachs. So why shit on black folks? Why shit on rappers? Why aren’t we critiquing wealth by taking hits at golf or polo or Central Park East? Why not take to task the bankers and old-money folks who actually have a hand in perpetuating and increasing wealth inequality? I’m gonna take a guess: racism. I don’t have to explain why wealth operates differently among folks who’ve grown up struggling because this shit has been explained already: If you grew up with holes in your zapatos you’d celebrate the minute you was having dough.
If it needs to be explained, this is a completely basehead line of thinking. A couple points it overlooks:
1) Every song is like Cristal, Maybach, gold teeth, etc. It's kind out of hand. If pointing that out is racist then Common, Yasiin, Talib Kweli and Lupe Fiasco have all been racist at one time or another. Before anybody jumps on me, I realize that context makes a difference, that making a statement about "black people"--for instance--is read differently if you include yourself in that group. But it doesn't make THAT much difference--white people are not required to like every ass-eating trap anthem that Tyga puts out to avoid being a racist. (If only it were so easy! Co-workers offended by your casual racism at work? Just make WorldStar your homepage and let them know you drink Cristal, too. Problem solved). The craziest thing is, Lorde didn't even say it was a problem, she just said she don't care. That's not what her and her friends are in to. And everybody knows it.
2) There really is nothing racialized about the things she's talking about. In fact the hook and title "Royals" by itself clearly puts the materialism and class envy immanent in Cristal and Maybachs out of any African-American context and into the, ahem, realm of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, obsessive coverage of the royal baby and Prince Harry's party schedule. Which, frankly, is where it belongs. Before hip-hop was mainstream enough to produce Keeping Up With The Kardashians or The Fabulous Life of J-Lo, Biggie Smalls fantasized about being up close & personal with Robin Leach. Kanye West isn't the first to have a commodity fetish, he's just the first to admit it. In fact Florés is the only one who makes that leap (in her words "a guess") between gold teeth and black skin, an equation that is weirdly...racist? Like, Oh she's talking about people being ignorant and class obsessed WE ALL KNOW WHO THAT'S ABOUT. If this was, say a country song, or somehow used some other musical code to hint that drum machines are materialistic but twangy guitars are more grounded and authentic, she might could have had the beginnings of an argument. But even that would be a pretty slender guitar string to hang an accusation of racism on. But Lorde laid down a rhythm track of trap drums and put her words into a Santigold/M.I.A.-ish singsongy rap. So basically she did what every rapper does and is supposed to do--took the pop culture we're all bombarded with and talked about how it fits with the actual life experience of her and her friends in their reality--which happens to be a torn-up New Zealand town.
Now, to be clear: I don't have any indication that Lorde is not racist. She could lose her mind and go the full Mel Gibson on us tomorrow. Hell, she's 16, she's going to be at least 2 or 3 completely different people between now and the year 2018, when she'll be old enough to drink or be an unpaid intern at Google or whatever. But I just don't have any indication that she is. So, speaking as a music journalist (blogger) I can make the leap that 'gold teeth and grey goose' is an explicit reference to commercial rap music pretty easily. If I was tempted to make the next leap, that it was some sort of judgement on black people overall, the 3rd thought in my head would be something like...hmm, intriguing. If only Lorde had a publicist who was setting up press for her, so I could get her on the phone for a quote, to find out what she was really thinking about when she wrote those lyrics. Or I could save all that hassle, pretend Lorde-in-my-mind has already swallowed the race-bait, and write a headline that will get a whole lot of clicks.
Which makes this racism headline about as real as a headline saying "Drake came out in his latest video" based on the fact that it has machine guns in it. Which are clearly phallic symbols. Gay phallic symbols, to be specific. In Jay Stephens' mindgarden, anyway. In other words it's something you made up out of your own stream of consciousness and printed it online because you knew it would get a reaction. This happens commonly enough in our post-digital twitscape that there's a verb for it: trolling.
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Like Florés, I am probably just as mad or more at the major media outlets as I am at her. Not the NY Times--they got the story surprisingly right--but Time, CNN and CBS, who picked up Florés speculation, put a question mark after her joke of a headline ('Is Lorde Racist?' 'Racist Lyrics?') and ran with it (watch the CBS report above, which ironically ends with the kicker "we all want attention.") At least CNN went to the trouble of getting a statement. I'm not saying these issues should not be examined, debated or talked about--far from it. But if the charge lacks substance or is just clearly Not Okay, you should just come out and say that it's Not Okay.
Yes shots.
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Lyrics: Royals, by Lorde:
I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh
I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies
And I’m not proud of my address,
In a torn-up town, no post code envy
But every song’s like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin’ in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room,
We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your time piece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.
We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair.
And we’ll never be royals.
It don’t run in our blood,
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz.
Let me be your ruler,
You can call me queen Bee
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.
My friends and I – we’ve cracked the code.
We count our dollars on the train to the party.
And everyone who knows us knows that we’re fine with this,
We didn’t come from money.
But every song’s like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin’ in the bathroom.
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room,
We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your time piece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair
And we’ll never be royals.
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz.
Let me be your ruler,
You can call me queen Bee
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.
We’re bigger than we ever dreamed,
And I’m in love with being queen.
Life is great without a care
We aren’t caught up in your love affair.
And we’ll never be royals.
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler,
You can call me queen Bee
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.
