In a lengthy message posted to social media today, Lana Del Rey said she’s “fed up” with being criticized for “glamorizing abuse.” The singer called out artists like Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Cardi B., Camila Cabello, Doja Cat, and others for landing number one hits about “being sexy” and “wearing no clothes.” Del Rey received some backlash for calling out women of color, but the singer later addressed the flak on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAcQPuBJdir/

Lana Del Rey was receiving a lot heat that Friday, as she tried to defend herself that she supposedly “glorifies and glamorizes abuse” is held to different standards compared to other female artists such as Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Cardi B., Kehlani, etc, etc who she also stated that:

“Have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f—ing, cheating, etc.”

Lana Del Rey via Instagram

While her post did make some points, the reason why a lot of people are upset from this particular post is that most of the women that she listed are all women of color, aside from Ariana Grande. Doja Cat’s “Say So,” was a song that just recently went #1 and the song Doja sings is mostly a love song about wanting her friend to stop “beating ‘round the bush” and confess their love to her.

• 

• 

The most recent #1 hit that actually went #1 as this post went out in the same week was the Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber collab “Stuck with You.” ‘Stuck with You” was really just made for to uplift people by the global lockdown due to the 2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

So, to say that the music that has been successful on the charts as of recently and has been about mostly sex, about Lana’s post is a little bit misleading. All of these women don’t just sing and rap about sex, which is what Lana had implied in her post. Beyonce and N*cki who have big catalogues from their years of being in the industry does sing about relationships but that’s not all they speak on in their music. Kehlani is also another one doesn’t always sing about relationships, and Cardi is also very versatile with the subjects that she speaks on in her own music. Lana is really just generalizing a whole slew of women and their catalogues. Another record that went #1 a couple of years ago being, ‘Bodak Yellow,” wasn’t even at all about sex. ‘Bodak Yellow,’ was really a song about Cardi’s rise to fame, being a boss and practically empowering women to be themselves and not apologizing for it.

Sadly, Lana is doing the same thing to the women she mentioned, as to what these critics are doing to her own music, generalizing them and putting them into a box. I personally don’t think there was much anything about racism in the post, but I can see why some people would take it in that way especially when she said, ” I don’t think Lana should’ve even called out anybody, which already rubbed the fans of the people that she called out in the wrong way, and not standing for her BS. Calling out the people who were of color, (side from Ariana Grande) was really her first mistake with this post. She could’ve made her point with her own music and defended herself without having to bring other people down with her.

Lana would eventually go back and make some more statements from this post. That would tell people to back off and say that this wasn’t about race pretty much, and that she was just trying to defend herself and her music by making a point through her Instagram stories.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAd2lYfpitM/

Personally, I didn’t think it was a recist post, but I can why some people would take it in that way. Lana would also try and defend herself again through her Instagram stories.

• 

• 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAghpnsJ8Sm/

I think this tweet pretty much sums up just about how I feel about Lana’s post just perfectly.

https://twitter.com/shonfaye/status/1263393209801203712

Lana could’ve possibly had more sympathy from all of this if she didn’t include women of color (sans Ariana) from her post. If she had just let it be just from her point of view, and just defended her ownself, and the music that she makes, then maybe she would’ve gotten this much backlash. The women that she did mentioned in the post, had to practically work almost twice as hard to get to where they are in order to even be noticed and become mainstream, especially for Hip-Hop and R&B female artists. Lana is a very much critically acclaimed artist for the most part, and from what I understand she doesn’t have a #1 hit. Her highest song, peaked at #6 with “Summertime Sadness,” and this literally her only Top 10 hit that she has!

Lana does have great songs, but people mostly know her for her for making great albums than they do her actual single records. If anything, Lana should be grateful that her fans and supporters do indeed love her for having great bodies of work, and not just single records. That should be enough for any artist to have the love for. As proven within these past two weeks, even if your favorite artist say the generic obvious PR line, “I just want my fans to enjoy the music,” just know that knowing most of these artists, they all deep down want to have a number 1 record within their resume. Lana is just another one of those culprits that does not have a #1 record on the notch of her “glorifying abuse” belt.

• 

• 

Also, Lana is apparently dropping an album pretty soon, sometime in September so it’s no coincidence that this post all of a sudden came out. While her Instagram letter from Friday, seemed to come out of nowhere, and maybe a bit out of character, it was also noted that her next two books of poetry will dive deeper into her frustrations with the music industry and the double standards she’s faced. She also reveals at the very end of the letter that she’ll be dropping her seventh studio album on Saturday, September 5th, and to have one book of poetry, ‘Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass,’ but a release date has yet to be finalized.

So, maybe it’s to try and somewhat shine the light on her. You know what they say, even bad publicity can also be good publicity.