Miley Cyrus Responds To Backlash: Doesn’t Apologize For “Criticizing Hip Hop”, And She Shouldn’t!
Miley Cyrus has been involved in serious DRAMA this week for something she said about hip-hop music in an interview with Billboard magazine (she agreed to grace the cover of the May 2017 issue so she could tell the world in the cover story about her return to music and the imminent release of her new single “Malibu”). What she said was criticism to the lyrics and themes of hip-hop music in general (about how misogynist they are). She was making a comparison between the new “rootsy” music she has recorded and her old more urban-oriented stuff from her revolutionary album “Bangerz”, and that she had decided to get away from that “world” because of the “negativity” it had embedded in almost all cases (took a long time to figure this out?) – although she did say there were a few exceptions: Kendrick Lamar for instance.
"But I also love that new Kendrick [Lamar] song ["Humble"]: 'Show me somethin' natural like ass with some stretch marks,'" Cyrus said. "I love that because it's not 'Come sit on my dick, suck on my ****.' I can't listen to that anymore."
Cyrus added: "That's what pushed me out of the hip-hop scene a little. It was too much 'Lamborghini, got my Rolex, got a girl on my ****'—I am so not that.
Miley immediately received backlash for these comments. A few examples below:
Miley Cyrus exploited hip hop culture then bashed it and hopped back into her white girl innocence phase.having white privilege must be nice
— Give Love (@iamdevinxo) May 4, 2017
Miley Cyrus profitited off hip hop and then threw it under the bus. And you wonder why old heads talk about protecting the culture.
— ?hris¹³? (@MrChristopherX) May 4, 2017
My thoughts? PEOPLE CHANGE. Yes, Miley had a “hip hop” phase with “Bangerz”, yes she thought that was cool at the moment, yes she twerked, yes she said “bitch” many times, and blah blah blah, but she eventually saw the light at the end of the tunnel. She researched, she grew up, she read, she finally understood the feminist cause, and she realized that hip-hop, a large chunk of it, is filled with “negativity”. NOT ALL I repeat – but the few exceptions are scarce. The rest will share the same theme: objectifying women, misogyny, etc. Miley simply decided to exit that world and do other stuff. And she had the right to do so.
So now. Miley used Instagram a few hours ago to “clarify” her Billboard magazine comments.
She first threw a little shade at the magazine for “intentionally” including the most controversial quotes of her LONG interview with them on the cover story but then got real. She didn’t apologize (I wouldn’t have either - she told the truth!), and she just clarified that she respects all GENRES of music, including hip hop, but that she is just currently gravitating more towards a more “uplifting, and conscious rap”. You see? She just finally understood. That’s it.
I get that some people are mad about the alleged “cultural appropriation” and that Miley “profited from hip hop in the past” but HEY – I wouldn’t use the term “profit”, she just did what she thought was cool at the moment (like EVERYBODY), but she just realized in time that that wasn’t the right path for her (for the reasons she explained) and that those lyrics/themes weren't the best lesson to teach to a generation. Period. Aren’t people allow to change? Is her brain not allow to evolve? Come on.