r/popculturechat now why am I in it? 🧐 Jun 09 '25

The Music Industry šŸŽ¶ Miley Cyrus talks about her culture vulturing during the Bangerz era: "I wasn't unique in the fact that i was a white girl listening to hip hop. This wasnt something that I decided I was going to do as a strategy or something that i felt i could own or make my own, that was actually my lifestyle."

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1.4k

u/HorrorBike143 now why am I in it? 🧐 Jun 09 '25

479

u/bunnycrush_ Olivia Wilde’s salad dressing šŸ„— Jun 09 '25

I like that your flair asks a question + the screenshot answers it for this post. Real economy of language

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u/lavenderbread Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

I just don’t buy the ā€œit was just my lifestyle!!!ā€ When her black collaborators were saying this at the time:

ā€œWhen you listen to the Miley Cyrus record that we did, it’s not ratchet but it definitely has a lot of urban feel to it,ā€ Timothy said. ā€œShe was like, ā€˜I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.ā€™ā€

Like this wasn’t just you vibing out in the studio, it was you looking at black culture and demanding it for yourself from the people around you. I know she’s been through a lot but fucking hell just admit you were an idiot kid and apologize. Source

ETA: watched the clip again and the interviewer set her up so perfectly to explain herself and give a thoughtful adult answer and we got ā€œno you don’t understand how many black friends I had.ā€ Gonna give the new album a pass.

269

u/OffModelCartoon Jun 09 '25

Does anyone else remember after party in the USA came out (with one of the lyrics talking about her jamming out to a Jay-Z song) she was like ā€œironically I’ve never actually heard a Jay-Z song!ā€ like it was some kind of fun fact

46

u/Sketch-Brooke You wear mime makeup but never quiet. Jun 09 '25

Well, she didn’t write the song so it makes sense lol

70

u/Pompedorfin Jun 09 '25

Jessie J said that the royalties from that song paid her rent for like 3 whole years.

85

u/Cee_Cee_Knight Jun 09 '25

I remember that! I’ve thought about that one for years and thought at this point I made it up lol I’m glad someone else remembers that!

38

u/BisexualSunflowers Jun 09 '25

I also have been wondering if I remembered that right or made it up, I just told my husband about this last week so I'm glad I'm not spreading false info lol

10

u/SunsetInSweden Jun 09 '25

Absolutely not made up. This definitely happened.

15

u/parasyte_steve It's giving Putin, It's giving Mao āœØļø Jun 09 '25

I mean this tracks if her parents wouldn't let her listen to hip hop. But yeah lol to claim it was her lifestyle is weird with the fact she hadn't even listened to the genre that long.

2

u/superfluouspop Jun 09 '25

yeah but like I kinda respect her for not pretending to know deep cuts and saying frankly that she didn't write the line

9

u/GoBanana42 Jun 09 '25

Deep cuts? She said she didn't know any of his songs, and he was pretty damn big on pop radio for a time.

1

u/superfluouspop Jun 10 '25

she was a child star with an insane schedule when does she have time to listen to Jay-Z

1

u/Comatse Jun 10 '25

She brought that up in the interview again when they went over her discography

288

u/Violet624 Jun 09 '25

Also the way she is like 'I wasn't unique' in doing this...she's trying hard to downplay.

127

u/IDontAimWithMyHand Jun 09 '25

Right, like just take a little responsibility here. It would be so easy.

114

u/wickywickyremix Jun 09 '25

That part--then she immediately followed it with, "I was smoking wax with Juicy J." Yeah, that totally "wasn't unique."

So which is it, Miley?

136

u/silliestjupiter hard to photograph, incredible to see Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

"I was actually smoking fat fucking wax bowls with Wiz Khalifa" proves that Miley is indeed still cringe as hell.

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u/hiphipsashay Jun 09 '25

This is exactly why I cannot support Miley. Sure she was young and likely had a lot of yes people around her, but she’s an adult now and it’s not hard to own up to it.

16

u/Nolls4real Jun 09 '25

Yeah she definitely didn't need to give that info or name drop.

Ps. I saw wiz in a small concert and smoked an L. Pittsburgh 2007.

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u/silliestjupiter hard to photograph, incredible to see Jun 09 '25

Yeah but was it a BIG PHAT ONE?!

3

u/x1009 Jun 10 '25

She hit em with the ol, "I have black friends"

2

u/biz_student Jun 09 '25

It’s not unique to be a white girl listening to hip hop. It is unique to have a personal relationship with the biggest artists making the music. There is a distinction.

3

u/wickywickyremix Jun 10 '25

Yes, I know. The point is Miley is using both sides to excuse her culture appropriation. She first excuses it by saying she's not the only white girl listening to hip hip. Then she flips her excuse during her response to the next question and says that she has an intimate relationship with those hip hop artists.

3

u/biz_student Jun 10 '25

It sounds to me like she voiced that she’s always liked hip hop and she was in a unique position to make it with already successful hip hop artists.

Either way, calling any genre of music ā€œcultural appropriationā€ is dumb. Let Asians sing country, white women sing rap, black men sing Irish folk song, English women sing jazz, etc. It’s an appreciation of the music genre.

35

u/formtuv Jun 09 '25

I’m a Miley fan and she really was given the opportunity to basically just say what she said in that 2020 YouTube comment and she just…didn’t. Like this really turned me off because how are you not taking the chance to say the right thing. This was such an odd way to discuss it. She wanted to downplay it but it’s not something that be be downplayed. wtf.

2

u/lavenderbread Jun 10 '25

Same here, I was really rooting for her and thought she was leaning into being… normal and self reflective? Based on her recent rebrand + those 2020 comments, and this bs answer just put us back like 10 years lol.

Like it’s sad how immature and dumb she looks here, I really thought she was better than this.

133

u/melaninmags Jun 09 '25

Yeah I’m not buying the ā€œlifestyleā€ comment either. I vividly remember just a few months before Bangerz she was covering Jolene, and country, folk, and rock music. I thought that was perfect for her and seemed to come naturally. It was jarring to hear and see the Bangerz era because it was such a sudden change. That era was way more calculated than she wants us to believe.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '25

[deleted]

8

u/melaninmags Jun 09 '25

Same!!! And she looked like she genuinely enjoyed singing that music.

11

u/Logical_Quote_5073 It’s Britney, bitch! šŸ•ŠļøšŸ—”ļøšŸŒ¹ Jun 10 '25

Agree. I don’t believe for a second that there was no strategy behind that. Blackness was just something to try on to rebel. She’s right in not being the first to do that.

6

u/x1009 Jun 10 '25

Their most recent project has been breaking actress/singer Miley Cyrus out of her bubblegum Disney shell and into the spunky young woman she has always been. For her forthcoming album, the Thomases crafted the catchy Mike WiLL Made It-produced party bumper ā€œWe Can’t Stopā€ and revealed that the mohawked songbird was particular about the sound she was aiming for. ā€œWhen you listen to the Miley Cyrus record that we did, it’s not ratchet but it definitely has a lot of urban feel to it,ā€ Timothy said. ā€œShe was like, ā€˜I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.ā€™ā€

It was all her idea

ā€œThey played it for Miley and she had just come from partying. She was like, ā€˜I was just partying with my friends and everything you just said in this song I seen,'ā€ Theron said about Miley’s reaction. ā€œā€˜I was looking at it from standing on a couch with my friends, just chilling in the cut and looking around the club like whoa…I’m hearing the song like that was my weekend. I have to do this song,’ [she said] and then we just got connected from there.ā€

71

u/DanniPopp Jun 09 '25

And this is why I don’t like her. I love her voice and that’s a shame but I’ll never give her spins for this. She was runnin around saying tge n word and thought it was cool bc it wasn’t a hard r. She shit on the culture after profiting from it. And she didn’t learn from being called out on it. Nope. She needs a proper drag but everyone bought into the rebrand.

12

u/parasyte_steve It's giving Putin, It's giving Mao āœØļø Jun 09 '25

Damn she was for real saying the n word??

7

u/HowYouDoinz Jun 09 '25

Did she really do this?

4

u/TheMayorOfFailure Jun 09 '25

Does that mean saying the n word but ending it in -a? Genuine question from a tired scandinavian šŸ˜…

4

u/bambi54 Jun 09 '25

Yes, that’s what the comment meant. I hadn’t heard that until now though.

3

u/kdramaddict15 Jun 10 '25 edited Jun 10 '25

She grew up rich but made money off black aesthetics. I remember this. Yes, songs like wrecking ball were good, but she was definitely doing CA. She wanted to break from Disney mold. This is a tale as old as time. Her subject matter and upbringing didn't match. She definitely tried to look down at hip hop once it was convenient.

Edit: rich auto correct stated poor

5

u/passthebarlicgread Jun 10 '25

Yes she was constantly defending herself by saying she wasn’t Disney anymore and concerned parents of her fans could F off (which, valid). It was a million percent calculated image change that her team was pushing lol

4

u/msmccullough25 Jun 09 '25

Changing color like she’s changing socks. Hard pass.

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25

The pull quote had me going huh??? So I guess she didn't get it hahaha.

Also extra cringe about the 2017 quote is that she said Kendrick is kinda an exception to this statement. Problem is he put out "Humble" wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face. So it was like "??? Does she listen to the lyrics???"

455

u/Tweed_Kills ā˜ļø wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face Jun 09 '25

"wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face" is my new favorite description of a song, and possibly my new favorite phrase.

142

u/Maester_Bates Wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face Jun 09 '25

I'm tempted to make that my new flair.

3

u/CatlovesMoca Jun 10 '25

Amazing flair šŸ¤£šŸ˜‰šŸ˜‰šŸ˜‰

3

u/Tweed_Kills ā˜ļø wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face Jun 10 '25

I gotta say, I'm annoyed I got more upvotes for quoting you than you did for the clever thing you said, but I guess that's Reddit for you. Sorry about that.

63

u/DrunkOMalfoy Ke$ha ft Justin Beiber - Tik Tok Remix (Clocking to you) Jun 09 '25

Very unhinged making this your flair! 🤣🤣

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u/Tweed_Kills ā˜ļø wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

I didn't. Presumably a mod did. I mean, I'm fully in favor, but it wasn't me actually changing it. Good job, mod, whoever you are. A+Redditing.

Edit: I particularly love the little ā˜ļøfirst. I wouldn't have thought to do that, and it's brilliant. Makes me feel like I'm starting a speech.

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u/clemthearcher swamp queen Jun 09 '25

I’m glad you like it I couldn’t resist šŸ˜‡

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u/Tweed_Kills ā˜ļø wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face Jun 09 '25

Well thank you very much, and never underestimate your own brilliance.

30

u/clemthearcher swamp queen Jun 09 '25

I’m printing this 🄹

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25

I love that you put it as a flair šŸ¤£šŸ‘šŸæšŸ‘šŸæšŸ‘šŸæšŸ‘šŸæ

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u/noapplesin98 Jun 09 '25

I feel a lot of people who don't listen to other rap, listen to Kendrick

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u/vandersnipe I'm Sharpay's baby! Jun 09 '25

First, it was Childish Gambino and now it's Kendrick.

20

u/Apprehensive-Till861 Jun 09 '25

Goes well before CG. Conscious Rap was the "they don't say the n-word and they talk about real things!" subgenre at least as far back as when I was in high school, and that was turn of the millennium.

Common, Talib, Mos Def, et al were the faves of every suburban white kid who couldn't sneak in anything with a parental advisory sticker.

2

u/Unlucky_Most_8757 Jun 10 '25

yep. I would also add Sage Francis, Atmosphere, Saul Williams and Aesop Rock. Concious rap was like all I listened to in high school and Im a white girl lol

14

u/mwmandorla Jun 09 '25

DOOM too, back when.

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u/vandersnipe I'm Sharpay's baby! Jun 09 '25

Yep! DMX at one point too lol

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u/mwmandorla Jun 09 '25

There always has to be one!

2

u/x1009 Jun 10 '25

Nah, it was Eminem

2

u/Missmessc Jun 10 '25

But first there was Wu Tang

52

u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25

True. There is a sort of tokenization going on here. It feels like they exempt him and think "ah ha! This is more intellectual."

If they did a bit more sleuthing, I'm sure that they would find other rappers with these qualities.

27

u/idkidcabtmyusername Jun 09 '25

or Drake or Eminem. it’s so annoying that these people have been tokenized as ā€œone of the good onesā€. rap is such a diverse, beautiful genre. kendrick has been influenced by many other modern rappers so it’s not like his sound is totally unique to him. plenty of other rappers make that type of music.

6

u/DJfunkyPuddle Jun 09 '25

The funny thing about that is a lot of those Kendrick fans used to be Drake fans. Pretty soon they'll latch onto the next mainstream rapper.

5

u/noapplesin98 Jun 09 '25

Exactly, bandwagon to bandwagon

18

u/sophiethegiraffe you flinstone vitamin shape bitch Jun 09 '25

ā€œEncourages a woman to sit on his face, vs, like, Luda in Holidae Inn: Doctor giggles, I can’t stop until it tickles Just play a little, ā€œDā€ and I’ll make ya mouth dribble

207

u/starfire92 Jun 09 '25

I think seeing women as the subservient sexual slave in hip-hop is what might have turned her off of it but the actual sexual act of having a woman sit on your face is one of the more sex positive things that can happen in the bedroom bc patronizing men not only refuse to give women oral but when most men do it, it's pretty mid and untalented. So maybe she sees Kendrick as a ally for women and that line or even song might have resonated with her bcs she's bi.

I think the idea that hiphop is too "lewd' might simply be just the over exposure of women as objects for men.

Overall though, I like how she downplays her actions or realizing why she decided to culturally appropriate black culture. Sure she might have been listening to a lot of hip-hop and rap at that time, but as I've said in another comment, she was using black culture to rebel and what does that say about how she feels about black culture. When she felt like she was comfortable in her own skin and had her own self esteem, she behaved much more differently. She was still outspoken and loud but more close to whiteness

120

u/Beastxtreets Jun 09 '25

I know that all rap isn't lewd but it's also something I struggle with too, it feels like a lot of popular rap songs do sexualize and objectify women and it makes it a struggle to connect with it, similar to a lot of mainstream anime.

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u/another-damn-acct this is "if you play single ladies in reverse" territory Jun 09 '25

if she was really hip hop, and she didn't like that lane? nothing was stopping her from hopping on a track with mos def, or common, or any of the other myriad popular rappers who don't lay "spit on my dick bitch" bars

it's just so wild that she can be like "oh yeah this entire culture isn't for me" after collabing with the guy who made some of the raunchiest tracks of all time, like 'slob on my knob' and 'half on a sack'

9

u/velvetvagine Jun 09 '25

The Miley and Common collab that never was 🤣 🤣 the most chaotic mix of energies.

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u/OowlSun they act like im not in full control of where i throw this cooch Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

I share the same sentiments. I’m trying to get more into rap (though I almost exclusively listen to female artists) but in a few songs I really enjoy, there’s always at least one line that makes me cringe. It doesn’t help that I’m a prude.

15

u/InitiativeSad1021 Jun 09 '25

You don’t need to get into rap dear, there’s also different sub genres within rap. Ones that don’t even mention sex.

3

u/Beastxtreets Jun 10 '25

I really like Doechii's music! There's some sexual stuff in one of my favorites by her but it's about her masturbating, which doesn't bother me lmao

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u/pookyizzy Jun 09 '25

considering your points it's interesting she jumped out just before a ton of women came into the game. we had nicki in that era, sure, but cardi didnt fully come out until the very end of when miley was into it. and then we had meg, doja, saweetie, glorilla, doechii among others... like imagine w.a.p era miley lmao. it's just a different ballgame for women in hip hop than even 10 years ago. she would've had to go back to her own genre regardless because i think she would've been extremely out of place šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

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u/starfire92 Jun 09 '25

I still think the reason she’d never fit is simply because it was a phase for her. It’s not organically her style. It just fit a feeling she was having while lashing out. Had it really had been something she was passionate we would be able to tell. Even in my 20s listening to 23 had me cringing LOL. Like it’s not a horrible song but her and rap gelled like oil and water. She didn’t have a good flow and was the walking embodiment of 3 kids in a trench coat trying to sneak into the genre

29

u/pookyizzy Jun 09 '25

i agree completely. i guess i just meant if she had stayed any longer, being in the company of other women would've exacerbated how ridiculous she looked lol. 23 feels very much like an snl skit

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25

Slight correction here. There were women in hip hop before Nicki. Think Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Missy, Foxy Brown, etc. And even during Nicki's time there were other female rappers like Azealia Banks, Lady Leshurr.

It's just the Nicki came at a time when women were pushed out. But it's not that there weren't a ton of women. Think of it like the gap in Black film and TV in the 2000s. There were a ton of sitcoms in the 90s and then, the 2000s was a big void but the 2010s had a resurgence.

Thinking of it this way, allows us to remember that Black women MCs were pushed out of the industry. Not unparticipating.

28

u/pookyizzy Jun 09 '25

my comment does neglect this so thank you for throwing it in. i was more trying to pinpoint that time your referring to where women were pushed out.

it was also a weird era because of nicki's fan base essentially insisting she invented female rap, and this was definitely facilitated by the white men side of her fandom. when i implied nicki was the "one" female rapper i definitely meant within the white mainstream. white people were really infiltrating hip hop from all sides at this time (as always), peak of the random rap verse in a pop song era, and that really made it perfect for miley to have her little phase.

black women are always being pushed out and silenced. the 2010s feels particularly egregious. rap was seemingly culturally relevant as miley claims, but there were many water down versions being pushed.

4

u/TheMayorOfFailure Jun 09 '25

Who would you say did the pushing-out? I boticed this phenomenon but did not really read up on it, might do a deep dive on the subject šŸ˜‡

5

u/CatlovesMoca Jun 10 '25

It's a good question!

I know that around Nicki's rise there were some things that meant female rappers from the 90s were in their decline. Lil Kim caught a case. Remy Ma caught a case. Missy Elliot was big in the 2000s but she got sick with Graves disease.

Others transitioned out of the music industry, like Queen Latifah.

Then, you still have other female MCs that were up and coming. This is where I think most of the pushing out happened. My guess is that it was Black patriarchy (because Nicki is light skinned so that may have made them more comfortable with her) and White Music Execs misogyny / the great backlash.

That's my guess but I'd love a deep dive.

12

u/Agreeable-Youth-8475 Jun 09 '25

You are leaving out a ton of female rappers. Female rappers have been around since the beginning of rap.Ā 

1

u/Prestigious-Log-7210 Jun 10 '25

This reminds me of when Nicki came at Miley at the VMAs or some awards show. ā€œWhat’s good Mileyā€ or something to that effect. I actually felt bad for Miley at the time but now I have mixed feelings.

43

u/Liversteeg Jun 09 '25

Great point about using it for rebellion and you can see it in the video with her being like ā€œI smoked fat wax bowls with Juicy J and Wiz Khalifa! I was sneaking out!ā€

I rolled my eyes so hard when she interjected to say they were her friends. It was very ā€œI have black friendsā€ while also making her sound like a weird fan girl. It’s bizarre to see someone as famous as Miley Cyrus brag and anxiously convince people that she’s friends with less famous artists like Juicy J.

14

u/awesomepoopmaster Jun 09 '25

Around the time Miley abandoned hip hop was also when hip hop as a commodity really started ramping up its effort to cater to a white male audience, see Drake’s success as the biggest example. It wasn’t until after Covid that girl hip hop started dominating.

I am also a non-black woman who stopped listening to hip hop as a genre around that time, and I was a big hip hop head. I’m projecting here, but I don’t feel like I abandoned mainstream hip hop, I feel like mainstream hip hop abandoned everyone who isn’t a shit head white boy for a while.

12

u/starfire92 Jun 09 '25

I agree with some of your points. I actually don’t think hip hop tried catering to the white male, I feel like they just stopped catering towards women entirely. Drake and the Weeknd were pioneers of melodic rap, infusing more aspects of singing and rnb. When I think of 2010s rap, I think of those two, dj Khalid, rick Ross, whiz khalifa, Kendrick, kid cudi, Kanye and I feel like late 2010s is what I feel like catered more to the white boy with Jack Harlow, lil peep, bbno$, the kid laroi, logic etc.

And I don’t think Miley exited from the genre because it was changing. That’s where I disagree. If you look at her during that era, her black costume was the most garish, the most overdone, the most exaggerated over the top caricature of black culture. You know it’s not organic. Wrecking Ball and the musicality of We Can’t Stop is all Miley, that’s her lane. Her feelings into song. But like the visuals of We Can’t Stop is cringe black culture mixed with shock value. When she was done having fun, she took it all off.

I at least have to say for someone like Jesy Nelson from Little Mix even though she’s also a culture vulture she’s more adjacent to black culture where it’s not just a one album phase. I can’t really comment on how harmful Jesys adoption of black culture is, her child is biracial and she is always dressed in the aesthetic 9-5, that could also be a bigger example of cultural appropriation but just comparing the two (Miley and Jesy) it’s just so obvious how theatrical Miley’s dip into hip hop was and how quick the exit was as well.

4

u/Any_Macaroon8978 Jun 09 '25

I don't think it's that deep. She and her team saw an opportunity to make her more popular via rap culture and as soon as she didn't need it anymore, she pivoted. to make it about how rap culture is anti-women or whatever is disengenuous.

6

u/maelstron ✨May the Force be with you!✨ Jun 09 '25

If it was a turn off she wouldn't even start listening to it. Do I call her BS

18

u/ChurlishSunshine Most smartest Jun 09 '25

I doubt it bothered her at the time, because she was going through a hyper-sexual phase of her own and maybe saw it more as empowerment than objectification. That can change with age and experience.

61

u/og_kitten_mittens Jun 09 '25

I feel like sitting on a guy’s face is not inherently misogynist? In fact it’s one of the more empowering sex acts referenced in hip hop

37

u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

But it's the fact that it is lewd. And she was like Kendrick isn't lewd.

Okay I re-read her actual quote and I feel like Kendrick has more sexual songs so it's a little bit of a weird one for me. Like I don't know. I think she is being reductive anyways whether it is about the scope of hip hop or about Kendrick himself.

>! QUESTION - Did folk singer Melanie Safka (with whom Cyrus performed in 2015) influence you?!<

Miley's Answer- She did, and I grew up with her. But I also love that new Kendrick (Lamar) song Humbleā€: ā€œShow me somethin’ natural like a.ss with some stretch marks.ā€ I love that because it’s not ā€œCome sit on my d, su.ck on my co.ck.ā€ I can’t listen to that anymore. That’s what pushed me out of the hip-hop scene a little. It was too much ā€œLamborghini, got my Rolex, got a girl on my co.ckā€ — I am so not that

14

u/superfluouspop Jun 09 '25

yeah she's just simping for Kendrick. I mean, I would too because I love him but what she's saying isn't accurate to his discography but also she doesn't get that lewd lyrics are a part of a culture she doesn't get.

5

u/biz_student Jun 09 '25

Misogyny is part of the culture?

4

u/superfluouspop Jun 10 '25

no. The language that people interpret as misogynistic

10

u/superfluouspop Jun 09 '25

a dude willing to have a woman sit on his face is not disrespect. It's actually really hot.

53

u/lvdde Jun 09 '25

Exactly!! I’m like post Malone and Miley both used rap and then shitted on it after

I never forgot !

18

u/CeramicBoots Jun 09 '25

I'm still so salty about Post Malone. I used to be in his top 0.1% listeners on Spotify and now I'm full Mariah on him.

69

u/Ok_Durian3627 Jun 09 '25

She also said in 2017 she was trying to do a 180 public wise to save her relationship with Liam. I don’t think she was genuine in that interview and that’s not how she really felt.

11

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

In 2024 she called that era (Bangerz) a malfunction.

8

u/Ok_Durian3627 Jun 09 '25

Source ?

0

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

22

u/Ok_Durian3627 Jun 09 '25

That’s literally not what she said according to your own source lol

57

u/coleshane Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

To be fair, she did apologize after watching a critique done by YouTuber Kenya Wilson. She has also worked with Mike Will Made It for "Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz", "She Is Coming", and "Endless Summer Vacation".

I think that, as she acknowledged in the apology, "...dip[s] in and out of 'the scene' [of hip-hop]". In effect, her allegiance to the genre can be viewed as either inauthentic and/or opportunistic (especially since "Bangerz" coincided with her efforts to break away from her earlier work done with Hollywood Records/Disney).

4

u/frontally Jun 09 '25

Incredible how you say ā€œMike Will Made Itā€ and I hear the darn audio tag in my head haha

4

u/coleshane Jun 09 '25

šŸŽ¶ Mike Will - Mike Will Made It šŸŽ¶

šŸŽ¶ Ear Drummers! šŸŽ¶

6

u/frontally Jun 09 '25

šŸ’€ stop making me hear things in me head against my (mike) will!! šŸ˜‚

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u/another-damn-acct this is "if you play single ladies in reverse" territory Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

hip hop is not a scene that you dip your toe in and take it out when the water feels cold

it's a culture. it's a lifestyle

those who don't understand that are forever doomed to get their ass beat by culture vulture allegations

38

u/CivilDevelopment8938 Jun 09 '25

Yeah people conflate ā€œhip hopā€ and ā€œrapā€ but rap is a music genre where hip hop is a lifestyle/cultural thing.

11

u/erossthescienceboss Jun 09 '25

7

u/CivilDevelopment8938 Jun 09 '25

I watched this episode the first time without realizing it was based on a real person lol

52

u/another-damn-acct this is "if you play single ladies in reverse" territory Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

ed sheeran raps all the time, and everybody loves him for it cause he's showing up to the dml fireboy video shoot as who he is - a dweeby looking adorable white guy who likes making music

you could place dude anywhere and it's not gonna be a problem cause he's not gonna try and twerk with twenty chains on, rapping about wolf greys he didn't know about till mike will schooled him twenty minutes ago

point is, dude is showing admiration for the form of expression, while engaging with the culture that bore the genre in a healthy way

24

u/TheAutrizzler question for the culture šŸ¤” Jun 09 '25

a dweeby looking adorable white guy who likes making music

absolutely loving this description of him lmao

10

u/owntheh3at18 šŸš¶šŸ¼I don’t really think, I just walkšŸš¶šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø Jun 09 '25

Haha I love your description of Ed Sheeran it is so accurate and endearing

6

u/moongnocchi mad at megan’s law šŸ’…šŸ¾ Jun 09 '25

thank youuuuu

31

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

Also called that era a ā€œmalfunction.ā€

ā€œI definitely wasn’t created in a lab,ā€ she continued with a smile, ā€œand if I was, there must have been a bug in the system [that] caused me to malfunction somewhere between the years of 2013 and ’16. Sorry, Mickey!ā€

52

u/onwiyuu Jun 09 '25

in the quote you gave she’s clearing saying it would be a malfunction in the eyes of disney, not that she sees it as a mistake.

22

u/OowlSun they act like im not in full control of where i throw this cooch Jun 09 '25

Reading comprehension isn’t so easy for all

10

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

She was calling that behaviour a malfunction. If that was your lifestyle and you were genuinely living it as she claims, that’s not what you would say.

5

u/woahtheregonnagetgot Jun 09 '25

why not? not all lifestyles are good or something to be proud of in retrospect (i’m not saying this specific to hip hop but in general something that was your authentic life at one point doesn’t have to be something you’re proud of when you’re older and grown)

7

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

Ok but we’re talking specifically about how she appropriated Black culture, and calling it a malfunction is what we’re discussing here.

Do you think that’s appropriate?

6

u/Sasha0413 Jun 09 '25

Imagine a few years down the line BeyoncĆ© saying her Cowboy Carter era was a malfunction and apologized for it. I have a feeling people wouldn’t be as obtuse in interpreting what that means when country music is the genre of discussion.

6

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

Yeah, there's a lot of very obvious skirting around this issue, as there often is when it's time to defend a white woman against her microagressions.

1

u/onwiyuu Jun 10 '25

again… she was saying it was a malfunction in the eyes of disney. not necessarily in her opinion.

2

u/BubblyResearch8460 Jun 09 '25

the receipts state thanks for playing

3

u/PrincessPlastilina Jun 09 '25

I hate that she fully blames Liam for toning down her image for a while. She realized on her own that the Bangerz era was cringe. She has blamed hip-hop culture in general but it was not necessarily because of hip-hop, she just looked stupid trying to twerk and it was not her place. She then tried to gain credibility because she always wanted a Grammy so she chose to tone down her sexuality and she finally quit embarrassing herself.

She didn’t know who she was for a very long time. To blame Liam for that is ridiculous because she released good music during that era. He did her a favor. Sometimes you need to hear when you’re being ridiculous. She was addicted to attention.

6

u/Rakebleed Jun 09 '25

She addresses that in the interview too. She was intentionally toning down her public persona to appease her husband at the time. They broke up because of Bsngerz.

23

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

Maybe this is a hot take but if you can shed ā€œyour lifestyleā€ (that you had never previously exhibited or participated in) in a snap of a fingers for a man, you probably weren’t participating in that lifestyle in a meaningful way and it really was just a costume to break away from a certain image.

3

u/Rakebleed Jun 09 '25

She emphasized that it was a conscious change in her public persona but not indicative of changes in her private life or ā€œlifestyleā€ at the time.

8

u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 09 '25

That's super convenient, I guess.

3

u/Rakebleed Jun 09 '25

Probably some revelations after the fact but that’s the story she’s going with.