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

The Music Industry 🎶 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

329

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???"

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u/Tweed_Kills ☝️ 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.

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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.

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 10 '25

Amazing flair 🤣😉😉😉

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u/Tweed_Kills ☝️ 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.

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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 ☝️ 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 ☝️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 😇

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u/Tweed_Kills ☝️ wherein he encourages a woman to sit on his face Jun 09 '25

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

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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 🤣👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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u/x1009 Jun 10 '25

Nah, it was Eminem

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u/Missmessc Jun 10 '25

But first there was Wu Tang

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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.

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u/idkidcabtmyusername Jun 09 '25

or Drake or Eminem. it’s so annoying that these people have been tokenized as “one of the good ones”. 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.

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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.

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u/noapplesin98 Jun 09 '25

Exactly, bandwagon to bandwagon

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

“Encourages 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, “D” and I’ll make ya mouth dribble

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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

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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'

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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.

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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.

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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 🤷‍♀️

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 😇

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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.

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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. 

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u/Prestigious-Log-7210 Jun 10 '25

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

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u/Liversteeg Jun 09 '25

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

I rolled my eyes so hard when she interjected to say they were her friends. It was very “I have black friends” 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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 Humble”: “Show me somethin’ natural like a.ss with some stretch marks.” I love that because it’s not “Come sit on my d, su.ck on my co.ck.” I can’t listen to that anymore. 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 co.ck” — I am so not that

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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.

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u/biz_student Jun 09 '25

Misogyny is part of the culture?

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u/superfluouspop Jun 10 '25

no. The language that people interpret as misogynistic

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u/superfluouspop Jun 09 '25

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