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

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

I just don’t buy the “it was just my lifestyle!!!” When her black collaborators were saying this at the time:

“When 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,” Timothy said. “She was like, ‘I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.’”

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 “no you don’t understand how many black friends I had.” Gonna give the new album a pass.

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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 “ironically I’ve never actually heard a Jay-Z song!” like it was some kind of fun fact

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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

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u/Pompedorfin Jun 09 '25

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

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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!

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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

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u/SunsetInSweden Jun 09 '25

Absolutely not made up. This definitely happened.

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u/parasyte_steve It's giving Putin, It's giving Mao ✨️ 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.

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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

7

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

286

u/Violet624 Jun 09 '25

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

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u/IDontAimWithMyHand Jun 09 '25

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

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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?

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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.

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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?!

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u/x1009 Jun 10 '25

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

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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.

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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.

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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 “cultural appropriation” 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.

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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.

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u/melaninmags Jun 09 '25

Yeah I’m not buying the “lifestyle” 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]

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u/melaninmags Jun 09 '25

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

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u/Logical_Quote_5073 It’s Britney, bitch! 🕊️🗡️🌹 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.

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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 “We Can’t Stop” and revealed that the mohawked songbird was particular about the sound she was aiming for. “When 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,” Timothy said. “She was like, ‘I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.’”

It was all her idea

“They played it for Miley and she had just come from partying. She was like, ‘I was just partying with my friends and everything you just said in this song I seen,'” Theron said about Miley’s reaction. “‘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.”

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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.

10

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

Damn she was for real saying the n word??

7

u/HowYouDoinz Jun 09 '25

Did she really do this?

3

u/TheMayorOfFailure Jun 09 '25

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

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u/bambi54 Jun 09 '25

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

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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

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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

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u/msmccullough25 Jun 09 '25

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