If you want to read evidence of the republic’s further slide into “Idiocracy”-squared, please see this.
We’ve come a long way, baby, and it’s not in the right direction. I can’t say I’ve paid special attention to the lyrics of Cardi B’s previous oeuvre, but her recent interview with Joe Biden and the reaction to it made me take a deeper look (see the above link for what I’m talking about).
Her recent hit is called WAP. I’m not going to translate, but I’ll just say it’s not about wanting to hold your hand. It’s not just vulgar, it’s filthy, degrading, disgusting – the sort of thing you get in your spam email where the title is purposely misspelled in an attempt to evade the filter and lead you to a porno site.
I think Biden’s handlers decided that an interview with Cardi B would be just the thing because of her enormous popularity, which is hard to overestimate:
Recognized by Forbes as one of the most influential female rappers of all time, Cardi B is known for her aggressive flow and candid lyrics, which have received widespread media coverage. She is the highest-certified female rapper of all time on the RIAA’s Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking, also appearing among the ten highest-certified female artists and having the top certified song by a female rap artist. She is the only female rapper with multiple billion-streamers on Spotify. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, seven Billboard Music Awards, five Guinness World Records, four American Music Awards, eleven BET Hip Hop Awards and two ASCAP Songwriter of the Year awards. In 2018, Time included her on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cardi B has further been credited for supporting and uniting female rappers in the music industry.
The song WAP was praised for its “sex-positive” message. I suppose you could say it’s positive about sex in the same sense that any porn that is devoid of affection or love and that deals with the totally physical side of things is “sex-postive.” Those who like the song seem to think it’s just fabulous that now women are singing about sex in the same debased way male rappers have been singing about it for ages.
That’s progress, folks. Women are now free to be just as gross as men at their worst. What is especially destructive is that the market for this is teenagers. Maybe even children, for all I know. It’s probably not pitched for them, but what’s to stop them from seeing it, except hyper vigilant parents?
In an interview with Australian breakfast radio show presenters Kyle and Jackie O, Cardi, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, has spoken out about the backlash – and it’s fair to say she isn’t too concerned.
“The people that the song bothers are usually, like, conservatives or really religious, big religious people,” the star said.
Gee, what a surprise!
More:
“But my thing is that… I grew up listening to this type of music, so other people might [think it’s] strange and vulgar but to me it’s like, really normal.”
Cardi B was born in 1992, so I suppose that’s the case. Another depressing thought.
Cardi, who has a two-year-old daughter with rapper Offset, continued: “It’s like no, of course I don’t want my child to listen to this song and everything, but it’s like… it’s for adults!”
Yes, you can put blocks on the computer, but not everyone does that, and kids know other kids with access to all sorts of forbidden things. You, Cardi B, have put this out in the world and you are responsible for it. It’s not just children who are harmed by it.
But here’s her rationalization, which I think is interesting:
The rapper said the song must be doing something right, saying “it’s what people want to hear”.
She added: “Because if people didn’t want to hear it, if they were so afraid to hear it, it wouldn’t be doing as good.”
So feeding the worst aspects of human nature means you’re doing something right. I guess you are, if you measure such things in terms of your income and fame.
And I think this final sentence of the interview is humorous, in a bitter way, considering who is speaking:
“I have a whole list of things that I want our next president to do for us,” she said. “But first, I just want Trump out. His mouth gets us in trouble so much.”
[NOTE: Speaking of “greatest hit,” there’s this:
…[W]ith 93 million, the streaming sum for “WAP” is the greatest ever for a song in its first week of release.
That’s where we’re at. The sexual revolution, feminism, family decline, the hookup culture – I could go on and on, but you get the picture.]
