It appears things aren’t going so smoothly for America’s favorite Shea Butter Baby, aka Ari Lennox, who recently revealed her desire to be dropped from her label following a recent podcast interview that went viral over the weekend.
Complex reports that during her convo with South African podcaster MacG, Lennox was explicitly asked about her sex life and was visibly taken aback my MacG ‘s “candor” (read: gross AF way of asking.) Once the clip began circulating, Lennox took to social media to express how she felt about the situation in a series of since deleted tweets:
“I’m just like…why was I alone on a call full of people? Why didn’t anyone intervene?” And why wasn’t parts of the interview destroyed like the team promised? Why did it happen to begin with? I just feel slow and ambushed and blindsighted. Just because I happily and freely sing/write about sex don’t make any kind of creepy disrespect warranted. I clearly was in immense shock and hate that I didn’t react differently.”
After folks online began to question Lennox’s reaction, citing the fact that she openly sings about sex in a lot of her music, the “Pressure” singer responded:
“I will continue to sing about dick when I want! And you misogynistic peasants can continue to jerk off to my music thank you!!!! Good morning.”
She further added, “I want to be dropped from the labels. I’m done and tired. The interview was the icing on the cake. I want to be free. For Christ sakes. I realize I have no hits. I realize you all can live without hearing my music. I realize my complaining is so aggravating to y’all . I don’t ask blogs to post me when I’m at my worst. You judgemental self hating parasites wouldn’t last a day as a signed artist. Complaining that I’m complaining about the shit I’m going through meanwhile in real life you’re just as unhappy just as fucked up. You crying in the car too. Somebody calling you insensitive and dramatic too. You could never be honest about your demons.”
Now look, I don’t know who needs to hear this but just because a woman—or any artist for that matter—decides to sing, rap, write about sex: that’s doesn’t give you the right to crassly inquire about their personal sex lives. What happened to decorum? What happened to couth? What happened to actually having music journalists ask questions to artists that actually matter instead of wannabe journalists and writers who are just looking for a viral moment to up their internet clout? However, sadly I can’t put all the blame on this podcaster. Lennox’s team should have done a better job at 1) screening the types of interviewers/interviews she goes on and 2) making sure certain topics are off limits or at the very least, asked in such a way that don’t incite a clearly uncomfortable reaction for their artists.
Furthermore, I’d also be remiss if I didn’t call out the fact that Lennox was getting more backlash for how she responded to something that she felt was disrespectful than the podcaster got for asking the inappropriate question in the first place. Society looooves to police Black women on everything from their hair and clothing to how they respond in various settings (looking at you especially, “angry Black woman trope.”) Lennox was right for labeling those criticizing her as misogynists because that’s exactly what they are. When’s the last time a male rapper was asked about who they’re sleeping with in that manner? They rap about women and sex all the time. So why aren’t they commonly asked about “who’s fucking them good?” Making music about a subject and wanting and choosing to divulge personal and private information about it as it pertains to your own life are two totally different things.
And before you hit me with the whole “but she’s an artist, artists sing about their personal and private lives all the time” excuse, I implore you to re-read that last sentence again and remember that not all artists write songs about things they personally are going through. Some are inspired by others stories (Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales immediately comes to mind) and some simply just don’t want to get into the details of their own personal goings and comings (no pun intended.)
The last thing I’ll say before I go is that it’s beyond time for society to stop labeling women who sing about sex or even those who freely talk about sex as “hoes,” “loose” or women worthy only of disrespect. That banal line of thinking derives straight from the ugly pits of respectability politics, sexism, and misogyny and it’s high time we abolish, defund and actually cancel it once and for all.