bangers I can no longer listen to in good conscience
I tried to write something serious this week. I couldn’t do it.
Instead, I could only make a list of “bangers I can no longer listen to in good conscience”: songs that make me rush to the dance floor, pick up the pace on my run, crank up the volume in the car…but with just a little pinch bit of guilt attached, due to the more recent actions of the people behind the music.
Do I still listen to these songs? Yeah…but I feel bad about it. There’s not much more to say there. Late stage capitalism requires this mudlarking through moral quandaries, I suppose. So let’s see if we can separate the art from the artists:
anything by Chris Brown
Men who hit women automatically go on the done-zo list, let’s be clear. But what would metro Detroit Homecoming dances circa 2007-2010 have been without this man’s music? Run It. Kiss Kiss. Even his later hits are hard not to bop to. I try to skip them when they start to play on my phone. But then I wonder: should I also skip songs he is featured on, like Get Like Me by David Banner, or Drop It Low by Ester Dean? What if I just skip the first verse and chorus for Look at Me Now? Will that absolve me?
I really wish Chris would just make this easier for me - by not hitting women. Ever.
anything by Kanye West/ye
Moreso than Chris Brown, there’s a lot of weird nostalgia wrapped up in my parasocial relationship with Kanye. I remember jump-roping in 7th grade gym, pretending my friends and I were in the Jesus Walks video (big self-cringe). I first heard The New Workout Plan on a mixed cd my best friend made for my 16th birthday. I own My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on vinyl because there’s not a bad song on it. I mean, I saw this man sing N****s in Paris SEVEN TIMES on the Watch the Throne tour in 2012. Not to mention Good Life, Can’t Tell Me Nothing, (clean version) karaoke classic Gold Digger, and Estelle’s American Boy feat. Kanye.
Overt Nazism antisemitism is where I draw the line…but my playlists would be bereft without any of this man’s extensive back catalog. I cannot morally support this artist. But I cannot stop listening.
recently, anything by Drake
Oh Drake. We need to talk. You just get cringier with age. That album cover? The bra photo? The Toronto house that looks like someone typed “baller rapper mansion expensive cool” into an AI image generator? The fact that you’re crypto goofing, selling trucker hats with your cartoon alter-ago “Anita Max Wynn” truly gives me second-hand embarrassment for you. More troubling, as
pointed out in her most recent Mess newsletter, you are creepy with young girls and called Megan Thee Stallion a liar about getting shot in the foot - gross. And now you’re calling out Rihanna, who was kind enough to co-create two of the best songs of all time, What’s My Name and Work, with you. Absolutely not.Where’s Fancy Drake? Where’s Nice for What Drake? Where’s Best I Ever Had / Make Me Proud Drake? Your behavior is poisoning even your old stuff, my guy. Please stop.
ignition remix by R Kelly
I don’t think I need to explain this one. I don’t like to wish ill on people, but I hope this guy gets some prison justice for what he did.
sexy bitch by David Guetta feat. Akon
Hate to break it to you, Akon, but “sexy bitch” does come off a bit disrespectful.
good things on the internet
The uncanny valley of thishousedoesnotexist.org 🏠
The strange cloud of April Gornik’s “Virga” ☁️
This Creed house mix kind of slaps? 🎧
Tracy Chapman/Luke Combs & Joni Mitchell at the Grammy’s 🎶
currently reading
House of Flame & Shadow (Crescent City 3) by Sarah J. Maas: If you also devoured this 900 page book in 4 days and have thoughts & theories hmu.
How A.I. Is Remodeling the Fantasy Home by Amanda Hess (New York Times, free gift link): “Home voyeurism has always been a form of misdirection, a glittering diversion from our inability, or refusal, to shelter everyone. It coaxes us to think of housing as a lifestyle choice, not a right. A.I. houses complete the trick. They represent housing that is finally freed from any responsibility toward human beings. No shelter, only vibes.”
IN 150 CHARACTERS OR LESS by Nikita Gill: “Everything is on fire, but everyone I love is doing beautiful things // and trying to make life worth living, // and I know I don't have to believe in everything, // but I believe in that.”
this week’s jam
photo of my cats
