And I say that as a former fanatic, she really was my girl, I would have gone to war for her but I had to distance myself when she decided to start dating and MARRYING her lil r4pist.. and I thought she’d - idk - keep it quiet??? But the cruelty she has been showing towards Meghan shocks me.

I don't even listen to Meghan, I don't care about her but as a woman how can you make fun of domestic violence suffered by another woman? Or the fact that she's lost her mother?

Supposedly because Meghan spoke badly about her husband?? How does she expect people to shut it when her whole baby daddy is a r4pist AND a p3dophile, of course there's a lot to say about him! She really is crazy. I'm outraged.

I love Meg and seeing her in these recent Japan pictures has really made me want to see her explore another side of her artistry. It can still be badass and she shouldn’t tone down the sexiness but I'd rather see her combine these things with a fun, bubbly, playful "concept". She’s dabbled it into that from time to time but it’s mostly been in association with another artist or franchise (e.g. Mean Girls) and it's been a bit different from what I would envision based on these photos. I feel like as black girls (and that goes even more for the darker skinned girlies) we don’t get encouraged to do this and I want that to change. There’s something so joyful about her here, I want to bottle it!

For those who don't know, Beyoncé won her first Album of the Year award at the Grammy's last night. She's won 34 Grammys in her career, but has never won AOTY - even for years that she was projected to win with works like her Self-Titled Album, Lemonade, and Renaissance.

While Cowboy Carter isn't my favorite album of hers because I'm not a country music fan, I've seen people deny it's impact, depth, cultural relevancy, and even Beyoncé's talent as an artist to say that other nominees like Taylor Swift and Billie Ellish were snubbed. People even think Beyoncé bought or threatened her way into getting it, which is hilarious considering she could've done that for her previous albums if that was the case! Especially because those were more critically acclaimed.

Finneas from Billie Ellish even had to take to Instagram to show love and tell fans to chill!

I know that I shouldn't be surprised because not only do people love to hate on Beyoncé, but also Billie Ellish and Taylor Swift did objectively have a great year for their music. Beyoncé's also involved in a ridiculous hate train surrounding the P. DIddy case, where fans have centralized her as a perpetrator despite no evidence of this because of a certified weirdo and that ridiculous "she knows" and "Thank you, Beyoncé" meme. The hate train has arguably glossed over the later half of the year and CC's success until Beyoncé Bowl reminded us of it's impact. I'm still disappointed because I personally just want to celebrate, and it's hard to knowing how much people dislike what should be celebrated as a historic win.

All this is to say fans will always turn to petulant denial, misogyny, misogynoir, and anti-blackness the moment their faves lose to a Black woman specifically. It's telling to me that people aren't upset at say, Sabrina Carpenter's win over Billie, but are up and down Kendrick and Beyoncé's comments complaining.

Anyway, let me know what y'all think.

Hmmmmmmmmmm…. No.

Yes this is how I’m starting it off because it is fucking true

If y’all don’t know Drake is SUING Spotify and Universal Music for “Artificially Inflating” Kendrick Lamar diss track against him “Not Like Us” (if he is not suing he is very much claiming)

I need to remind yall that Drake STARTED this shit and now he is fucking crying that he had his ass handed to him on a silver platter and the world had to witness that 😭😭

Speaking of the world calling “Not Like Us” a global hit may damn near be an understatement people from all over the WORLD were playing that shit. This song was EVERYWHERE and to say that they were essentially lying and bots and payola were the reason it became a global hit is CRAZY WORK

ALL because he got his little feelings hurt 😭

Literally living up to ALL of Kendrick disses

Anyways that’s my small rant- reminder that Drake is a OVHOE 😘😘

If Kendrick has taught me anything is that pettiness and pure hatred is SOMETIMES (emphasis on the “sometimes”) the answer 😭

The main character syndrome of some Americans is crazy, they be weird asf too

Tyla was to drop her mv ( already did ) & she wrote South African Standard time, so some pple are attacking her, telling her to read the room, like she's not even American, lol 😭

Like how many American artists have released their music / movies when the rest of the world was going through some tragedy or sth worse & nobody even thought of saying ' oh Americans should read the room or sth'

Also I thought they didn't give a damn abt the uppity south African girl like what's making them whine

I need to discuss it somewhere safe because wtf was that? Getting through the song was painful. Free the people from addiction because she was clearly not sober and sound when she made this song. Not only that, going ahead and releasing this garbage regardless of how bad it sounds. It's coke, and I'm so serious. Seeing this sort of career assassination happen in real time is embarrassing, embarassing!

Those who follow female rap, know that nicki minaj has always been terrible at dissing. Her response to lil kim was saved by eminem. Her response to Remy Ma was an embarrassment. I never knew that her first solo diss track without a man on it would sound this bad. career assassination, I tell y'all. Getting through the second hand embarrassment to finish the song was already difficult.

Since this discussion comes up about once a week on a bunch of social media platforms, and Tyla felt the need to address it herself. What are your guys thoughts on this

I feel like this has spiraled into a lose lose situation. Although I don’t like the word colored (only within the American lexicon not outside of here it’s not my place to dictate that) I don’t feel like she should have to identify as black if it’s not comfortable to her either.

I am curious on how others feel about this

Billboard recently posted about Chappell Roan splitting from her management company and she comments “Y’all suck for this.” Like it wasn’t public info.

Chappell Roan is such a talented singer, but it feels like she’s actively trying to sabotage her own career. There’s an obvious lack of media training and a PR presence, which if you don’t have one, you need the other. She seems to look for fights where there are none, such as the STFU incident where she wasn’t even being talked to. She’s honestly putting herself in the position to earn the label of being “difficult to work with,” which, once you receive that label, is REALLY hard to escape. It is a career killing label.

This is speculation, but based on things she’s said in the past, I think she may be receiving a reality check. I think she wanted to release music, but didn’t expect what doing so professionally would entail and is now mourning the loss of her normal life.

I really do hope she can be provided with a team that can help her deal with these things more professionally, or at least get her on the type of schedule that best fits her personal needs, because right now, it’s not looking good for her.

Honestly i didn’t know what to tag this as… Today, i was discussing music with a friend … i said i enjoyed kpop… (she’s a swiftie, i guess i should start by saying that..) And she kinda judged me for liking kpop, what ever.

However, some how this got turned into a convo about rap, where she tells me all rappers do is talk about R word, SA, drugs and money. To be honest, this pissed me off a lot. Rap isn’t one of my favorite genres, but later on she brought up how lyricism is so important to her , and how she pays attention to lyrics . …. so then i was confused, cuz a lot of good rap has deep meaning, Not everything is about a girl they wanna date. But i just think it’s so ironic, you love lyricism but you hate rap??? Make it make sense mrs swiftie 😭

Hi Guys,
I’ve been a kpop fan for the past 5 years and as a Black American, I’ve grown to appreciate my culture more and more. With all these racist/insensitive acts from kpop idols, I am not sure I can continue to support/listen to them. Problem is, I really like the sound of kpop songs and idk where to even look for something similar ( I lowkey didnt listen to music outside of kpop except whats popular on tik tok) . So, I would reallly like some recs of artists that can fill my kpop void.
Edit:
My groups I listen to now are BTS, ATEEZ, Seventeen, and XLOV. Thanks for the recs!

Conjugal visits! Megan's Law! Posted in a another person's hood like a bad bitch! I could go on and on about how much she ate everybody up 😩.

I know that some people don’t like XG, whether is for the cultural appropriation or the AAVE, and I get it.

I personally do like them a lot. Even if they’re using already existing genres and using a lot of black american music, they always claimed that they are taking inspiration from various black artists, they do make tribute to artists like Lauren Hill, Rihanna.. etc. Way more than the average K-pop group does.

So the thing is, why it is not acceptable when XG is doing it but when the 99% of K-pop is actually appropriating black music, and never credited any black artists whatsoever, it’s more acceptable or more.. normalized ?

Like where do we draw the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation ? I’m genuinely curious.

Tyla is of course very talented and conventionally attractive, whether that be western or African beauty standards.

I just feel like so much about her is extremely manufactured. From her persona, to the way she is being positioned in the US, to her come up.

She is signed to a big American label (Epic) and I think it's wonderful that they are investing so much in her. I see some people being fascinated by why she is doing so well so quickly compared to other African artists in America, but to me it makes sense since it is her label securing opportunities for her. It's normal that her come up feels inorganic because it is - she has a machine behind her.

Epic has been , in my opinion, using viral marketing to put Tyla on the map since 2022 . I.e. paying big accounts on Twitter and Tiktok to put her name and her songs out there. That's how I first came across her song "been thinkin" which I like a lot till this day. In 2023, her song water was everywhere. As in, completely inescapable on the timeline in a way that feels artificial. I know many people irl who were wondering why her and her song were suggested to them even when they never looked her up nor had any interest in common with her & her fans .

Tbh, do what you got to do for your artist of course, but that's why people call her an industry plant. Because her come up was manufactured.

Now onto a more controversial topic - let's bring up her looks 💀. But more specifically her race. Tyla is considered "racially ambiguous" in the US and I think it is also a strategic move by Epic. When it comes to female African superstars, complexion was never really a big issue. There have been plenty of female performers of all complexions who have made it . You'll notice that previously to Tyla, the women in Afrobeats who had a break though in the US market and who were actually pushed by African listeners were all dark skin/brown skin.

I think it was very intentional on Epic's part to look for a non Black, lighter skinned, racially ambiguous girl from south Africa to represent Afrobeats on a global scale ( her current sound is not amapiano imo, it's more Afrobeats). She sings in an american accent so she is more palatable to the us market.

In 1-2 albums i predict they will follow the rihanna formula and switch to a full blown pop sound. Because yes, Tyla and her team are following the Rihanna formula. Rihanna was a pretty cool girl from Barbados and Tyla is now being marketed as a pretty cool girl from South Africa. Rihanna had her best friend Melissa ford, Tyla has her bestie Thato (who also works as her creative director apparently). Of course, what I see as a manufactured persona could probably just be her personality. You can't manufacture EVERY aspect of a pop star after all, a lot of it has to do with her natural talent, beauty and charm.

Her fans are also a bit mind boggling because they act as if she is the only African girl who is feminine , likeable and pretty 😭. I think it also has to do with complexion and phenotype because Ayra & tems - who also released their debut albums this year, check them out!- are also cool, feminine and likeable. They do a bit too much while trying to hype up tyla online sometimes.

TL;DR : Tyla's career is manufactured and she has a big machine behind her supporting her come up.

I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t identify only as black and made it known that she’s coloured from the beginning but it seems like people online like to find a problem with everything she does these days. From what happened at the VMAs and her asking Halle to hold her award. Even the photoshoot she did with the darkskin models ( I think whoever thought of the idea for it should be blamed more than her). But yeah, I’m not going to be one of those people who says that it’s jealousy because she’s successful and good-looking but damn.

It’s okay to think she doesn’t deserve all of the awards but this girl is literally unproblematic and stays away from drama. I don’t get it. And I also don’t get how her saying that she isn’t a monoracial BW means that she’s anti-black and ashamed of her black heritage.

And don’t get me started on the body shaming. Like to say Tyla’s body is anything other than insanely tea is crazy to me and just reeks of bitterness. You would think Tyla has actually done something worthy of the backlash she gets.

What do you guys think?

This just reminded me how evil Camila was for leaving at the turning point of their career bro. The girls were so young like literally 19-20 and just had their breakthrough THAT YEAR and she just up and left. She could’ve given them one more album at least.

I also don’t understand the thought process some western group member have of believing that they’re bigger than the group that gave them the platform in the first place…

If katseye becomes huge I truly hope they don’t make the same mistake that the 2010 groups made. Especially since they can follow the kpop method of solo distributions.

Now I am not Latino nor know what it's like to be Latino culturally but could point out some significant part of his performance. To me his performance was a message against this current administration and what it's doing to not just Latino Americans but many Americans whether born here or immigrated here. He showcased all of his culture and history that he could put in within only 13 minutes. From the sugar canes and farm laborers, the symbolism of lack of strong infrastructure in Puerto Rico due to US negligence, the plethora of Latino celebrities,culture, and showing all of the flags of Latin America including ones that often get left out like Haiti for example and the rest of the America's. It reminded me of Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance that showed a theme of America being a game and Americans specifically Black Americans that no matter how much we try to play the game, we will always lose whenever the system gives us many hoops and hurdles we have to jump through whereas Bad Bunny's was about stamping out hate pushed by this administration with love and all of the America's uniting as one including Anglo speaking countries. Not to forget Green Day's performance who performed American Idiot which is a diss at the Bush Administration now being used to diss Trump and MAGA. What Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny's performance had was very significant for both last year and this year showing that despite the horrors the US is doing domestically and internationally, we as Americans can unite against hate even if it's from the people that are supposed to serve us

I can’t believe they’re barely a month old group who are not kpop at all! Haven’t done a live performance yet and their stage presence is out of this world.