Pop sensation Lorde accused of being RACIST because hit song 'Royals' mentions Cristal and diamond-encrusted watches
By Meghan Keneally|
The top song on the Billboard Hot 100 is now being accused of racism because it makes references to luxury goods typically promoted by black rappers.
Lorde is the hit singer whose song 'Royals' has broken records by becoming the first New Zealand solo artist to have a number one song in the United States.
A writer for a well-known feminist blog has taken issue with the song's heralding of Cristal and diamond-encrusted watches as 'deeply racist' because 'we all know who she's thinking' of.
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Record breaker: Lorde, 16, became the first solo artist from New Zealand to have a number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100
The music video is shot in a bleak suburban area with no extravagances, and the song's lyrics talk about social status and wealth.
In her post on Feministing, author Veronica Bayetti Flores says that the way in which the 16-year-old singer chose to describe wealth shows that there is a racist element to the backstory, as Maybach cars and gold teeth are favored items by rappers like Lil' Wayne.
'While I love a good critique of wealth accumulation and inequity, this song is not one,' Bayettie Flores writes.
'So why s*** on black folks? Why shit on rappers? Why aren’t we critiquing wealth by taking hits at golf or polo or Central Park East? Why not take to task the bankers and old-money folks who actually have a hand in perpetuating and increasing wealth inequality? I’m gonna take a guess: racism.'
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Cristal-popping: Rappers like Jay Z and Lil' Kim
regularly feature Cristal champagne in their videos, leading some to
think that Lorde's mention of the brand takes a shot at the black
singers' lifestyles
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The luxe life: Lil Wayne (left, seen with a
diamond-encrusted watch) and Jay Z are both known fans of Maybach cars
(seen beside Jay Z at right) which generally cost just under half a
million dollars
The New York Times disagrees, calling the 'thoughtful, calmly insubordinate song' a refreshing change of pace from the frothy break-up songs so popular among young, female pop singers.
Lorde, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor, 'is singing about class consciousness and conspicuous consumption: the gap between pop-culture fantasies of Cadillacs and diamonds and the reality of being someone who “didn’t come from money,”' the journalist Jon Pareles writes in a review of a recent concert.
The fact that the racism critique comes as something of a suprise as Policy Mic points out that the teenager's stage name, Lorde, is a feminized version of an aristocratic title.
Other lyrics in the song help make the case that her single is meant to be a rumination on wealth disparities versus an attack on a single group.
'I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh...And I’m not proud of my address/In a torn-up town, no post code envy,' she sings in the first verse.
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