I just want to remind you that in that post but one and only personal
declaration I've ever made through Lana Del Rey would call up Doge accad ariana
grande Camila Cabello cardi B Kalani Nicki Minaj and Beyonce I'm sorry that
you know I didn't add one caucasian 100% Caucasian person into the mix of the
women that I admire but you know it really says more about you than it does
about me after a Lana Del Rey would be accused of racism and have her phone
number leaked what would you say to all the eaters I don't think I would say
anything after water Del Rey would be labeled as an anti-feminist for me the
issue of feminism is not just an interesting concept she says whenever
people bring up feminism I'm like God Lana Del Rey has been quite a
controversial figure in the music industry since she first came onto the
scene with many assuming she was simply a product of a record label and the
furthest thing from authentic del Rey would appear to be one of the first
female artists to go against the grain with many : her out for romanticizing or
glamorized an abuse and lauded herself calling her critics out for people
saying she's set women back hundreds of years and although her voice and style
has given the New York native a chance to shine
her most recent posts have led to some callin her racist as well as having her
receiving hundreds of thousands of hateful comments and possibly em in some
friendships with some of the artists she's called out what's going on guys
welcome back to before they're famous I'm your host for this one Jared
Bronstein and yes unfortunately still filming from home due to the pandemic
today we'll be documenting the life and career of Lana Del Rey after Fame we've
done similar videos on the likes of ellen dennis rodman and most recently
Toja cat as always let us know below who we should cover next but for now let's
get right into it
Lana Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge grant on June 21st 1985 in New
York City her father Robert Englund Grant Jr was a wealthy grey group
copywriter and her mother Patricia Ann Hill an accountant executive at grey
group she also has a younger sister Caroline also known as Chuck who
actually shot the lust for life album cover and would go on to take
promotional photos of Lana the youngest of the family Charlie would be born when
Lana was 7 giving her a baby brother as well when Lana was just a year old her
family relocated to Lake Placid New York and the idiotic mountains when Del Rey
was a baby this is where her two younger siblings would be born and Lana would
attend Saint Agnes school and started singing in her church choir where she
was the Cantor however high school be troublesome for Lana who would develop a
bad drinking habit forcing her parents to send her to boarding school when she
was just 15 after graduated from Kent she would spend time living with her
aunt and uncle in Long Island where her uncle would teach her guitar after
realizing she enjoyed writing and singing lana would start performing at
underground clubs all around new york she never considered it a career but
more so a fun hobby I think when I was younger I knew I wanted to be a singer
but we didn't really know anyone who was a real singer so I sort of planned on
having a more normal life just doing something else under names like sparkle
jump rope queen and Lizzie grant and the phenomena it seems there wasn't going to
be a Lana Del Rey until she submitted a demo to five-points records and got
offered 10,000 to record del Rey would use that money to relocate to a trailer
park in New Jersey and started working with producer David Kahn her self-titled
debut album Lana Del Rey aka Lizzie grant would be released in 2010 and
three months after its release Lana would meet her managers who would
help her get out of her original record deal 2011 would be Lana's breakout year
with her homemade music video for the song video games going viral as we know
Lana would go on to sign a joint deal with Interscope Records and stranger
records going on to release hits like summertime sadness blue jeans and born
to die and over the years Lana has been somewhat controversial not necessarily
feeding into the standard pop star mentality and staying true to who she
really is for some that's seen as a good thing for others well as you can imagine
it's been an issue right from the get-go of being more mainstream prior
the release of her debut major label album Born To Die del Rey faced a ton of
backlash from the media as well as people in general with a widespread
belief she came from a family worth millions of dollars and that the product
of Lana Del Rey was simply man-made people thought Lana left her Lizzie
grant roots behind and more or less just sold out for the big bucks an article
from Spin Post in 2012 summarizes at best I quote the myth as it is presently
understood Lana Del Rey is an extended vanity project bankrolled by her dad's
money and honed over the years by a series of lawyers and managers who have
shaped her image and plotted her career path she is merely a canvas of a girl
and a willing one at back bloggers and journalists take pain to note that her
real name is Lizzie grant that Lana Del Rey is fake as are her lips and quote
however it seems Lana has always been adamant that she is true to herself and
others have defended that the image of Lana Del Rey is a product of her and her
only still del rey would continue being labeled as having controversial views
and beliefs speaking specifically now in feminism many called out the Rae
claiming her music promoted as submissive ideology usually referencing
her hit song video games I think when I wrote that song I was just reflecting on
like the sweetness of it but also the fact that there was something else I was
longing for at the same time in the song she sings I quote he holds me in his big
arms drunk and I am seeing stars this is all I think of in 2012 del Rey spoke on
the song saying people talk about me being anti feminist because of that song
they think it's coming from a place of submissiveness but in reality it was
more about coming together and doing your own things happily in the same
living space still over the years Lana has had a tough time winning the people
over in 2014 she was quoted in fader magazine saying for me the issue of
feminism is just not an interesting concept I'm more interested in you know
SpaceX and Tesla what's going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities
whenever people bring up feminism I'm like god I'm just not really that
interested she also told the New York Times in 2014 for me a true feminist is
someone who is a woman who does exactly what she wants over the past few years
Del Rey has continued teen success and mixed criticism but she's always stood
by one thing she's her authentic self and will never apologize for being who
she really is it's been the case when people accused her of being a sellout
when people accused her of being Eddie and now it seems she's once again
standing her ground admits recent accusations of racism on May 21st over a
posted what she called a question for the culture in a page and a quarter of
textile race started by asking now that doja cat Arianna Camilla cardi beat
Kalani Nicki Minaj and Beyonce have had number ones with songs about being sexy
wearing no clothes cheating etc can I please go back to
singing about being embodied feeling beautiful by being in love even if the
relationship is not perfect without being crucified or saying that I'm
glamourizing abuse the note went on to mainly refer to female writers and alt
singers calling gone out for glamorized and abuse what a reality she feels even
though she's being just as authentic as the artist she's mentioned she still
gets unnecessary criticism however after calling out mostly black women you could
see why many people started accusing del Rae of racism but I'm not the enemy
definitely not racist so don't get it twisted
Lana just in the comments section of her Instagram post writing things like to be
clear because I know you love to twist things I love these singers and know
them that is why I mentioned them I would also like to have some of the same
freedom of expression without judgement of hysteria by the way the singers I
mentioned are my favorite singers so if you want to try and make a bone to pick
out of that like you always do be my guest
it doesn't change the fact that I haven't already had the same opportunity
to express what I wanted to express without being completely decimated and
if you want to say that that has something to do with race that's your
opinion but that's not what I was saying of the woman mentioned it seems douji
cat was the only one to respond comment down the post gang sunk that dunker
before delete in the comment no one will inter stood what I meant with some
claiming doja was agreeing with Lana's dance and others saying Dozier was
calling on it out for trying to prove a point and completely exposing herself as
a racist but as we know dojo was dealing with some of her own problems so I
understand why she didn't want to get involved in this one too I'm so sorry if
I hurt you guys and disappointed and offended anybody
however she changed her Twitter handle to gang questionmark and tweeted out
gang with a blank space telling her followers to complete it aside from
those who thought this was related to land his tweet some simply thought she
was referring to Megan the stallion song savage we may never know what those two
meant but like I said she's kind of deal with their own problems right now
falling her first post del Rae appeared to unfollow Grande on Instagram we need
many to speculate the pop start reaching out to Lana to express
your displeasure on May 23rd delray posted another similar note to Instagram
starting with a couple of final notes on my controversial post that's not
controversial at all clearly we can see where this one is going in the post Lana
doubled down on her stance writing I want to say that I remain firm in my
clarity and stance in that what I was writing about was the importance of
self-advocacy for the more delicate and often dismissed softer female
personality and that there does have to be room for that type in what will
inevitably become a new wave / third wave of feminism that is rapidly
approaching she wanted to say I'm sorry that the folks who I could only assume
our super trump / Penn supporters or hyper liberals or flip-flopping
headline-grabbing critics can't read and want to make it a race war when in fact
the issue was with female critics and female alternative artists who are
disassociated from their own fragility and berate more sexually liberated like
myself and the women I mentioned she added a note with my aim and my message
are clear I have control of my own story if the women I mentioned don't want to
be associated with me that's absolutely fine by me specifically that last line
about the women mentioned not only to be associated with her also leads me to
believe she may be referred to grande this is of course interesting as the two
work together with Miley Cyrus as well in late 2019 yeah it's it's pretty much
just like a trashy not all that good bad modern soundtrack collaboration without
much chemistry from any of the artists it's just big names to get you to look
at the track to get a look at the trailer to get you to look at the movie
May 25th mata posted a video to our Instagram account and what seems to be
the final chapter of our thoughts on all of this in 6 minutes and 10 seconds del
rey clarifies her stance and previous comments saying that the main message
from her post i quote was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement
she wanted to say and when i mentioned women who looked like me I didn't mean
white like me I mean the kind of women who other people might not believe
because they think oh look at her she deserves it or whatever there's a lot of
people like that but it seems lana was adamant on proving her point so she
called another one of her peers fka twigs saying i just think it's sad the
women i mentioned whether they sing about dancing for money or whatever they
same stuff by the way i've been singing about and chronicling for 13 years the
difference is when I get on the poll people call me a whore but when twigs
gets on the pole its art del rey and cause those who are accusing her of
being racist as part of the problem she said the culture is super sick right
now and the fact that they want to turn my post my advocacy for fragility into a
race war it's really bad I'm sorry I didn't add one Caucasian one 100%
Caucasian woman into the mix of women I admire but it really says more about you
than it does about me I've been telling those watching that she received
hundreds of thousands of hateful comments and had her phone number leaked
delray ended her video with I'm sorry that some of the girls I talked to that
I mentioned in that post have a super different opinion of my insight
especially because we've been so close for so long but it really again makes
you reach into the depth of your own heart and say am i good intentioned of
course for me the answer is always yes I'm not the enemy and I'm definitely not
racist so don't get it twisted nobody gets to tell your story except for you
and that's what I'm gonna do for final words though to those who still have
something to say now over the course of these posts and videos Lana also
mentioned the poetry books she has been working on and reveal the title of her
new album chemtrails over the Country Club which is going to be released
September 5th half the money she makes our poetry books will be going to Native
American charities as she is making personal reparations as she put it
giving back to the Native American community still it seems the backlash
she received has shattered all of her best efforts to paint herself as a good
girl but it's unclear how this is going to affect her career down the road being
someone who clearly has always stood her ground and yet still found a way to have
a successful career for herself it seems lana won't be change her ways
anytime soon still if her album numbers show a major decline we may know why but
we got to just wait and see how this one plays out that doesn't for this one
guy's lows leave your thoughts below and check out some of our other videos I've
been your host Jared Bronstein and we'll see you guys in the next one