Random Midday Hotness: My Friends And I Have Cracked The Code. (Plus A Question.)

We promise that this feature ain’t finna become All Pentatonix Everything. (Actually, we can’t promise that.) We all dug Lorde’s “Royals” before it was inescapable, so it’s nice to hear a slightly different take on it to remind us why we banged with it so hard in the beginning.

Semi-related: what do you think of Veronica Battei Flores’ assertion that “Royals” — which directs a lot of its disdain for excess on the kind of things we associate with hip-hop — is, well, racist?

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • Amanda

    When I first read the claim, I thought that it was ridiculous. When I thought about it, I remembered when I first heard the song; thinking that everything she rails against is something black/hip-hop artists do. So I felt funny about it but moved on quickly. I wouldn’t question Lorde’s intentions. My guess is that she harbors no ill will towards blacks. Pop culture just happens to be flooded with black artists. Many of these artists praise greed and self fulfillment through money. It’s a mindset that I think is worth criticizing

    • I wouldn’t question Lorde’s intentions. My guess is that she harbors no ill will towards blacks.

      Whether she harbors ‘ill will towards blacks’ doesn’t mean that what she said isn’t racist. (I’m not saying I think the song is racist, only pointing out that intent doesn’t matter in determining whether something is racist or not.)

  • I love love love their rendition of Royals, even though I have mixed feelings about Royals. It’s problematic, but I also find it sonically pleasing. Anyways, I fell into a YouTube vacuum and spent waaaay too much time watching Pentatonix videos. They just posted an AWESOME Daft Punk melody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MteSlpxCpo

    They are so talented.

  • Ball gowns? Trashing the hotel room? That doesn’t sound like hip-hop stuff to me. And even if the lyrics are biased towards hip-hop, painting the genre as the only one that promotes a lavish lifestyle, does that make it racist? My black grandmother doesn’t like hip-hop, but she’s not racist. Hip-hop doesn’t represent all black people.

    The song could be genre-ist, maybe. Racist, definitely not.