Lana Del Rey found herself on the wrong side of internet outrage over the past few days, as she received a lot of backlash over comments she made about the chart success of other female musicians. She has since spent some time trying to make her side of the story clear, and she has done so again today with a new six-minute video.
Speaking to the camera, she addressed the controversy at length, closing the video and summarizing her overall point by saying:
“I barely ever share a thing, and this is why. And the reason why I’m making this post — and I know it seems a bit much, right? — but there are women out there like me who have so much to give and don’t quite get to the place spiritually or karmically where they’re supposed to be because there are other women who hate them and try and take them down. Whether in my case it’s certain alternative singers or mal-intented journalists or men who hate women. But 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.”
In the clip, by the way, she also reveals that her upcoming album is titled Chemtrails Over The Country Club.
Shortly after sharing the video, Del Rey posted a spoken-word poem titled “Patent Leather Do-Over.” The Sylvia Plath-inspired piece begins, “Sylvia — I knew what you meant when you talked about swimming in the ocean and leaving your patent leather black shoes pointing towards it, while you swam.”
Listen to “Patent Leather Do-Over” above, and read the full transcript of her other video below.
“Hey, so I don’t wanna beat a dead horse and I don’t wanna go on and on about this post, but I just wanna remind you that in that post, my one and only personal declaration I’ve ever made — thanks for being so warm and welcoming — was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement. It’s gonna be important. And when I mention women who look 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, well look at her, she f*ckin’ deserves it,’ or whatever. There’s a lot of people like that, you know? And I just think it’s sad that the women I mentioned, whether they sing about dancing for money or whatever, the same stuff, by the way, that I’ve been singing about, chronicling for 13 years. That’s why I’m in that echelon. Yes, they are my friends and peers and contemporaries. The difference is when I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when [FKA] Twigs gets on the pole, it’s art. So, I’m reminded constantly by my friends that lyrically, there are layers, complicated psychological factors that play into some of my songwriting.
But I just want to say, the culture is super sick right now, and the fact that they want to turn my quotes, my advocacy for fragility into a race war? It’s really bad. It’s actually really bad. Especially when in that same declaration, I was talking again about the idea of how important it is to make reparations for me to the Navajo community, because they touched me so much in my youth, and that I believe in personal reparations because it’s the right thing to do. I think what’s really sad is as a personal advocate, as a girl’s girl, as somebody who wants the best for every culture — you know, what Marianne Williamson was talking about — reparations to the black community that never got done during the emancipation period. That was why I liked her, because I always felt that way.
So I just want to say to all of the other women out there who are like me, good girls, good-intentioned, who get f*cked up the ass constantly by the culture just because you say what you really mean, I’m with you, I feel for you, and I know that you feel for me. And I’m super strong. You can call me whatever. I’m sorry that I didn’t add one caucasian, 100 percent 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. And I think that what’s interesting, it’s the very first time that I decided to tell you anything about my life or the fact that I’m writing books that chronicle that fragility, that 200,000 hateful, spiteful comments come in, and my phone number leaked, and — comments like, ‘You f*cking white b*tch.’ It’s the opposite of the spirit of an advocate. It’s what pauses fragility. But it’s not gonna stop me, period.
So I just want to say, nobody gets to tell your story except for you, even if that means it’s kinda messy like this along the way, ’cause unfortunately, when you have a good heart, it doesn’t always shine through, and you trudge on anyway. You make those personal reparations to heal your own family karmic lineage and the sickness of this country: domestic abuse, mental health problems is the second epidemic that’s arising out of this pandemic. It’s a real thing. That’s what I was talking about.
So, as ever I’m grateful that my muse is still here and that I have, over the last three years, been blessed to have the insight and ability to channel two books’ worth of beautiful poems. And I think my new record, Chemtrails Over The Country Club, is special as well. And I’m sorry that a couple of the girls I talked to who are 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?’ And of course for me the answer is always yes.
I barely ever share a thing, and this is why. And the reason why I’m making this post — and I know it seems a bit much, right? — but there are women out there like me who have so much to give and don’t quite get to the place spiritually or karmically where they’re supposed to be because there are other women who hate them and try and take them down. Whether in my case it’s certain alternative singers or mal-intented journalists or men who hate women. But 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 in the next couple books. So God bless and… yeah, f*ck off if you don’t like the post.”