Miley Cyrus Responds to Backlash Following Hip-Hop Criticism
Miley Cyrus has come under fire for her criticism of hip-hop, a genre that she openly accepted on her 2013 album Bangerz, which was executive produced by Mike WiLL Made-It.
Taking to Instagram, she responded to claims that she’s a “culture vulture” for being critical of rap songs that are about sex, cars, and jewelry, something she spoke about in her Billboard cover story.
“To be clear I respect ALL artists who speak their truth and appreciate ALL genres of music (country , pop , alternative …. but in this particular interview I was asked about rap),” she wrote. “I have always and will continue to love and celebrate hip-hop as I’ve collaborated with some of the very best!
“At this point in my life I am expanding personally/musically and gravitating more towards uplifting, conscious rap,” she explained. “As I get older I understand the effect music has on the world & Seeing where we are today I feel the younger generation needs to hear positive powerful lyrics!”
In the controversial Billboard interview, Miley claims that she’s distanced herself from some rap styles, while gravitating to Kendrick Lamar.
“I also love that new Kendrick [Lamar] song [‘HUMBLE.’]: ‘Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretch marks.’ I love that because it’s not, ‘Come sit on my dick, suck on my cock.’ I can’t listen to that anymore,” she explained. “That’s what pushed me out of the hip-hop scene a little. It was too much, ‘Lamborghini, got my Rolex, got a girl on my cock’ — I am so not that.”
Miley’s relationship with hip-hop has had its ups and downs. In 2009, she sang about Jay Z on her smash “Party in the USA.” Later, she would reveal that she had never heard a Jay Z song.
By the time Bangerz came out, Cyrus seemed to be more in tune with rap. She collaborated with Nelly, Future, Big Sean, Ludacris, Mike WiLL, and French Montana. At around this time, she was accused of cultural appropriation for twerking.
That same year, Jay Z referenced Cyrus on “Somewhereinamerica”: “Feds still lurking / They see I’m still putting work in / ‘Cause somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is still twerkin’…Twerk, twerk, Miley, Miley…Only in America.”
More recently, Miley was involved in a heated feud with Nicki Minaj, which erupted at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. That year, Nicki felt she was snubbed in the Video of the Year category for “Anaconda.” “If I was a different ‘kind’ of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well,” tweeted Nicki. “When the ‘other’ girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.”
Cyrus, the show’s host that year, shot back in an interview. “If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself,” she said. “Say: ‘This is the reason why I think it’s important to be nominated. There’s girls everywhere with this body type.’…You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that’s like, ‘Eh, I didn’t get my VMA.'”
The feud ended after Minaj confronted Cyrus from the stage with her now famous “Miley, what’s good?” speech. The former Disney Channel star responded by claiming that the interview misrepresented her. “We’re all in this industry,” she said. “We all do interviews, and we all know how they manipulate shit.”