She also casually announced the title of her next full-length studio album: 'Chemtrails Over the Country Club.'
Late Sunday night (May 24), Lana Del Rey took to Instagram once more to defend her post that named several other female artists and caused a firestorm across the internet last week.
“Hey, so I don’t want to beat a dead horse and I don’t want to, you know, go on and on about this post thing, but I just want to remind you that in that post — my one and only personal declaration I’ve ever made, thanks for being so warm and welcoming — you know, was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement. It’s gonna be important,” she began in a six-minute long video uploaded overnight.
“And when I mentioned women who look like me, I didn’t mean white like me, I mean the kind of women who, you know, other people might not believe, because they think, ‘Oh, well, look at her, she f—ing deserves it,’ or whatever,” she said in the new clip.
In her original post on the topic, published on May 21, the singer-songwriter had asked, “Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyonce have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f—ing, 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, or dancing for money – or whatever I want – without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse?”
In her latest update, she continued to expand upon those thoughts: “I just think it’s sad that the women I mentioned about, whether they sing about dancing for money, or whatever — the same stuff, by the way, that I’ve been singing about chronically for 13 years; that’s why I’m in that echelon. Yes, they are my friends and peers, 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, you know, I mean, I’m reminded constantly by my friends that lyrically there are layers and complicated psychological factors that play into some of my songwriting, but I just want to say, you know, 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.”
She continued to speak out, saying, “You know, I think what’s really sad is as a personal advocate, as a girls’ girl, as somebody who wants the best for every culture …I just want to say to all of the other women out there who are like me, good girls, good-intentioned, get f—ed 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.”
“You can call me whatever,” Del Rey added. “I’m sorry that I didn’t add one Caucasian, 100% Caucasian person into the mix of the women that I admire. It really says more about you than it does about me.”
She said that her original post had resulted in hundreds of thousands of negative comments and someone releasing her private phone number.
“I think that what’s interesting is the very first time I decide 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. My phone number leaked, and, you know, comments like ‘You f—ing white b—-. It’s the opposite of the spirit of advocate … it’s what causes fragility, but it’s not gonna stop me, period,” she said.
“Unfortunately,” she added, “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, the second epidemic that’s arising out of this pandemic. It’s a real thing. That’s what I was talking about.”
At the end of her video, she mentioned her forthcoming poetry projects and revealed the title of her next album, which she previously announced would be released on Sept. 5.
“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. I think my new record, Chemtrails Over the Country Club, is special as well,” she hinted.
But getting back on topic, Del Rey — who shared one of her spoken word pieces, “Patent Leather Do-Over,” over the weekend — defended herself once more.
“I’m sorry that a couple of the girls I talked to, who were 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,” she said.
“I’m not the enemy, and I’m definitely not racist, so don’t get it twisted,” she said to the camera. “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— off if you don’t like the post.”
Watch Lana Del Rey’s lengthy rant in full in the video below.
