This Lady Is So Upset About Vince Staples
Yesterday, rap Twitter basically lost it over a video of some lady tearfully reciting the lyrics to Vince Staples’ 2015 “Norf Norf,” which she heard on pop radio while dropping her daughter off at school. (I don’t know why a top-40 station was playing Staples, who is most certainly not a crossover rapper, but there you have it.) Staples is a fiercely analytical rapper, one who takes long and hard looks both at traditional street-rap tropes and at the culture that led to their creation. This lady didn’t hear any of that. She heard a bad man saying bad things, and she got so upset over it.
In a webcam video the lady in question spent 11 and a half minutes tearfully weeping over the fact that kids are being subjected to music like this and then reading the song’s lyrics out loud (with an infant in the room, and with N-words intact, which didn’t really make sense when you consider the idea that she’s upset about kids hearing this stuff). She also pronounces “Norf” as “Nerf.” Behold, in all its glory, the full thing:
And because the internet is genius, we also have this. (Hat tip to commenter Max The King Of All Wild Things for this one.)
I honestly feel bad for this lady, who’s about to be online-famous because of some shit that she doesn’t even remotely understand, but there’s a severe dearth of empathy happening here. In the other hand, it’s weirdly encouraging that rap music can still upset people so deeply. Where was this lady in the ’90s, when rap was way more bloodthirsty? (Staples himself has shown admirable restraint in not addressing this yet.)
UPDATE: Staples has addressed the situation on Twitter.
What I was saying was that the woman in that video is clearly confused on the context of the song which causes her to be frightened.
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) October 6, 2016
She also, in my opinion, seems to be emotionally unstable. With both those things being said, she has a right to her opinion.
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) October 6, 2016
No person needs to be attacked for their opinion on what they see to be appropriate for their children. They have a right to it.
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) October 6, 2016
This misunderstanding of our community leads to miscommunication which we should convert into a progressive dialogue.
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) October 6, 2016
Thats all I have to say about that. Stop asking me.
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) October 6, 2016