Grace Jones slams 'middle of the road' artists Rihanna, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West in new memoir
Grace Jones slays the careers of Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and more in her new memoir...
Grace Jones is throwing some serious shade in her autobiography, taking on artists from Rihanna and Nicki Minaj to Miley Cyrus and Kanye West and criticizing them for both copying her and for trying to be “outsiders” by doing what has already been done.
“I have been so copied by those people who have made fortunes that people assume I am that rich. But I did things for the excitement, the dare, the fact that it was new, not for the money, and too many times I was the first, not the beneficiary,” she said in the excerpt given to TimeOut.
“Trends come along and people say, ‘Follow that trend,’” Jones wrote. “There’s a lot of that around at the moment: ‘Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna.’ I cannot be like them — except to the extent that they are already being like me.”
As a cautionary tale, Jones points to a performer she calls “Doris,” who cited Jones as an early inspiration and wanted to collaborate with her. “Everyone around me is going: ‘You have to do it, it will be so good for you, it will introduce you to a whole new audience, you will make a lot of money,'” she recalls. “No! It will be good for her; she will draw from everything I have built and add it to her brand, and I will get nothing back except for a little temporary attention.”
She then took on the idea of artists who claim to be “pushing boundaries” when really they are doing what has already been done.
“The problem with the Dorises and the Nicki Minajes and Mileys is that they reach their goal very quickly. There is no long-term vision, and they forget that once you get into that whirlpool then you have to fight the system that solidifies around you in order to keep being the outsider you claim you represent. There will always be a replacement coming along very soon – a newer version, a crazier version, a louder version. So if you haven’t got a long-term plan, then you are merely a passing phase, the latest trend, yesterday’s event.
“They dress up as though they are challenging the status quo, but by now, wearing those clothes, pulling those faces, revealing those tattoos and breasts, singing to those fractured, spastic, melting beats – that is the status quo. You are not off the beaten track, pushing through the thorny undergrowth, finding treasure no one has come across before. You are in the middle of the road. You are really in Vegas wearing the sparkly full-length gown singing to people who are paying to see you but are not really paying attention. If that is what you want, fine, but it’s a road to nowhere.”
You can check out more of the exclusive extract here.
I’ll Never Write My Memoirs is due out Sept. 29.
