Ari Lennox has had enough. She made her feelings abundantly clear this week that she wants out of her Dreamville/Interscope Records deal following the backlash she received online following an interview with Johannesburg-based Podcast And Chill podcast. “I want to be dropped from the labels. I’m done and tired,” Lennox said in a since deleted tweet.
From where I’m standing, an interviewer asking a female artist “Is someone f*cking you good right now?” is not something that constitutes healthy music media practices — regardless of whether or not it’s a reference to one of the artist’s songs. Come on, dawg. So Lennox’s annoyance with the internet peanut gallery (in another since-deleted tweet) seems warranted. “For Christ sakes,” she wrote. “I realize I have no hits. I realize you all can live without hearing my music. I realize my complaining is so aggravating to y’all. I don’t ask blogs to post me when I’m at my worst. You judgmental self-hating parasites wouldn’t last a day as a signed artist.”
Hardly a peacemaker, Rick Ross decided to join the peanut gallery with his thoughts on what might make Lennox feel better about her displeasure with the label. “She needs @wingstop,” he commented on an Instagram post from hip-hop gossip account The Shade Room. Never mind that Ross owns over 25 Wingstop franchises himself, including one that he recently bought for his son’s 16th birthday.
And while Ross’ was the top comment on that Instagram post for a while, it’s now the second most liked comment to one from user @n.askey, who said “I think all her songs are hits to me !!! I love her.” Looks like today, love prevails over snark and self-promotion. Holler.
