Not to worry, Miley Cyrus, not everyone’s a hater.
You have allies in the rap community.
Everywhere she turns, it seems someone else has got a gripe with Miley Cyrus or counseling to show her the error of her ways, so much so that even Sinéad O’Connor is chiming in , saying it’s not cool for the former Disney star to be “prostituted” by the music industry. You know there’s a disturbance in the force when a woman vilified for tearing up a photo of the Pope on live TV has advice for you.
However, there is a powerful group of Miley Cyrus fans/allies in the entertainment industy: rappers.
Miley’s upcoming album, Bangerz , features appearances from Big Sean, Nelly, Future and French Montana. Several of the tracks were produced by Pharrell Williams. Kanye West wants her to appear on his remix of “Black Skinhead” and she’s appeared on Snoop Lion’s and will.i.am’s recent albums.
And “her voice is incredible. It’s one of a kind… no limitations,” said Bangerz executive producer Mike WiLL Made-It.
In an article from the Associate Press, Mike WiLL Made-It, whose worked with Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J and Rihanna, laid it out pretty simply.
“People like Kanye are fans of music, people like Pharrell are fans of all types of music…. It all boils down to her being very talented and not scared to do new things,” he said.
“Once they get over all the twerking… once they get past all of that and listen to the music, the music is actually great.”
Still, as the article points out, not everyone is a fan. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, leader of The Roots, wondered if he and other rap artists were just being used as “accessories.”
“I kind of felt same sort of way when Gwen Stefani went through her Asian phase as accessories. At the end of the day, it’s like, is that objectifying us? Hip-hop is already a one-dimensional view as far as us looking like caricatures.”