“I’m Literally Changing The World”: Lana Del Rey Reveals Album Artwork With Defensive Rant
"In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive...My best friends are rappers my boyfriends have been rappers."
Lana Del Rey has unveiled the artwork and tracklist for her upcoming seventh album Chemtrails Over The Country Club, alongside an aggressive pre-emptive defence of the album where she points out there are people of colour in the cover art, and that she has ‘always been extremely inclusive without even trying to’.
Del Rey is releasing the title track from the album tomorrow, along with a music video. Today, she dropped the cover art on Instagram: It’s a black-and-white image of several women around a gingham-clothed table in a barn, with Del Rey in the back, smiling. In a comment, Del Rey points out that some of them are women of colour.
“I also want to say that with everything going on this year,” she writes. “And no this was not intended-these are my best friends, since you are asking today. And damn! As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover yes there are people of colour on this records picture and that’s all I’ll say about that but thank you.”
She then lists off some of the women — “My beautiful friend Valerie from Del Rio Mexico, my dearest friend Alex and my gorgeous friend Dakota Rain as well as my sweetheart Tatiana” — and calls them a ‘beautiful mix of everything’.
Del Rey then writes that she has rapper friends and ex-boyfriends, and that she is ‘changing the world’ through her music.
“In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive without even trying to. My best friends are rappers my boyfriends have been rappers,” she writes. “My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I’m not the one storming the capital, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it.”
The comments appear to be a pre-emptive defence after Del Rey last year was criticised over comments in which she disparaged almost exclusively other female artists of colour, in an attempt to show that she wasn’t ‘glamourising abusive relationships’. In response last May she posted a six-minute video where she clarified she was not a racist, and that critics were trying to turn her comments into a ‘race war’.
Chemtrails Over The Country Club was originally due to arrive last September, but was pushed back to 2021 due to COVID-19. In addition to tomorrow’s title track release, Lana has released ‘Let Me Love You Like A Women’ from the album: as per her announcement today, the album has eleven tracks. Find her posts below.
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