Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost.
48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene
In a 24 hour news cycle, social media, reality tv world, celebrities, influencers and common folk resort to all sorts of foolery for attention. Social media is rife with tiffs, quarrels, arguments, feuds… Some are performative, others evolve into IRL (in real life) wars! Everyone weighs-in: fans, haters and most importantly, the media. Perfectly timed or leveraged, an online beef can be a winning lottery ticket. To be trending is the golden ring many aspire! It’s all about clout: influence, money and power.
Beefing is both sport and business. It has become an intrinsic part of fame in the 21st century. Grabbing attention, followers and public affection is the new powerplay. But beefing is not new. Sycophants of The 48 Laws of Power, the most cited, non-religious textbook in hip-hop, adhere to Law #6: Court attention at all cost. Arguably, Wendy Williams is one of the most known acolytes of this soulless belief. On the radio in the nineties, she laid an unapologetically messy blueprint. Her incendiary rhetoric cost her: vicious insults, threats, jobs… Her popular and merciless beefs were ratings gold. She stood out, but she stood alone!
In the nineties Wendy Williams was not polished. She was not flawless. She was big: personality, body, mouth. She overstepped. At times she was curious, rude, even malicious. She threw shade, high-low and in your face, long before the queens bequeath the term to us or we Columbused it… Her radio [beefs and] enemies were many. Diddy. Whitney Houston. Angie Martinez. Mariah Carey. Bill Cosby. Tupac. Method Man. Q-Tip… Shock Jockette or unapologetically messy? Williams made it seem easy for so long; when she stumbled, her enemies cheered and her fans swooned.
Jason Lee, Charlamagne tha God and DJ Akademiks owe their careers to the Wendy Williams school of hip hop journalism. Jason Lee has loudly proclaimed her his professional idol, Charlamagne entered NYC radio as her intern and Akademiks has modeled his career on his mentor’s, Charlamagne. Unlike Lee and Akademiks, Charlamagne is successfully building his media empire, leaving the messiness of beefs and low brow attention seeking. Lee (Gagging) is beefing with Armon Wiggins (The Armon Wiggins Show) on their popular YouTube shows. DJ Akademiks’ drunken Twitch tirades spawn an endless parade of beefs: TI, Meek Mills, LL Cool J, Freddie Gibbs, Lil Baby… Akademiks may not be as reckless as Tasha K with her 4 million dollar lawsuit loss to Cardi B, but give him time. He gleefully embraces the ‘bad guy in hip hop’ moniker.
The fame train has collapsed unto itself. A list celebrities engage the public like influencers and social media personalities. Celebridom of yesteryear is lost. A triple threat is no longer acting, singing and dancing; it has has been replaced by likes, followers and Q Scores.
Ye (Kanye West), Nicki Minaj and Madonna are three of the most attention seeking celebrities. Their latest online feuds with Adidas, Latto/Grammy’s and Cardi B, respectively, have tarnished their brands. Ye‘s antics are fueled by his spiraling mental health, Minaj‘s is seemingly a by product of her caustic personality and narcissism and Madonna‘s is a sad reach for relevance. Their public behavior place them firmly on the hamster wheel of attention-seeking at all cost.
Trolls or marketing geniuses, these ‘celebrities’ stay on our social feeds. They fail to realize the diminishing returns until it is too late. So is it too late for these celebrities and influencers? Or is their next attention seeking antic on the horizon?
Curated Ramblings 