#I don’t really think there’s anything actively problematic going on in this sphere necessarily I’m just extremely extremely picky | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

velvyy · 4 years

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Hey, Rad... Alex... Alexlememe? I know that's the name you used to go by and I know you've kinda disconnected yourself from Viv's fanbase after ZP ended, and I remember your memes and such but I kinda just wanted to get your take on the Hazbin drama since you reblogged the headcanon blog's post on the subject. More or less regarding the issue of her being uncharitable to fans and non-fans alike, plus that one callout post on twitter?

So this is weird. I wasn’t expecting to get asks on the subject since like you said, I’ve generally been disconnected from the fanbase aside from the few reblogs here and there retaining to Hazbin and its more recent developments. But yeah I guess I could give my take on this since I mean.. old fans still follow me. Idk why, but they do!So, really. In regards to that callout post (which is now deleted) I really, really don’t care that much. For one thing, Initially I did because I really hated to see someone be slandered so viciously with inaccurate and uncharitable attacks, but I kinda just stopped because even when I linked the addresses from both Viv, and the Ken dude regarding all the drama mentioned, it was either ignored and resulting in me being called a “pedo sympathizer” or “It wasn’t even an apologyyyyy weh” and like, whatever. I stopped giving a shit.

Terms of the traced animation thing... Lol, ok. I mean homages do exist, and her animation thingy was based on a meme so whatevs.

Anyways,I knew from the very start that the whole “tracing” and “stealing designs” stuff was nonsense since there was an entire like, tumblr drama arc on the issue, and albeit Viv’s post is gone, there’s evidence of legal contracts regarding Jiji and that whole nonsense that was years ago. In regards to her drawing pictures of Blaire White and Shoe… Eh. I mean, yeah, fuck em, but she’s made it clear that she doesn’t support those views anymore, and she wasn’t even really aware of the other things they’d done at that point, and I see no real reason not to believe her because what does lying about that gain her? Yeah her comment on the “blackface” thing if you wanna call it that was dumb as shit, but considering 2016 was a rough year for her in terms of trying to find where she fell in the political sphere, I can relate because I was in the same boat. A lot of sjw cringe comps, shaming feminists, and purposely misgendering transpeople… Not a good time for me either! Course I’ve changed. I went from being a reactionary alt-centrist to an anarchist so. Whether that’s an improvement is up to you.

As for the whole pedo/zoo shit, I really don’t see it. I mean like, look, obviously porn art portraying people fucking feral animals is disgusting right. Not saying it isn’t problematic or anything, but to be fair, she did draw this shit like 8 years ago. I’ve seen worse from even more well-established artists and I don’t see people trying to cancel them? Also, the art was suggestive for one thing and not necessarily 100% porn. I mean it’s still creepy and gross, and I’d understand scolding them if they continued to do so but a lot worse, but I haven’t seen anything like that from Viv past those 2 drawings. As for the pedo shit… The relationship between a 17 year old and a 19 year old is… hardly creepy and reminiscent of pedo shit. So yeah no fuck that. Now with the drawing of Mirage and Kestrel and the tag that said something jokingly like “Mirage and her pedo tendencies” or whatever… Yeah idk, I can’t defend that lmfao. Again, Viv said she disapproves of those drawings and doesn’t care to think about them, but that one piece of artwork definitely had some baggage to it that made me feel uncomfortable after reading the tags.Only issue I took in terms of her addressing that, is that she was very adamant about it being an inside joke… Which if that’s true, you must’ve had some fucked up friends like damn.

I would also like to state that cub art is legitimately disgusting and I am of the belief that it can cause harm depending on the context since I assume the consumption of cub art can reinforce the urge for pedophiles to act on their desires instead of finding healthy coping mechanisms for it through therapy. There have been stories from younger users on the internet that older people have tried to groom them and have the notion of pedos preying on them be normalized by sending them art depicting kids in sexual acts with adults. Of course in isolation cub art isn’t as harmful as the actual act of raping a child, and I would argue that people have their priorities kind of messed up since the illustration being acknowledged should be part of combating pedophiles preying on children. However, people, typically twitter wokescolds tend to focus on the art solely and I don’t know why. There’s a lot of MAPS trying to find their way into LGBT spaces and it’s fucking gross.

Now with Hazbin itself… It’s meh. Initially I watched it with rose-tinted glasses and loved it. After watching it for like… the 3rd, 4th, 5th time? It’s alright. I don’t hate it, but it’s far from perfect. Now ofc I know it’s a pilot but a very lengthy pilot I’ll say. My biggest gripe with the pilot is that the editing is really fucking weird. Like the editing where Angel tells Alastor “I can suck yah dick!” and the scene that followed was really off. It seemed like too many cuts were made in that instance and seemed very cluttered. It also feels that way during Charlie singing “Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow” and how many little animated bits were like almost wiped off the screen by how fast it came by, and ntm there was just so much happening all at once on screen as well. I had to pause at points just to process everything that was happening. The palette is also very, very, verrrry red. There’s so much red going on and like… I get it, it’s in hell. But lemme rest my eyes on something else besides red, please. The palette they use needs to be better diversified, and the same goes for the characters too. Every character seems to have red on them. Whenever Baxter shows up later he’s gonna look really out of place. Some of the jokes were ok, and others seemed non-clever. I didn’t think Angel’s joke about sucking Al’s dick was funny. I did like the joke with Pentious and Angel though. “SON??” Some of it could’ve been written better too.

Regarding the drama with the show itself… Personally I don’t get it. Like, I don’t feel as if Angel is homophobic as a character since his queerness isn’t at the face of the jokes he makes? He just happens to be sex worker which… sex workers are fine? Support sex workers y’all, seriously. There’s also nothing intrinsically wrong with being sexually active either? As long as it’s within reason and you’re being trustworthy.The issue lies in the fact that people viewed the things I just mentioned as negative, and associate it with gay people as said negatively portrayed thing to push the sentiment of “Gay man do sex a lot therefore the gays bad” or that sort of thing. Also there’s a bit where it shows there’s more emotional depth to him and I’m hoping they’ll expand on that later. Honestly though, the criticisms in regards to that have been pretty uncharitable. Same with the criticisms for Vaggie. Apparently Vaggie is racist because… she’s loud and angry? Again, this is a case where people assume those traits are negative, and because it’s assumed to be negative, the negatively portrayed thing pushes the sentiment of “Being a loud fiery woman made, and latina women are that, therefore latina women bad” or some shit. There are stereotypes that are bad no matter what the context is like sambo-esque caricatures of black people. Then there are tropes that are applied to certain demographics that have the capability to be written well into characters without it being offensive or disrespectful. Vaggie is literally angry because she’s protective of her gf. Like. C’mon.

So, I think that settles what I think about that? It honestly seems like superficial shit to me tbh, and I’m saying this as an sjw-y beta cuck anarchist.

The only REAL gripe I have, is with what the mod from @zpheadcanons posted. Because I know this is probably true as much as it hurts me to say it. Faust def has a history of being pretty petty and bully-like to people she deems undesirable, and Viv harbors it by not criticizing it, and if anyone else within their friend group does it then you’re scolded vehemently and treated like garbage. Her attitude also stretches to harboring an audience full of white knights that I personally don’t approve of.

There’s also this

Faust has hurt distant people I personally know and… yeah. Maybe I’m biased but I can’t vibe with that. Sorry. If you don’t make an effort to criticize abusive behavior within your own friend circles then that makes you just as bad, because then you’re just a bystander to things you could have prevented.

This isn’t to say Viv herself hasn’t dealt with bad faith actors, or people who had the intention to hurt her, or very uncharitable criticism. Particularly from the badwebcomics forums which is honestly 4chan like in how they operate. It’s vicious as hell, and a lot of their criticisms boil down to insults and personal attacks, which serve to be nonconstructive. That’s not to say Viv has been kind to even the more charitable criticism though. I know because when I happened to send an ask to the zoophobia criticism blog (where did it go???) regarding something relatively minor and superficial, she blocked me from her blog. I’m still blocked lmfao. I’m not blocked on twitter though! (not yet anyways). Faust has me blocked there though, and I have no idea why. She’s had me blocked for years even though I haven’t spoken out against her till recently. So, there’s that.

As for her apology itself, I feel like it was fine. I think it could’ve been worded better? The take I disagree with in terms of that is like… If I made a mistake in the past, and I make it clear that I don’t care for what I did, I don’t feel as if me explaining why I felt compelled to do certain things negate me from still not caring for my past actions? That’s just me providing context. That’s a really weird take, but I guess that could be viewed as an excuse idk. Personally I think people are holding the bar super high to a state of irrationality.

*sigh* So yeah there’s that. I miss the old days where honestly I could be ignorant about this, but at the same time I look at my old obsessive posts and I kinda just… cringe. I was such an irrational stan I almost hate myself for it. Fuck XD

Edit: I’d also like to point out that I’m not saying Viv or Faust are totally awful or totally good people, and I know they’re capable of being better. It’s a matter of whether or not they wanna be better.

#vivziepop #hazbin hotel

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kuciradio · 7 years

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SXSW - Tunde Olaniran Interview

By Shay Mehr and Stephan Masnyj

Photos by Shay Mehr

Shay M: So how would you describe yourself as an artist to someone who hasn’t heard of you at all pretty much?

TO: I think that I would say that I’m a performance artist that takes the structure of pop music but fills in the gaps with really like unexpected sounds and unexpected performances unexpected vocal takes, but within a pop structure so that it’s kind of easily digested and easily enjoyed.

Shay M: Okay so you would say that you’re like pop mostly? Because I’ve read that people call you like a musical chameleon or like you genre hop a lot, how do you feel about that?

TO: Yeah I think… I mean I think easily …when I like I’m in an airport and someone’s like “Oh you’re a musician? What kind of music do you do?” I’ll be like oh it’s Kanye West meets MIA like that’s the most basic thing to say, but yeah on the larger scale I think it’s pop, dance, electronic, there’s like folk elements, there’s country elements so it kind of spans pretty wide genres for me.

Shay M: So the first track of yours that caught my ear was ‘Brown Boy’ off of the Yung Archetype EP. A lot about it really stood out to me: the beat obviously first, and then your range as far as you sing a lot and then you rap as well. The message is kind of somewhat serious but like delivered playfully, right? How representative is this of your work as a whole would you say?

TO: I think “Brown Boy’ is actually a really good example of like where I started as a producer and also as a writer. I think that the really abrasive sounds is something that has always appealed to me and so all the drums in Brown Boy and the samples to me can be really loud and abrasive but I think they come together and make a really playful and like different emotional dimensions like in the song. So that’s like a really good snapshot of kind of where my brain is at as a producer. I think new stuff is going to sound a little different but ‘Brown Boy’ is like a really good track to start if someone’s never heard me before. I feel like that’s a really good place to start.

Stephan M: I’m sorry to jump in but I did want to ask if you’re saying that’s like a good jumping point but your music is changing where do you think it’s headed now I supposed as opposed to how ‘Brown Boy’ may sound, you know?

TO: I think that like any artist or any work that you do, the more you do it, the better you become at it. The more tools you use and maybe the more nuanced you become because you’re challenging yourself like whatever the field. So I think that my production is different and like better in some ways, it’s a little bit softer now and I do a lot more singing. So I think that it’s danceable but it might not have as many jagged edges as ‘Brown Boys’ does but still kind of include it in parts of the production in newer stuff so even if it’s a smooth pretty song like there will be a moment where something jarring happens because that’s just..I’m the kind of person that can’t listen to an album all the way like I’ll skip around..that’s how my brain works so yeah.

Stephan M: Yeah so you like the songs to also inhabit that space.

TO: I don’t want you to get bored. I don’t want you get bored listening to it. I think that music sounds so much the same like every song sounds so similar now. We’ve been touring with the sleigh bells and we’ve been in the van and like every song I’m like oh is this is this the same person? This is like the fifth song that sounds exactly the same so I think it’s important to like as artist maybe push yourself and push listeners to think about like oh this is a new way…this is a new way to have a pop song you know? But it’s still fun for me or I’m still enjoying it. Or it’s still like am emotional thing for me so hopefully we can give people like a little diversity in what they’re listening to.

Stephan M: Very cool, yeah that’s awesome.

Shay M: So how much does activism play a role in your art? I’ve read that your day job is at Planned Parenthood and you’re from Flint, Michigan both of which have gone through some pretty large crisises lately.

TO: I think we’re all kind of in a time of really intense transformation in this country. I actually left my job at Planned Parenthood and stepped out as a full time artist which has been a super super interesting and like invigorating and kind of scary moment. Which I think again, a lot of us are in one way or another. I don’t know if I would call myself an activist as much as just an advocate so like I’m the kind of person where if I have a show where I have control of it, I want women on the bill, I want women of color on the bill. I think those are simple things that you can do if you’re feeling overwhelmed as a person like how can I make a difference. It’s like the immediate sphere around you, you do have some influence so like try to exercise that a little bit. I do also think that having music that you can like turn up to but it’s not problematic and like you can organize and movement build but if people don’t have a connection that’s a little bit deeper like where we’ve gone out together and gone to a club, you’ve like had like some sloppy, messy moments you know like you’re never going to really have like a strong movement you know? So I think that the party is always as important as the protest. Do you know what I mean?

Shay M: Yeah. We were at the Women’s March actually in Los Angeles and they had this big van playing all these like bangers, but they were all objectifying women. I and I was just like who DJ-ed? I don’t know why wouldn’t you get a female DJ and like put the intention there? Speaking of intention I’ve read that you have a lot of intention with your work so how much are you hands on with like each aspect from pretty much like your website to like I’ve read you design your back up dancers costumes to your videos. How much are you like hands on and what do you kind of like step away from?

TO: I think that I’m hands on with anything you can see or hear I would say and then it’s like I don’t you know…code the website things like that. It’s best to like let someone who’s really good at their job do their job. But let’s say I have jewelry that I design so I’m really hands on with but then at the very last stage I give it to a carpenter who that’s his job, make it really great. But in terms of clothing, the visuals, I make a lot of the stuff, I have a lot of it made, I think it’s fun. It’s not necessarily that I want to control it, it’s just like I enjoy having, playing with like fabrics and colors and textures, like that’s really fun for me. And it’a way to maybe even if I’m not going to be fashion designer I can like have some fun with clothing and stuff on stage and still focus on the music you know?

Shay M: So you would say that level of kind of attention and intention is also found in your music I would imagine?

TO: Yeah I think so. I think in some ways like you have a balance you kind of can plan something but a lot of times like ‘Brown Boy’ or other songs have been written really on the fly or I’ve like produced the heck out of it and I’ve had like all this production but the writing does happen until like a day..the night before or the day of recording. So I try to leave some room for like inspiration that even I can’t source that just comes through. I want to leave room for that. So sometimes with visuals or even designing the album, if I get inspiration I don’t even question it I just kind of go with it as opposed to like mapping.. some of those things you can’t map out ‘cause it feels a little forced if you do that. So it just depends, yeah.

Shay M: Okay so this is.. I probably should have asked this a while ago. But how do you pronounce your whole name?

TO: Sure uhm it’s Tunde Olaniran. I tell people think cartoon and the a day of the week. Tun-de. That’s really easy and then Ola-niran is my last name.

Shay M: Okay that’s pretty close to what I’ve been saying. So phew, phew!

TO: For the longest time I had like my name phonetically, on my Twitter account I had it like phonetically spelled out because so many people would just hit you up and not know how your name was pronounced.

Shay M: So speaking of identity, your name is interesting so I asked you how you pronounce it but would you share with us its meaning?

TO: Sure so I have a much longer full name. and the full name basically is a traditional Yoruba name, my father’s Yoburba, a culture and dialect in Nigeria. And basically I was the first boy, born after my grandfather passed away and uhm the full name is the spirit of the father’s gone but will return again to bring back the wealth that was promised to the family, that’s like the full name.

Stephan M: Don’t worry her name is also like 16 letters and her last name is like 20 something letters.

Shay M: My name that you know is fake by the way. Or it’s been re-named, it’s my artist name. I don’t want to put words in your mouth but is that why you have seemingly such a large interest in identity because you have sort of a large-like a big pair of shoes to fill with a name like that or what? Why is it that a lot of your albums are titled after identity and things like that?

TO: I feel like I mean I studied Anthropology in school and like I’ve always been interested in cultures and how-how like – I’ve been interested in what’s taboo and what’s like not okay. And how something so seemingly simple like what bathroom you want to use, you know can like incite violence against you or how you wear your hair. Or you know so many things that seem insignificant…or you know what color of cotton threads you wear like those kind of things can end your life or get you kicked out of your family or put your employment or housing in danger and so I’ve always just been really fascinated by how society separates that stuff. Like the rules of what’s okay and what’s not and how arbitrary they are. And I think a lot of that is whether it’s your own identity or the identity that’s put upon you that’s always been interesting. And then I’ve also just been in a lot of scenarios where I felt out of place and so I’ve always been very self-conscious about oh like fitting in you know so whether it was my Nigerian side of my family like I don’t speak Yoruba- I’m not very like a good Nigerian son in that way or follow a lot of the traditions or you know moving to Flint and being like- I’d never been around black people at one point and then going from living in Germany to that always kind of feeling a little out of place. Not horribly so but enough to make you conscious of it a lot so that probably is what influenced it more than anything else.

Shay M: Okay so you have an album titled Yung Archtype and then Transgressor, do these titles identify you or your music or neither? Because I feel like- is Yung Archetype like a tease? Because I feel like you’re pretty anything but an archetype?

TO: I feel like it was like a play on words with Carl Yung and it was like a joke. Because in a way I was going to be a totally different ridiculous name. I wasn’t going to actually release that EP as an EP it was going to be a mixed tape but I ended up signing with a label. So in a way I wanted to talk about different archetypes in society with/through some of the music but again I just went what came to my mind. So I’m like why is this name speaking to me? I’m going to just go with it. Sometimes it reveals itself to you later like why it came to you so that name really just like came to my mind when I had to create a name for that EP. So I like left it at that. With Transgressor that was more of what I mentioned earlier of like identity politics and like how something so simple can be seen as like a huge transgression. A lot of the songs are about those kind of moments or being in those kind of spaces. Does that makes sense?

Shay M: Totally. Can you tell us anything about the album you’re working on or is that pretty hush hush?

TO: That’s not hush hush. I just have been making a lot of music and trying to not put any pressure on what it’s going to be. And have had like three or four rounds of alright we’re going to sit for two weeks and like pound out a bunch of songs. So right now hopefully we’re getting a single ready for the summer and again I’m going to play it by ear and see what feels right. But we have some really strong songs. And I’ve been trying to like- I’ve been writing songs with piano first so it’s like very melodic. Things that can be stripped down but then we have a lot of production. So I feel like- I think we’re going to have our full length ready and its going to be a lot of singing a lot of like-a lot of emotions but I think the productions going to be pretty fun too for people that are into that stuff that I’ve done before.

Shay M: Is this your first SXSW?

TO: As a solo artist uhm yeah. I’ve been here with like other groups kind of like doing featured stuff. So this is my first time being on stage especially me having these project released. I’ve been here and I’ve actually just come as a fan, a music fan. So it’s not like new but its going to be it’s going to feel new with doing the performances while we’re here. And the tour that we’re on is brand new, I’ve ever done a U.S. tour like at all and that’s been like really intense so it’s all kind of new right now.

Shay M: So what is your impression of SXSW then?

TO: I think it’s different. I have to get into the weekend to really see how it is. So I don’t know if I can say quite yet, but I will say that even just here at Empire people seem really just generally upbeat and positive which is a good feeling when you walk into a venue that people aren’t like closed off so that’s good.

Stephan M: I just wanted to add something to that which was interesting is that uhm I mean it’s the first time we’ve been here as well and I mean we’ve been to other music festivals but it’s interesting to me how this festival seems-it’s almost like a paradox right? There’s such an emphasis on like small up and coming DIY bands and the city fosters that culture really well but at the same time walking around here there’s just like the Dell building and the Budlight tent and all of this stuff. There just seems to be this weird dicotamy between like super large corporations that I’m not quite sure if they’re just using these bands to their own benefit or if it’s like sort of this happy medium between commercialization and DIY which I haven’t figured out yet and I’m just curious to know if you have?

TO: All brands have to. Corporations don’t create culture artists do. So they have to tap into artists because they wouldn’t have any culture that they could use to like tweak your nostalgia or tweak your emotions you know? So I feel like there are human being that work for corporations and I feel like some of those people maybe musicians some maybe artists. There is an undercurrent of corporate money under this conference like any other festival you go to. I do think the cool thing about this as opposed to like bigger-or other festivals is that like you said there’s more of a chance like an artist I really love on the internet who’s maybe never going to come to my town. So like it’s cool to come here. And I’ve had people like when I came before be like ‘oh I know you from the internet like as another artist’. Walking down the street you’ll see people like ‘oh crap I know you!” so I think that’s really cool about South by. And those folks like even in the green like I didn’t know knew who I was and that’s awesome that we’re connected now so.

Stephan M: Actually a good example of that is like uh a band a I interviewed a couple days again mentioned that like South by is like this gathering of musical tribes like everyone comes together to this one place to meet. I thought that was an interesting way to put it.

TO: I think it’s more so than most festivals. Because most festivals are like it’s very curated and structured and so. I think it’s kind of limited of like who you’re going to be able to see. I think with South by it kind of feels a little more like a free for all, which can be frustrating as an artist too but I think there’s an opportunity to see some gems that maybe you wouldn’t see at like Pitchfork or Bonnaroo.

Shay M: Okay I have one last question that I’ve decided I’m going to ask everyone because it’s just interesting…is what fulfills you?

TO: Creating. Just getting to create anything is really fulfilling to me.

#Tunde Olaniran #sxsw2017 #sxsw #interview #music #radio #college radio

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