After weeks of teasing, Taylor Swift dropped “Shake It Off,” the first single from her forthcoming album 1989, on Monday night. The dance-oriented clip has already drawn the ire of some corners of the internet, not the least of which was from Odd Future’s Earl Sweatshirt. The Los Angeles rapper took to Twitter last night, as Pitchfork points out, to criticize the “inherently offensive” video which features, at different points, Swift prancing through a crowd of breakdancers and crawling through a tunnel of twerking women.
“Haven’t watched the Taylor Swift video and I don’t need to watch it to tell you that it’s inherently offensive and ultimately harmful,” Earl said.
He then went on to claim that the video was “perpetuating black stereotypes.” Read all the tweets below. For a visual understanding of the Doris rapper’s critiques you can watch the “Shake It Off” clip in full or catch a few gifs snagged from it. Read recent SPIN interviews with both Swift and Sweatshirt.
haven’t watched the taylor swift video and I don’t need to watch it to tell you that it’s inherently offensive and ultimately harmful
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— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014
perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture
— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014
for instance, those of you who are afraid of black people but love that in 2014 it’s ok for you to be trill or twerk or say nigga
— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014