Jack Harlow covers the latest issue of Teen Vogue. In honor of his cover, he literally declared himself to be “a girl boss.” I don’t think he actually understands girlbossing, he probably thinks it means that he’s down with girl culture and he thinks he can boss girls around? I don’t know. In any case, Jack is 24 years old and he’s either beloved, tolerated or ignored. The Harlow stans are crazy in love with him. The people who tolerate him think he’s okay but he has to do a lot more to prove himself in the rap game. The people who ignore him have no idea who he is. I like him and I still like him after this interview. Some highlights:
Choosing to collab with Lil Nas X: “It was a decision I made from my soul. I wasn’t thinking, Oh, optically, this will look good. But I do think Lil Nas stands for something really important. I’m gonna be really proud as that ages.”
Being a white man in a predominantly Black space: “The era we live in has forced you, as a public figure, to be hyperaware of the decisions you’re making. Not everything can be, ‘What a charming guy who knows exactly what to say.’ It’s not human. Sometimes you put your foot in your mouth. Everything you say is really liable to affect your career in a crazy way. That’s just the nature of where we’re at. But it’s also dependent on your integrity, which is something I feel I have a lot of.”
He wants to lift up Louisville’s rap scene: “I don’t know if anyone from Louisville could say that I’m not doing my part to lift the city up. I feel a responsibility to make sure people don’t think of Louisville hip-hop and only think of one white guy.”
Black women love him & he loves them back: “Black women are such a massive part of my career… I was telling The New York Times how it’s not a massive phenomenon to me because it’s just a continuation of how my life was before I was famous. They’ll never have to worry about not being credited by me…. I mean, I look out at my shows and I see them. It’s one thing when you see the memes and you hear people talking about it, but it’s another when you travel the country and you see them all over the place. I love Black women. I’ve loved Black women my whole life.”
Whether it’s important to prioritize female pleasure: I’ve caught him off guard (“Is this okay for Teen Vogue?”), but he doesn’t completely dodge me. “I’ll say this,” he answers. “I’m getting more selfless by the day.”
What’s interesting about the “I love Black women. I’ve loved Black women my whole life” statement is that he actually is putting Black women in his music videos and not just as interchangeable gyrating bodies. He’s casting them as his “love interests” and friends. It’s a subtle thing, but it’s appreciated. Teen Vogue also points out that he’s touring with City Girls this summer and he uses his platform to highlight and promote many Black artists and specifically Black female artists. That being said, of course he’s already f–ked up with some bad optics here and there. But it’s fine, he’ll learn.
Cover & IG courtesy of Teen Vogue.
Oh geez.
Did you see the Pitchfork review of his recent album? It was brutal lol
Creepy fetishisation says ‘whut?’
Who is this?
And who asked him for this?
No, thanks. It’s a little white saviorish. I’m sure he means well, but I’m finding the less said by almost everyone on the entire planet about everything, the better. Then again, I wouldn’t know him if he slapped me across the face and screamed his songs into my ear.
Also, that female pleasure question was kind of inappropriate (what if he’s not into women?), but his response was weird too.
I know it’s wild to quote little house on the prairie but Ma Ingalls said “Least said, soonest mended”. Like apologize once and move on. Say your piece and then stfu.
I think About it all the time!
I love that you just quoted Little House. I feel like we can be best friends now, lol! BTW, did you read that ish Karen Grassle said about how Michael Landon treated her on set?! It killed my Pa dreams.
Mrs Lipton always says the same in You Rang, Milord 🙂
I just went down a rabbit hole reading what Grassle said about Landon’s behavior and it’s so disgusting.
Totally agree with you. Whenever men make this blanket statement professing their love for black women, it often feels less than sincere and feels more like they’re just pandering to their main fan base. It’s the michael b jordan effect, where he says all the time how much he loves black women, etc but we’ve never seen him with one publicly apart from lori harvey. I appreciate that they dont bash black women but this looove for us kinda rubs me the wrong way when there’s nothing in their history that proves it.
Every time I hear his song on the radio, all I can think about is how he stole Fergie’s whole ass song and re-released it with a bit of rapping over top. It’s a hit because Glamorous was a good song people want to hear again, not because of Jack Harlow.
While I agree the song is mostly good because of the HUGE Fergie sample, presumably he didn’t “steal” it but paid to use it and Fergie is making some big bank off of it.
That Fergie song was trash, he made it way better
I think this would sound less creepy if he mentioned some actual individual Black women by name, instead of just lumping them all into a single group.
Erm i’ve never heard of him before he did a rap with Brandy for the BET awards i still don’t know him so im not sure if i like his music. as for lil Nas X i love him and i think he had a great sart in the industry lets hope he continues to be innovative
He did that rap with Brandy because he got clowned all over Black Twitter for not knowing Brandy and Ray J are siblings and not recognizing her music. How do you not know THE Vocal Bible??? He should’ve packed it up then and there
The pandering is STRONG with this one.
I’m a Black woman and I love that he said that! Keep going Jack, and don’t change.
I find it pandering but he may very well be sincere.
Jack Harlow is a culture vulture who gets no love from me as a Black woman. His comments about loving Black women are not appreciated, he’s not talented and he has zero respect for the culture. I am so tired of white mediocrity being enough to have a massive career and to be this guy is no different than Iggy Azalea. I wish he
would fade into obscurity
We don’t need to know. If you love us, show it with your actions.
+1
Yeah, I recall Justin Timberflake saying this very thing on BET.
Okay so forgive my middle aged white ass self, but “black women” are not a monolith. Am I the only one that takes umbrage with that statement?
I’m apprehensive he’s going to start talking about “chocolate princesses” or something.
He’s like Diet Post Malone to me in some ways.
Was thinking this too. He saw Malones trajectory and thought – I can do that.
I like Jack Harlow but he be giving Chet Hanks vibes occasionally lol
I mean, he should? Black women are gorgeous and wonderful. That shouldn’t be a surprise or necessary statement. Especially considering how he’s glomming on to black culture, I sure af hope he likes the people.
I’m glad he’s pushing for more representation but that is a damn low bar. More lil Nas, less Harlow
I love Jack’s music but his “I love Black women” comment feels hollow seeing as he still collaborates with Black women’s abusers (i.e working with Chris Brown). If he wants genuine support from Black women, he needs to actually listen to them and centre them rather than tokenising them for profit.
Though I don’t listen to his music much, I really like him and enjoy watching interviews with him, and I have an inappropriate crush on him (I’m 31 lol). I like this interview a lot though it sucks that the bar is so low that people think what he’s saying is groundbreaking. As an Afro-Latina, I will say he’s doing A LOT more with inclusivity than many reggaeton rappers and musicians, and that is a damn shame.
LOL @ the inappropriate crush. No shame, I’m 32 and have one on Jacob Elordi even though his face seems a little too small for his head.
You should watch Chicken Shop Date on Youtube with Jack Harlow. I was literally semi in love with him by the time the 10 minutes was up. Cringey but true. Signed a middle aged lady who knows better.
Chicken Shop date was hilarious. He is hard to dislike.
You can only imagine my surprise to see how Duran Duran had women of color as their objects of desire in their early, biggest videos. So did Depeche Mode. As a little blasian girl in whitebread colorado surrounded by blonde girls as everything, those impressions of a HUGE BAND centering a women of color as a romantic prospect never left me, and made me realize that my beauty was original and I needed to GTFO of Colorado
I am not that familiar with his music. I understand all the criticism that is being relayed here. I’m a Black woman, and I gotta say, just reading those words made my heart soar.
We live in a society that literally Sh**s on Black women and even many Black men love to pile on and participate cause being White adjacent brings benefits so they happily throw us under the bus. I could give you countless examples, it’s not just Chris Rock – remember that douchebag basketball player who got super offended that people were calling Lupita beautiful? He just had to let everyone know how offensive that was to him! And the world is full of these douchebags – athletes who refuse to date anyone darker than a paper bag, mega superstars who treat Black women horribly and make disparaging comments about them and are forgiven. Machine Gun Kelly anyone? Leah Michelle? I am SICK OF IT.
Yes the bar is hellah low. But Prince Harry is refreshing. This guy, this statement is groundbreaking and refreshing. We are always portrayed as not desirable, unintelligent, trashy, unworthy, and that is the case no matter how noble, accomplished, and righteous we are. Just look at how the BM treated Meghan and even her own family participated in the racist bullying.
I am here to say MORE OF THIS PLEASE! This is a trend I can get with. I love Black women too Jack. We literally saved democracy, saved Alabama from that garbage can Roy Moore, and we continue to accomplish, strive, be beautiful and excellent in every way. We continue to show up despite what society and these Karens throw at us. So yeah MORE OF THIS.
“We live in a society that literally Sh**s on Black women and even many Black men love to pile on and participate cause being White adjacent brings benefits so they happily throw us under the bus.”
Reading sentences like that torch my insides. Some of us think black women pretty much built our country.
@Mabs A Mabbin – yes! Not just this country but many other countries as well. I’m not mad at this guy for saying he loves Black women. How many White Americans have said this in a published interview in the last 10 years? Or ever? Instead they do the opposite and deliberately try to take us down a peg saying we aren’t attractive, we have attitude problems, we are gold diggers and not marriage material/worthy of dating etc, – some of our own men do this and too many Black men stay silent when it happens – they don’t even have the courage to correct their classmates in public. Where were all the other basketball players to correct this turd publicly when he made those statements about Lupita? Their silence was deafening. It’s gross. I’ve had it with Kates and Leah Michelles and Machine Gun Kellys, Clarence Thomas and all the other Uncle Ruckus out there. May this be the start of a trend of people shouting they love Black women from the rooftops! Enough already. Enough.
I wish he said something when he was nominated for a BET award for being featured on a Lil Nas X song, and Lil Nas X got no BET nomination. Jack should have said a lot, withdrawn his own nomination if the primary artist is snubbed, etc. I don’t know if he did any of that, but he should have highlighted it somehow.
This is giving white saviorism and inon like it. I don’t listen to Jack Harlow but the little bit I have heard was….not good. It’s tragic that making these types of appeals help white artists in Black spaces.
Some people have a type. My (white) husband likes Italian, latin women. His best friend (also white) only dates asian women. This guy likes black women- why wouldn’t you? While studies show that women have a (slight) preference for men with brown eyes, I am the biggest sucker in the world for blue eyes. ? I can’t explain it.
Who and what we find attractive is definitely science but its also subjective.
When I saw the headline, I cringed…then I read the quote it was attached to and perked up: not quite ready to applaud it and present him with an award, but happy to hear SOMEONE..ANYONE, other than a Black woman say they love Black women. I’m a Black gay man, and the Black women in my life–namely my mother, sisters, aunts, cousins..and sooo many Black female friends of every hue, I celebrate–unless of course they’re trifling, and then I can’t be bothered 😉
I totally share your sentiment @Freddy. Thank you!
Who? 😀
I’m seeing this young guy all over the web, no clue who he is.
Seeing the headline….Sounds like he has a fetish and/or thinks of black women as a pet group.
I’m not his target market, I’m a 60 y/o white female who finds most current music not my thing.
I predict him to have a short lived career in music.
See also Iggy Azalea, one hit wonder IMO.