All day Thursday, I managed to avoid watching and listening to Justin Timberlake’s second single and music video, “Supplies,” off of his latest album, Man of the Woods. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal – I didn’t completely hate his first single and I thought the video was stupid, but whatever. “Supplies” though… it’s next-level stupidity. It’s actually boomerang stupidity for Justin because he’s opening himself up to a lot of sh-t. He’s opening himself up to a lot of questions that he is incapable of answering. Here’s the video:
I could only get about a minute into this before I gave up, quite honestly. You know what this reminded of in a weird way? Beyonce’s “Formation” video when she made all of those visual references to Katrina, Black Lives Matter and slavery. Beyonce came at those subjects as a black woman who cares deeply about the issues she was referencing – I still get choked up thinking about the “Stop Shooting Us” graffiti – and she backs that up with words and deeds. And for all of that, she was called “militant” and a “Black Panther” and criticized by dozens of prominent white politicians and media figures. But when Justin Timberlake literally breezes by those issues, all anyone can say is “it’s funny that he’s trying to be woke.”
Obviously, Timberlake is trying to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to get credit for being woke enough to include imagery of #MeToo, BLM, Harvey Weinstein, etc, but he doesn’t actually have anything meaningful to say about any of those subjects, and obviously he’s not backing any of this up with any kind of actions. So, basically, he’s just using the movements started by victimized people for his image. He, as a white man, is using people of color and sexual assault victims for his image. As Kathleen at LaineyGossip noted, “This video is essentially JT’s version of the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad.”
Some sites are calling him out on it – The Independent: “Woke up, sheeple, Justin Timberlake just dropped ‘Supplies’, the worst music video of 2018 so far.” And HuffPo: “Justin Timberlake Tries To Convince You He’s Woke In ‘Supplies’ Music Video.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Why not both? He pretty much couldn’t have made his intention anymore obvious if he had titled the song “Me Pretending to Be Woke, Y’all”.
I think what really annoys me is pretending that he is while simultaneously pandering to his more conservative white audience by “getting back to his roots” and pretending to be all outdoorsy mountain man.
That’s a man who climbed the back of woman, who was he before Britney Spears? And whose act and refusal to say something were crucial to the downfall of Janet Jackson. Also, he lives of from black music and can’t even let his wife shine.
Exactly. JT’s career is entirely built on the backs and work of others.
Even Claude the albino alligator’s like “wth? Don’t steal my style for this nonsense”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_(alligator)
His utter self-involvement and shameless opportunism is stunning, no? He really is sociopathic—no one else, not even his wife, is a real human being with needs of their own. It’s the blatant obliviousness to anyone else that gets me. I’ve actually known a person in my life like this and she literally could not carry on a simple conversation unless it was about her—narcissists are a trip as long as you don’t get too close and keep your hands away from their mouths.
Everyone go listen to Black Eyed Peas “Street Living” instead of this JT song
Holy tone deaf Batman! The way it’s all kind of shoved in there makes it meaningless. I mean why not include Save the Whales while you’re at it. Good grief.
So essentially, it’s a Kendall Jenner Pepsi redux?
Just asking because I didn’t watch it, in keeping with my Timberlake -free diet.
Same. Not gonna support him. Not gonna click. He is user.
GTFOH.
You said it for me Nev. SMH
What is this? It’s like he just stopped trying . The video and the song is not good JT, not good at all.
Lord this is dumb. And still not a word about working with Woody Allen. Who does he think he’s fooling?
Has the douche even been ASKED about working with the pedophile yet? Every last damn woman that’s worked for him gets the question shoved in her face repeatedly… why is this douche absolved?
Totally trying to do-opt the #metoo and BLM movements for his own gain, in particular trying to look like some feminist ally. And then at 1:12 he earnestly sing “IT MAKES ME A GENEROUS LOVER” as if that’s what the movement needs, JT’s sexual healing.
PS his idea of being a generous lover means he’s not facing a mirror.
PPS interesting how the screens show Harvey W but no Woody Allen. If he’s such a feminist why no comment re Dylan Farrow’s accusations?
“as if that’s what the movement needs, JT’s sexual healing.” LOL! Like we all are dying to bone JT… he’s so f’ing oblivious.
He needs to knock off whatever is making him look so AWAKE lately and come down to earth for a bit. We’ve moved on from dick in a box. And I agree with everything else you said. Spot on all around.
My favorite hilarious take on the song:
“That’s when I was finally like, oh! This is about him prioritizing women’s sexual pleasure over his own, and also probably going down on ladies, and also the “supplies” must be sex toys.”
https://www.thecut.com/2018/01/justin-timberlake-supplies-video-generous-lover.html
Agree about Beyonce, she uses feminist as an accessory to make prop herself up as a visionary (a la Taylor Swift) and has never once said anything to back up the ideas she puts forth through her image. Beyonce has some of the best people in the industry behind her, that’s all that is: stylists, creative directors, personal assistants, consultants.
Agree about what? Your comment is the exact contrary of Kaiser’s point. Also why are you using this article to get back at a black woman.
Beyonce has no obligation to say shit.
She’s not the first artist to let her music do the talking for her.
Also I have a feeling if she did say something, you would still take issue with it.
Ummmm gonna guess you’ve missed the donations Jay and Bey have made to victims of police brutality privately, small local causes, bail funds and the fact that Bey exclusively hires black women to be her back up and her band.
but sure
At some point, you have to realize that you do not know of which you speak. Just say you don’t like Beyonce and keep moving. She actually donates time and money. But, hey, nothing will stop you from posting nonsense, right?
Visceral responses. I “agreed “to a comment where someone else essentially made my point, but the comment was deleted. Perhaps because they anticipated the response I see here the OP thought the better of it. We need to be open to criticism of even those held to high cultural esteem.
People make donations all the time: see Mark Whalberg, Taylor Swift. (it’s also great for taxes)
I standby my comment and fully respect each and every single response posted to it, thank you.
The “Beyoncé isn’t allowed to be a feminist” campaign has been waged by racists and sexist prudes on both sides for years now. As well as the tired, “Watch me prove what a Cool Liberal I am by showing that I’m not too P.C. to shit on Beyoncé- without valid reason” game that some seem to inexplicably get a kick out of. It’s a little dishonest, or maybe just naïve, to brush off the concentrated efforts to exclude her, in particular, from the feminist movement over the years have all just been normal, innocent criticism that people are overreacting to, don’t you think? The truth is that it’s a symptom of some of the problems within the feminist movement and the way it’s perceived.
Oooof. Valid, fair opinion.
I don’t know that ALL cynical people are trying to “sh!t” on Beyonce “for no reason” or say “she’s not allowed to be a feminist”. I think quite a few people are just naturally skeptical of her because she’s so high-profile and stays married to that sexist pig Jay-Z. Plus, before she started putting anti-police brutality imagery in her videos, she would sometimes feature creepy SWAT-team dressed dancers in some of her performances like it was “cool”. (Some of this was brought to my attention by other black people on the internet/YouTube).
I think any high-profile, mainstream artist (of any color or ethnicity) should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Today’s music industry – by all accounts – is so different from, say, the eighties, that I really don’t know how much control the artists actually have of their image and video ideas, etc.
She doesn’t even seem to realize that the conspicuous consumption, shallow, heavily pro-capitalist image she pushes is part of the system that upholds the deaths and problems that she believe she’s fighting. They won’t “stop shooting us” until people like her stop being complicit in their inherently racist and violent system. Donations mean nothing. She and Jay created their wealth using the same corrupt infrastructure that continues to oppress people of the working class and minorities. What’s more, they choose to promote the elitist image that somehow their combined wealth makes them better than the classes ‘beneath’ them, aka their fans. Their fans are supposed to aspire to be like them. She know what works to make them more wealth, end of. #complicit
@Ohreally: By turning a conversation that was initially about a rich white man’s use of BLM and #Metoo into : “But racism and police brutality wouldn’t even be problems if Beyonce stopped being so shallow and showy with her wealth!”, you’ve just proven my point about the tones and motives behind a lot of the criticism of Beyonce over the past few years.
@Holly Wouldn’t: The problem with that is that if we’re going to make every word and action of a woman’s husband the deciding factor for whether or not a woman gets to be a feminist, that pretty much eliminates most women who are married to men. Single straight women would be the only straight women to have a decent chance at membership. That’s making relationships with men too much of a personal and political liability for women.
Otaku,
I don’t see why you read those things into our posts. The fact is, Jay-Z doesn’t seem respectful to women at all. Why aren’t people calling for him to “do better”?
Why is Pharell attached to this? He’s usually really not this tone deaf, I mean Lemon, with Riri was amazing
cough…. blurred lines…. cough
(**cough, cough**) worked with/defended “appropriation queen” Miley Cyrus
(**cough, cough, cough**) produced Camila Cabello AFTER racist texts revealed
-also see TI & Iggy Azalea
blurred lines and that native american appropriation shoot would disagree with you
I completely forgot about Blurred Lines!!!
Giving pharell tooooooo much credit
Okay so I am an unabashed Pharrell fan here so please call me out if I’m excuse making for him…
He works with so many different people on so many projects I wonder if he signs on/signs a contract etc before he realizes what he has gotten himself into? I can’t imagine he knew what kind of video would be created for a song ahead of time right? Idk I know NOTHING about the business of making music.
And here I thought the worst thing he could do was make a country album. Gross.
My favorite part is at 2.20 when his head is so obviously photoshopped onto his body, it enters the uncanny valley of stupid.
Why in the world did Jessica Biel marry this flaming D-BAG i’ll never know.
He cheated on her too. Pretty publicly.
The White Male Musical Genius, ladies and gentlemen. Totally predictable, and totally repugnant.
Don’t forget, this is the dude that the Shriners severed their relationship with because once the cameras went away, he was never around.
What are Shriners?
As in, Shriners Hospitals for Children. Sick kids. They sponsored his charity golf tournament (it was literally called something like “Justin Timberlake’s Shriners Hospitals For Kids Golf Tournament”). This dude doesn’t get to pretend to be woke.
They are connected to the Masons and as was said dona tin of charity work for kids through their hospitals
I’m not going to watch this and give him the clicks, so I’ll take your word for it, along with my long standing thought that he was a shallow opportunist who skates by on everything by being “charming” on SNL occasionally.
He was good like his first two appearances and has been coasting ever since. Alec Baldwin is great on SNL too, so people should be able to see through that.
The whole point of this song is him playing man savior, right? When women are finding their voices and standing up for themselves, our white knight in shining armor is here to protect us! As long as defending us doesn’t interfere with his career, obviously. We should be thanking him for his service!
YES! There are so many spot-on and insightful comments in this thread. How I wish they could be broadcast into JT’s pea brain. Narcissist, ego-maniac and, I strongly suspect, a psychopath.
I watched it (but didn’t listen lol), and I’m nonplussed. Music videos have always garnered a full range of emotion. He probably thinks this is so all-inclusively well-timed… I can almost hear the excitement at their preliminary meetings. Nobody is going to live up to or match personal favorites. I find JT to be mildly toasted white bread, and I prefer fresh and crusty European. 😀
If you look up the lyrics to this song it makes this even more disgusting. The song doesn’t have a political message. He isn’t saying anything except “ooooo baby come let me bang you” like all his ridiculous songs.
I don’t have to see it or hear it to know it’s stupid.
Can we talk about how the music sux too? At least the other song was catchy. This one blows.
In a community of narcissists, he is the king.
At his wedding, the man had a video montage of mentally ill homeless people wishing him congratulations whole everyone laughed.
His people’s excuse was that it was his friend who did it. But this means he has a friend who thought, “you know what Justin would really get a kick of? If I videotaped homeless people and played it as a joke at his wedding.”
Remember Fallon once did a whole week of shows where he was tbe guest? He needs to go too.
I didn’t watch his first video or listen to the song but out of curiosity I watched the second one. WTH? The ending by far was the weirdest part. The child saying “die already…leave!” Huh?
Im gonna go with stupidly offensively tone deaf for the win…
Dumb. I mean, like KJ’s commercial, I’m sure there was no malicious intent; just straight-up tone deafness. The song is also just annoying. I don’t dislike JT as much as some on here, mostly because I barely pay attention to me, but this just struck me as really try-hard and dumb.
I find JT insufferable and have for years now. I don’t like him, his smarmy attitude or his need to be the centre of attention. I don’t like his music either.
I cannot stand him for even a sec, so I’m not gonna bother watching the video (the preview alone has me cringing already). I wish, instead of some bs video, he would answer of his choice to work with WA instead of trying to be ‘woke’ and all of that. He’s ridiculous.
It seems like someone on his team said “let’s see what song on this album has the most chance to be even vaguely political. Ooh! This one where the lyrics talk about walking up to a woman being harassed by a douche and you be her douche savior. Great! Now, put political imagery all over the video. Is that a real black man’s dead body. That’s not triggering for people at all. It’s REAL! Put it in there. We’re living in post apocalyptic times! It’s Mad Max, it’s Walking Dead! Yes! Gun choker- do that!
I never finished the video. I couldn’t get through it. Ugh, The song is better than the first single, though, which I hated.
Also i think nobody talks enough about the fact that the ode to his wife when they were getting married was all about how he loves her so much because it’s like she’s his mirror.
His new music is awful.
He may be panicking a little because he’s no longer the super-hot commodity he once was. If I were given a choice between a Justin Timberlake concert and a concert by The Weeknd I’d pick The Weeknd every time, and I’m in my 70’s.
He’s such a petty, bland, talentless jackhole. I thought I couldn’t find him more repugnant than I did before, but nope… This video drops him several notches. He’s awful. Why is he still trying to be relevant fifteen years past his sell-by date?
How can I be offended by the video when I don’t get it, lol.
At least the opening, the Matrix thing with multiple monitors, was recolored red, white, and blue. I caught the sarcasm and I liked it.
The rest of the video seemed so… confused. I don’t hate Justin Timberlake, but he’s never understood how to sell himself as a “man of the people,” and I wish he’d stop even trying. Just be you, Justin! Be a rich, well-meaning white guy who failed his way upward into Oscar-winning movies! Basically, just don’t do any WORSE, and you’ll always win, man. No need to make a confusing video, guy.
Most things are subjective, particularly music, and the arts. I don’t mind if Justin is (pretend woke) dear god the bastardisation of the English language is depressing, I digress. I think Justin has a large teenage audience most of whom are female, and the imagery he presents in his video is in my view femalecentric. So, I’m not so caught up in whether or not he believes it, I’m happy the message is a positive one, whomever disseminates it?