After the release of Blackbear’s fourth studio album "Cybersex,” many critics were quick to bash the artist on his "lack of originality,” but they are so wrong that I almost felt insulted for Blackbear when I was reading these reviews.
I’ve held my tongue for long enough about it, and I think it’s time to explain exactly what makes “Cybersex” such a great album and why these “critics” need to know the story behind the album before they bash it so extremely.
“Cybersex” was released on November 27, 2017, and is the first of Blackbear’s albums to be released since his reported $10 million distribution deal with Interscope Records.
He released almost half of the album as singles for his fan base that he calls his “cubz” between the first week of October to the first week of November, with the album coming at the end of November as stated above.
The first two songs, "Gucci Linen” featuring 2 Chainz and "Bright Pink Tims” featuring Cam’ron, are two of the harder rap songs on “Cybersex” with both of them containing elements of trap music.
Blackbear is known by his cubz for being very versatile in his style, meaning he can do everything from rapping on a trap song with misogynistic bars--not always though--to singing melodically with deep and meaningful lyrics behind a ballad-like instrumental.
And that’s exactly what he does on "Cybersex."
The third song on the album, "Playboy Shit,” features an artist named Lil Aaron and is also a rap song. But from there, Blackbear’s sound, for the most part, turns more towards singing rather than rapping, leaving the majority of the remaining rapping on the album to featured guests like Rick Ross and Machine Gun Kelly.
These first three songs are probably the least emotional ones on the album and lean more toward just being about his love for fashion brands and women, something he mentions throughout the whole album, but much different from the first three tracks.
The rest of the album goes on to follow more of a personal and emotional path that everyone who has ever experienced their most painful heartbreaks in life and survived them without losing themselves for good can relate to on just about every level.
Songs like "E.z.,” "Anxiety” and "I hope your whole life sux” give a clear-cut message on being mistreated by the person Blackbear is in love with and struggling with getting completely over them.
He turns to substance abuse or sleeping around with random women to make love through them to the woman he still loves but knows he shouldn’t.
Some of the reviews I have read attempted to state this as nothing but misogyny and disrespect to women, but doing so is simply just a failure to understand hip-hop culture and the terms that come along with the lyrics in its songs.
In "I hope your whole life sux,” Blackbear says, “Instagram be feelin' like the grocery store, I pick and choose” and in "Candayapple,” featuring Paul Wall & Riff Raff, Blackbear uses, “she my accessory, you know Ima flaunt her” and was later criticized for these two lines, among others.
My question is why?
Blackbear is a man with a lot of fame, a lot of money and a voice that has made the hearts of both men and women melt at the very sound of it, so why is it so hard to believe that he’s just being honest about the fact that he really can just easily pick up a pretty girl on Instagram?
And furthermore, why is it wrong to say he would “flaunt” these women? He doesn’t say that he plays them, promising them love and then leaving, but he does tell us in “Cybersex” that these women are just temporarily filling the void in his own heart because he can’t be with the woman he really loves due to their situation.
Other artists like Drake, Trey Songz and Chris Brown, for example, are so openly misogynistic when talking about their relations with women, and no one cares.
If anything, they are sexualized even more for their acts, yet Blackbear is being ripped apart for saying having sex with random women is a way for him to temporarily get over a woman he loves.
I see zero sense in that logic, but OK.
Blackbear has said in an interview with Pigeons and Planes that “Cybersex” is about celebrating life and being grateful for surviving every obstacle life threw his way. When asked about its meaning in the interview, Blackbear replies with:
“Celebration. I didn’t die. I was supposed to die. One in three people die with the severity of my disease. And it didn’t kill me yet, so until it does I’m gonna celebrate. I’m most excited because so far, this is my best album.”
And when asked why he answers:
“Probably because I didn’t make it for me. I used to only make music for me, as an outlet to get my feelings out or whatever. I made this album for the world. My goal is for people to feel as good as I felt not dying, beating pancreatitis. It’s a celebration of life.”
This message truly does carry throughout the entire album as Blackbear brings an oddly positive tone to things like heartbreak and making us feel like even though it is so painful to the point where we think we can’t take it anymore, we’re going to be OK as long as we keep pushing forward.
That is, after all, what helped Blackbear become famous in the first place.
“Cybersex” is an album that has helped me personally with a lot of things I have been struggling with in my life, and I know that there are tons of people out there who feel the same way.
If you haven’t heard the album yet, whether it’s because of the reviews or not, give it a chance because, in it, he finds a way to create a sound like no other by cross-breeding hip-hop subgenres with some rock vibes.
“Cybersex” is available NOW on Apple and Spotify, so check it out if you get the chance! You’ll probably love it just like I did and the thousands upon thousands of other people who have, too.
