The Booty Politic: Major Lazer - "Bubble Butt" Video [NSFW] + What It Means
"Bubble Butt"--the official video from the Major Lazer crew--dropped this week, garnering some 2 million youtube views and a whooole lot of commentary, both negative and positive. Which should come as no surprise, really. Diplo has a way of sparking debates--for real, there at least a few people in this office on a regular basis who are writing dissertations of one kind or another on this dude. Remember the Okayafrica Wes Diplo x Chief Boima debate about the politics of tropical bass? Remember the Wes Diplo x Venus X Iceberg twitter war where she called him 'the New Columbus'? Those were awesome. The Diplo effect apparently kicks in triple for a Major Lazer video, though--remember the comments section on the first Major Lazer video for "Pon De Floor?" That shit was like the Django Unchained of dancehall studies.
So it's not surprising that dancehall specialists LargeUp weighed in on the ass-worshipping, VVNSFW video--also directed by Eric Wareheim, of "Pon De Floor" infamy--early in the game. It is surprising--refreshing even--that they have mostly positive comments. If I'm reading this right, LU editor Jesse Serwer is likening the "Bubble Butt" video to (its obvious spiritual predecessor) "Baby Got Back" from Sir Mix-A-Lot as the ultimate conversation-starter and icon-smasher when it comes to eurocentric standards of beauty. I feel confident that such seemingly pro-Diplo sentiments will not go unchallenged (free Roots Picnic mixtape to the first person who can work the phrase "hottentot Venus" into their response). So...without further ado, let's engage the Booty Politic. Watch the video below and scroll down for commentary from LargeUp and Okayfuture (who speak for the EDM side of the equation):
LargeUp Says:
Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 1992 single “Baby Got Back” is many things—a song everyone still knows the lyrics to, more than 20 years later; one of the biggest rap hits of its era—but its most notable legacy is a cultural one. The brown girls/big booties vs. white girls/flat asses debate has probably been discussed behind closed doors for as long as African and European people have been living side by side. But the Seattle MC’s homage to bubble butts brought discussion of the relationship between race and derriere proportions out into the open, and the mainstream. Not only did Mix-A-Lot’s tribute challenge social norms (“I’m tired of magazines! Sayin’ flat butts are the thing!”) when it comes to women, race and body type— you could convincingly argue that it altered them...the video begins with a bunch of uber-white chicks in a loft—think 2013 Williamsburg versions of the yapping Valley girl (“Oh my god Becky, look at her butt”) from “Baby Got Black”—who are visited by a giant black girl (dubbed “Buttzilla” in the credits) equipped with butt-seeking tentacles which inject their asses with a fluid that grows them to grotesque proportions. It’s then that they find themselves on the set of a music video set full of gyrating, naturally-endowed brown girls and, eventually, girls of all colors and booty size.
Like “Baby Got to Back” (with its set full of giant, butt-shaped mounds) back in ’92, “Bubble Butt” needs to be seen to be believed. And it is definitely NSFW so find a nice, private place to watch—then try to stop yourself from sharing. -Jesse Serwer
Okayfuture says:
While this video may leave you scratching your head thinking ‘WTF?’, you have to admit, you can’t peel your eyes away from it. Diplo, who somehow has become the king of twerk, is back with a vengeance, this time creating a new express yourself anthem in “Bubble Butt.” The five minute video, directed by Eric Wareheim, features booty twerkin’ galore as girls show off what their mama gave em’, or shall we say what the Amazonian-Ass-Goddess gave em’. As with all Eric Wareheim / Major Lazer productions, the video is strange and sometimes uncomfortable, to say the least, but at the heart of it all is the song which is catchy and impossible to listen to it just once. With vocals from Tyga and 2 Chainz, its the perfect track to get stuck in your head regardless if you’re a guy or a girl. -Drea Wong
You says (?)