Ashley Rommelrath
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
"America's Next Top Model" might be named after the infamous reality series but London-based artist SPIDER isn't here to take shots at Tyra Banks and her problematic ways. Instead she is firing back at critics who have attempted to marginalize her as a Black woman making alternative music. "Oh you’ve got judgement? Cool, go choke on it," she spits over crunchy guitars and drums that sound like they're being played at the bottom of the ocean. Raising two middle fingers in the air she makes her message clear when she sings: "Move! I've got shit to do."
Throughout the song 22-year-old SPIDER keeps clapping back at the anodyne state of affairs, calling out those she sees as gatekeeping the scene for themselves while offering up the perfect advert for why diversity matters. The message runs through the song's video, too. Spider dances around a line-up of angry white men, all of whom splutter and gesticulate their rage while she dances carefree and delivers her message with a fine balance of rage and carefree attitude.
Speaking to The FADER via email, SPIDER says: "The whole video is my response to the way I was essentially targeted and censored on social media by people who felt threatened or angered by me, a black alternative artist, using art and using my platform to talk about representation in media and push the boundary a little bit.
"This whole thing of censorship and online abuse is something experienced by marginalised communities who try to express themselves freely, both online and offline, it’s really scarring and it’s hard not to let it disarm you. After this happened to me I slowly started to remember that when people do shit like this to deliberately silence you or scare you or get rid of you, you get to control how you react. If you’re an artist, you react by making art. This video is my response to those people who were so terrified by what I had to say and what I stood for, that they simply had to get rid of my content somehow. I’m not going anywhere, and my hope for whoever watches this video is that they feel empowered enough to keep persisting and making their art, to keep showing up authentically and pushing boundaries despite how many people try to fight you on it."