![]() Since his more fully realized mixtape, 18, dropped in 2016, Harlow has continued to inject his chill party rap and poppy beats with “addictive, candy-coated qualities,” as he described it to Apple Music. Growing up in Louisville’s Highlands neighbourhood, Harlow started writing and rapping at the age of 12 and released his bouncy first EP before graduating high school in late 2015. And I think I have what it takes to really make a mark because I love the art.” Harlow, born in 1998 in Kentucky, is well on his way to turning that dream into reality. ![]() Don’t we all.“I still wanna be one of the greats,“ rapper Jack Harlow tells Apple Music about his commitment to his craft. Perhaps nothing sums adoration for Harlow up better than this quote from his recent Rolling Stone profile: “I am poetic, but I want some ass.” Don’t we all, Jack. It’s not difficult to find old videos of Harlow walking down the halls of his high school and lip-syncing his own lyrics - something that would make me shrivel up in second-hand embarrassment for literally anyone else but, somehow, just makes him more endearing. Harlow has Lil Nas X’s seal of approval - an equally honorable distinction. Last year, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, declared December 18 Jack Harlow Day. It helps that Harlow’s charm is undeniable. However, Harlow seems somewhat cognizant of that, as he told Billboard earlier this year, “There’s a certain responsibility that comes with being a white man in a Black genre.” That slope is made slipperier by the fact that, one could argue, Harlow is doing what Black artists have done forever but comes packaged in a way that music execs have historically deemed “more palatable” (i.e., whiter). It’s a slippery slope from Jack Harlow to, say, Chet Hanks. Harlow also seems somewhat self-aware about the fact that he’s a white person in a predominantly Black industry. Regardless of what side of the app you are on - Straight TikTok, Alt TikTok, Millennial TikTok, BookTok - at some point, Jack Harlow has crossed your For You page, flirting with you through the screen in a way that makes you go, “Oh my God, STOP, Jack. There’s him practicing his little dancey-dance. Harlow has become impossible to avoid, especially on TikTok. Jack Harlow is entering his choreography era, and I, for one, am welcoming it with an open heart and mind. Like Megan Thee Stallion giving body while dancing to “Body.” Like Doja Cat moving her hips in a way that, were I to try to replicate it, would make me throw out my back and somehow leave me concussed. Like Cardi B giving Offset a whole lap dance. I’m talking about capital C Choreography - the kind typically reserved for boy bands and female artists. Something about a rapper doing choreography makes me - how should I say this - forget my own name and most of the state capitals? I’m not talking about dancing like Drake’s “Hotline Bling” move that aged him 15 years in five minutes. Then, I saw him doing the choreography to “Industry Baby” with Lil Nas X at the Grammys, and I was indoctrinated into the Church of Harlow immediately. Just another young man who, as Vulture put it, is famously white and extremely horny. I tried to write him off as a dry-cleaned Post Malone. I tried to stay indifferent to Jack Harlow. Photo-Illustration: by The Cut Photos: Getty Images Jack Harlow, doing his little dancey-dance at the Grammys.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |