20GAYTeen the Rate: WINNER!!

Probably best to just quote it when we get to the actual elimination. That's what's usually done when there's a mix up in the reveals.

 

This actually kept me up past my bed time last night, thinking of molecules made me think multiples so is the new position #24? #12? #6? #3?

Spoiler

#soon!

 

I'd just link the original post @Trouble in Paradise as it's so beautifully written.

 

Thanks y'all! I will keep it for posterity and quote it #soon! Also the #moment I thought we would have when "Molecule" actually leaves isn't the same one I thought since I'm terrible at math. Someone should really give me a spreadsheet intervention

 

As I set out on getting this rate back on the right track, so does Chicago's first openly gay black female mayor Lori Lightfoot (she is both the first black woman and first openly gay person voted mayor of the city!). She's come out swinging, commenting that the Chicago police force "has not adequately taken into account the segregation in our city and that race does matter" and that fact "has left many people feeling like the police are an illegitimate occupying force and we've got to change that around because literally lives depend on it." YES LORI! SPEAK THE TRUTH!

48. "Mine"
By Vincint
7.500

Highest Scores: 10 x 3 (@Sanctuary @Lost Boy @Untouchable Ace) 9.5 x 1 (@Blob)
Lowest Scores: 4 x 2 (@LE0Night @soratami) 5 x 1 (@Empty Shoebox)
My Score: 9

You should be mine
I should be the one you come home to yeah every night
You should be mine
I should be the one that you run to when nothing feels right
​

Our true #48 has been revealed and I go from losing a 9.5 to a 9.0! Honestly from this point out there are only a few eliminations that aren't going to sting at least a little (and one I'm very much looking forward too!) Vincint has been on my song list from the get go but the song of choice has been a difficult decision. I decided to go with his most recent single "Mine" and I'm glad I did given his solid showing here. "Marrow" is one of my faves but it's pretty old and "Remember Me" just doesn't do it for me. "Mine" is pure bombast and gives me early Whitney which is a huge compliment! The vocals babay! That production! Those synths! Those drum hits! Yes'm!

Vincint has talked a variety of publications about the song and stitched together they come together to present the story behind the song:

Talking about the inspiration behind the song to NewNowNext:

"There wasn’t a person in particular. I have just noticed that time and time again through friends that they sort of let opportunities that involve being in love and being with someone slip away from them out of fear by not going for it. I wanted to put that in song for where I can say: “Okay, don’t let that person walk away because the timing may be bad or you may be rejected. Just tell them that you want them to be yours and that’s it.”
​

In talking to Out, Vincint touches on the themes of overcoming fear and creating a song to give voice to those who might be too nervous to say how they feel:

"The song is for the romantics too afraid to shout their love from the rooftops. I thought I’d give them an easier way to do it. I find that fear plays a big part in people’s love lives and because of it they end up missing out on something that could be glorious.”
​

Lastly, in talking to Paper Magazine, Vincint summarizes his desire for the song:

You have to have the balance sometimes. People want to cry and they also want to feel like it's going to be OK. That's what I tried to do with 'Mine.'"​

I don't know about you, but I definitely feel that tension when I listen to "Mine" as Vincint pulls on both my heartstrings and makes my hips shake.

I have to say, Vincint is a pretty amazing artist and one quite worthy of stanning for. In reading his interviews, he comes across as incredibly intelligent and passionate about what he does and being who he is. He was a finalist on the singing competition The Four which i never heard of but that's mentioned in every one of his interviews. More importantly, he's been a fierce out gay black man since the start of his career and has defined his career from the get-go on his own terms. In talking to NewNowNext about how he has always been authentic with expressing who he is and what's that given him Vincint had this to say:

It’s given me freedom. It has given me the opportunity to be honest with myself and to do what I like. I was told for the longest time that I had to make R&B music because I’m black. And I was like, “I don’t like R&B, I don’t wanna make R&B. I wanna make pop music.” Since I was like five, I listened to Celine Dion ’til I couldn’t anymore. I listened to Robyn and Madonna and Bjork. That’s who I love to listen to and, for me, it gave me such a freedom to understand what I wanted and who I wanted to be. As long as it was authentic, that’s all that mattered.

It gave me confidence, like body armor, to navigate the [LGBTQ] community. Being black and gay, we’re like a sub-level of the community, but what I understand is that I don’t have to feel that way just because people try and treat me that way.
​

I love how he absolutely shatters the boxes people try to put him in while also naming the forces that are working against him. And the one silver lining of this elimination is that it will hopefully get you all to listen to his upcoming single coming out this Friday!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TOMORROW. <br>9pm • PST<br>12pm • EST <a href="https://t.co/IfXvEHGTQ0">pic.twitter.com/IfXvEHGTQ0</a></p>&mdash; VINCINT (@VINCINT_) <a href="">April 3, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Now for y'alls commentary:
Londonrain This is the third song I’ve heard by him (having been introduced to him when Marrow was submitted to PJSC) and all three have been great so far. I’m definitely keeping track of what he releases next
untitled sounds like one of those anonymous female-vocaled bops that always win PJSC
The Hot Rock Very evocative of crushy feelings. Sweet.
CorgiCorgiCorgi I feel like this song just opened a portal to another dimension
Untouchable Ace Longing. Now everyone listen to 'Marrow'.
ufint Sweetie child, you ain’t Beyoncé, but you’re doing fairly good. Disco 90s and a decent chorus. I’m missing a post chorus that makes me wanna take my shirt off and show my coochiecoo to someone random, but I’m kinda feeling this.
Music is Life Moody bop, that for some reason made me sad, but like, in a good way? That doesn't really makes any sense. Maybe I'm just tired.

("Mine" isn't on youtube and I'm too tired to embed it from Spotify so enjoy his other songs!)

 

I liked this one but "Marrow" is definitely his better song. I remember someone entered it in PJSC a while back.

Also @Trouble in Paradise i've noticed you've been having some trouble with embeds lately, let me make your life a whole lot easier. This forum makes it super easy, all you have to do is post the URL link. For instagram, twitter, spotify etc. Same way you would for a youtube video.

 

Okay so knowing the inspiration behind the song, sad but in a good way does make some sense. But I was tired when I wrote that.

 

Well, I don't remember how Mine goes at this point, but I did give it an 8, so apparently I liked it quite a lot.

 

I have to say - there is not much funnier than reading the commentary section and seeing @londonrain's and @untaggable's following each other! Dddd

 

You are my hero! I have been struggle. It’s with embeds! Prepare for so many tweets y’all!

 

If anyone was wondering here is maybe only Vincint's 4th original song released

which leads to another lovely 2018 FYC from Leland

 

Leland absolutely worked the stage and gave it his all opening for Troye. He even included a "Run Away With Me" cover. Gay heaven!

 

Vincint released his new song "Please Don't Fall in Love" and I think it's my favorite thing he's ever done:

 

Well that's a timely release!

 

Our next cut is introduced by Peter Staley, one of the key figures in the award winning documentary How to Survive a Plague and an active member of ACT UP and TAG. His work protesting with ACT UP and TAG helped make early AIDS related medicine more affordable and accessible.

47. "Soft Stud"
By Black Belt Eagle Scout
7.552

Highest Scores: 10 x 3 (@yuuurei @Music Is Life @LE0Night) 9 x 4 (@Hurricane Drunk @The Hot Rock @soratami)
Lowest Scores:3 x 1 (@Riiiiiiiii) 3.5 x 1 (@londonrain)
My Score: 8.5

What is it to you?
Habits just don’t fade
Open, overcrowded love
I know you’re taken
​

My little engine that could ends her journey here at 47! I really did not have high hopes for Black Belt Eagle Scout, but most of y'all came through with taste! This is pure indie rock goodness of the best kind and I'm both shocked and impressed that she outranked boygenius and Anna Calvi here. Black Belt Eagle Scout is the project of Catherine Paul, a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. She uses the complexity of her identity to inform her songwriting explaining: "Having this identity—radical indigenous queer feminist—keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman."

Let's start with the name shall we? She explained to the Boston Globe (I discovered her when reading the paper at my parents house one random Sunday!):

Q. Where does the name “Black Belt Eagle Scout” come from?

A. My friend came up with my band name. We were playing in a band together and Black Belt Eagle Scout was one of the names we didn’t choose for our band. I asked if I could use it for my solo project. I’ve come to find meaning from it in a creative way. To be a black belt and an Eagle Scout is to be the highest ranking and to me, BBES means to be the best you can be in your creative self.
​

And she definitely is at the top of her creative game with "Soft Stud." The song is full of this pulsing longing from the way her voice stretches on the "need you/want you" refrain to the slow build and final explosion of the guitar solo that closes the song out. We love a lady who can play! She has referred to the song as her "queer anthem" and explained to Pitch Perfect PR that it's “about the hardships of queer desire within an open relationship, which I think a lot of the queer community can relate to.” She expanded upon this talking with The Fader:

Tell me about the album opener “Soft Stud.”

For a bit I was really afraid of doing chords for songs. I felt like they were too simple, like maybe if it’s too simple [the song] won’t be good. [For] “Soft Stud,” I was playing along to some Cat Power songs and I realized that Cat Power has this really pretty chord. And I was like, I’m gonna try and play that. The song is actually about this person that I was dating. I was in this open relationship and those can sometimes be hard because you’re sharing a partner with somebody. There’s jealousy involved. So a lot of the lyrics are about being a secondary partner, I guess. There is a lyric, “I know you're taken.” But "soft stud" is a term, I think, of endearment for somebody who is studly but also in this soft way. So that’s why I named it that.
​

We love a fellow a Cat Power fan creating queer anthems inspired by our fave! Also I love the term "Soft Stud" as she explains it, definitely gonna be using that. I have to say between this song and "Have Fun Tonight" we have an interesting exploration of open relationships in the rate. I've spent a decent amount of time reflecting and talking to friends about them and I've come to the conclusion that I'm simply not built for one, but would love to hear others opinions on the topic and how they might relate to this song!

Not only does Black Belt Eagle Scout make amazing queer music, she's out here representing queer Native women like a boss. Every interview I read with her was full of amazing and insightful reflections on the contemporary lives of Native people and how the intersection of being queer, a woman, and a native person inform her experiences. The Fader asked her if she feared being tokenized and her answer really blew me away:

No. And it’s because so many people in United States think that Native people don’t exist. So many people think that Native people are all dead. I don’t have a problem with being identified as a Native person because that’s a counter to people’s views about Native people like they’re something of the past. No, we’re here, present. So that’s why I don’t have a problem with if someone is like, “Oh, you’re sort of being tokenized.” Like, I don’t care. I’m showing up for my people. I’m here for us.

A lot of people will wear headdresses or a Native costume for Halloween as if we’re something that doesn’t exist anymore. I actually was talking to some publicists before I chose my publicist, and one of the publicists brought that up. I thought about it because at that time I didn’t have formed opinions about it. But afterwards I was like, You know, it doesn’t bother me. Yeah, I want to be the Native musician because there needs to be more Native musicians and there needs to be more visibility. So if you call me the Native musician, that’s totally chill.
​

She speaks so sharply to the reality of her existence being political and revolutionary. For most white people, especially liberal white people, it's comfortable to say "wow, we really treated those noble Native Americans terribly" and move on with a point of view firmly placed in the past. Black Belt Eagle Scouts exists firmly in the present and challenges this notion head on. When talking with the Boston Globe, she expands upon the contemporary challenges faced by indigenous people and how the roots of the problem lay in colonization and societies inability to own up to these action.

I feel like a lot of the ways in which native people don’t accept queer people and queer indigenous people in their lives has to do with colonization. When Europeans came to the United States to steal the land that’s here and kill everybody that’s an indigenous person, and then to force everyone to be in boarding schools and to forget their language and to learn English — that’s when all of that happened of “I have to be like a white person, I have to live in this white world. If I don’t, then I’ll die.” And I think that it takes a lot of healing, it’s going to take a while. It takes people like us to keep spreading that word so that more people understand that this happened.​

I love that she did not mince her words and called it as it is. She also so concisely named the roots of homophobia in Native cultures (and in many non-white cultures in general) and how white supremacy so often is the root for many of the prejudices and hates that exist in our society today.

Phew, okay this is a pop music forum so let me hop off my soap box and hope over to the commentary document before I get too carried away!
The Hot Rock This (so far) is the song that matches my general/non-pop specific music disposition. Song was relatable to perhaps a painful extent.
Pop3blow2 Oooh, this is a discovery. I knew nothing about this album or artist. This track is good & will investigate more.
reboot Nice background music
londonrain The vocals on this... yikes. They’re fine in the middle of the range but every time she approaches a high note or a low note I find myself cringing.
Constantino Whew, this is my SHIT, takes me right back to my deep ‘indie rock’ phase...which lasted about 7 years. Another new discovery, halleloo.
Yuuurei I absolutely LOVE this song and her sound. I've never been super into grunge but it's always the women in the genre who can pull me in and this is no exception. Will definitely be checking out the rest of her discography.

Let's close with uftint, whose commentary made me laugh out loud and want to ask so many questions:
Sorry, 2008 called. They want their sound back. This is totally the stuff I would pay a pound or eight to see ten years ago and blow some gorgeous twink off to, but this is 2018 and I have grown way too old for that shit. It does bring back memories of concerts of which we shall not go into details to ON TONIGHT.

​

 

Noooooo this was one of my favorite new discoveries of the rate. Glad it made it this far, still.

 

Should have made it even farther but glad it wasn't out super early. I loved reading those interview snippets, she is such a needed and interesting artist.

 

I thought this drawn-out, long, moody jam would flop, so seeing it almost top 40 exceeds my expectations.zip!