Don't be sad, angels, I'm sure y'all eventually will get in
Idek if this is an actual leak but some of y'all keep asking for it so there you go anyway
https://dbree.org/v/454536
I hope it makes y'all feel a lil better
I think it's frustration and desperation, though desperation might not be the right word. Maybe desire? Determination?
She's *so close* to a breakthrough. She's *so close* to setting some records. She's *so close* to moving into the center lane and off the shoulder in her career. She's been working at this for over a decade now, and just *now* we've had a spark hit with the 'Unholy' feature. I can understand the push to turn that into a fire.
Now, *none* of us fans, stans, and h8rs know what's going through an artists mind - short of an explicit "Hi, I'm X, and this is EXACTLY what I think and why I think it" statement - but if I had to guess, I just think there's a level of tiredness, mixed with a desire to "make it", over everything she's done thus far. She's had how many cancelled projects now? She's had how many PR flubs and Twitter oopsies? (that seem to have come from frustration at criticism?) If it was me, I'd be putting myself on a lil autopilot here and there just to get by and keep grinding.
She signed her career to someone who is subsequently a poison pill (Puke), and is constantly getting beat over the head for it. She's got those shame bells ringing all the time. She's got fans clamoring for music and leaks and snips and scraps of projects. She's got pressure there on both the supply side/demand side to handle. To veer into the political - she's a visible (if she wasn't before, she sure is now after 'Unholy') transwoman, with her story and her transition being very publicized and talked about from an early age. There's a lot of pressure and focus on that aspect of her - that minority stress isn't ever going to go away.
Next part I'm putting behind a spoiler/TW just because it's a sensitive topic (physical appearance/body critiques)
What mainstream, have hit the radio, in the public eye trans artists are there? None to come to *my* mind, save Petras. And when Queer artists do hit the mainstream, or get close to it, there's always this risk of them being a novelty factor, just a flash-in-the-pan moment in pop culture, where they're everywhere for a beat, and then it's diminishing returns and then a fade out to being the LGBTQ+ locals favorite. Nobody wants that life, I wouldn't think? But how do you avoid that? There's pressure there, too.
Like I said - she's been at this for a decade. She's had how many cancelled projects and flopped rollouts during that time? She's signed to/with someone who historically (like it or not) has been a hitmaker, but the hits are...where? She's not getting any younger. There's a degree of stress on urgency there. There's a degree of stress unique to her by being an international (from Germany, remember) transwoman, on top of music industry stress as a baseline. Label wants this, label wants that, etc. etc.
I can see were, reasonably, someone would start to wear thin from frustration from the industry, frustration from choices that were made, frustration from getting recognition (Unholy) and then it going nowhere, or not going anywhere as fast as anticipated or promised, and I can see where that would start to reflect back into our quality of work. And I say frustration specifically as a root note for all of it, because of her basically saying "w/e yolo listen to Problematique leaks I'm fucked and not allowed to release shit anyway". That sounds very "frustrated and giving in" to me.
It's like - do you double down and commit to the grind, even if it means you have to sacrifice some parts of yourself, if there's a chance you come out ahead in the end? Or do you just throw up your hands and change course/level expectations and go a different route/approach? Not an easy decision when you have so many factors at play, and your work and public image is going to suffer no matter which route you take.
Not trying to defend anything, or promote anything - just my thoughts on where the perceived quality drop could be coming from and what could be feeding into it.
