UK rapper and commentator Zuby is not missing a beat. When social media giants hand him a bunch of lemons – he brings in his artistic creativity and throws a lemonade party.
And that’s how you do it.
This means that Zuby is back on the (in)famous “OK dude” controversy train with a new single – announced on that self-same Twitter who back in February slapped a short-lived ban on his account, after an online run-in with a transgender activist who identifies as a woman.
It was an ideologically charged exchange that ended in Zuby “peacing out” of the conversation that was clearly going nowhere by tweeting, “OK dude.” The quip saw Twitter go well out of its way to classify this as “hate speech.”
And Twitter even thinking that this type of throwaway phrase was a thing to go after and censor, frankly deserved an “OK dude” reaction from the rest of us.
But now, the phrase has gained a life of its own. Plus, Zuby is not giving up on countering the attempts of certain circles to ideologically appropriate (and maybe even sully) the noble in itself term, “social justice.”
So that’s another thing he’s “promoting” here.
Before anyone jumps in with criticism of Zuby’s obvious marketing tactics – listen, it wasn’t Zuby or those like him who made the rules by which creators, exposure-wise and therefore financially, thrive best if embroiled in controversies. (Yes, there’s a t-shirt. And yes, I’d buy it.)
In other words, if that’s the game, Zuby seems in it to win it. And more power to him because it’s hard to score any kind of win on platforms dead-set on beating you and the likes of you into a corner just by default.
And apparently, the track – “OK Dude” – is solid, too, just on musical grounds. (Your reporter wouldn’t know, being a life-long fan of Hard Bop, Byzantine spiritual music, and Deep House.)
But it’s really all about Zuby’s lyrical message – that starts with a little sample from sympathetic star podcaster Joe Rogan – to then, as they say, “rip” right into the “SWJ” narrative, that’s the real target here.
The single is available pretty much everywhere.
