Willow Smith is unfairly scorned

[Madmick]

I had no idea this girl has been releasing albums for years. I thought she made her little single, "Whip My Hair Back & Forth", and decided she didn't care for all the negative attention it brought despite its popularity. Didn't need it. Dad's got money.

Turns out, not only has she been making music, she's good. Hit and miss, but she's definitely got talent. She isn't chasing the charts. That's another perk of Dad having money. Of course, a bounty of great art throughout history was produced by the virtue of patronage. It's artistically liberating to make whatever you want without being worried about the next paycheck.

Being a Smith, she was always going to be the object of hatred no matter what she did, but I suspect many of her haters never listened to one song. Check this out. This is her biggest hit. She released the album two months after she turned 15, meaning it's likely she recorded this when she was just 14 years old.


That's a standout track on a mediocre album, but two of her more recent albums, Willow and <COPINGMECHANISM>, especially the latter, are damn good. The former album has more of a psychedelic pop sound. Feels like it draws more influences from the 60's and 70's, but I have trouble placing them:


Meanwhile, with the latter album, her most recent, she has leaned into a more neo-punk sound in the vein of Avril Lavigne, but slightly less pop. There are ska influences. She'll remind you of early Gwen Stefani at times on the album. I'm also sometimes reminded of a lot of 90's chick-rock like Tracy Bonham, Garbage, Hole, Sleater-Kinney. There are even flourishes of nu-metal reminding me of Evanescent. It's a phenomenal album. It deserves more attention. Here's its Spotify link:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0oMXn0MNLNyvB4iJPZXOuV?si=_nw_AjUBREe0mW4etBC1-g
Alternatively, here's it's YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7AyFRLdnY8qCIDYZZpSUFXiomHzvWqpw





In this pop punk rock vein she's favoring as she evolves she collaborated with Travis Barker last year:

 

[Madmick]

 

[RoñaCastroJr]

not bad...

 

[Madmick]

She continues to make more interesting music than most.



I loathe the main theme of this song, but she has cool reliefs like the one starting at 0:55 sprinkled in:

 

[milliniar]

Yeah I've listened to a few tracks I've liked.

 

[The Diplomat]

She wants 2Pac to be her dad.

 

[yamahacrasher]

She wants 2Pac to be her dad.

Don't we all.

 

[Madmick]

New collab. Song changes and opens up at 1:02, it's a cool shift:


Older good one in case you haven't heard it:

 

[sanguinius]

Wow, she’s terrible. Is this whole topic trolling? If her last name wasn’t smith, would you really be defending this?

 

[StonedLemur]

Wow, she’s terrible. Is this whole topic trolling? If her last name wasn’t smith, would you really be defending this?

You beat me by 4 mins sir.
Has to be trollin us lol

 

[HeLLMuTT]

Yeah, she is super talented; amazing voice and very very creative. You can tell she is all in on her music journey. I think she is great and feel she'll continue to get better.

Here's a short live set she did a couple of weeks ago. Loving the bassist and keyboardist she had play with her...

 

[Madmick]

Wow, she’s terrible. Is this whole topic trolling? If her last name wasn’t smith, would you really be defending this?

You beat me by 4 mins sir.
Has to be trollin us lol

Nope, not trolling at all. And it appears the tides have turned since I first made this thread because of her more recent albums; the ones I've praised and have been linking. The world has discovered she stands on her own two feet. She is acknowledged, and at least taken seriously as an artist. It's you guys, the haters, who are now in the minority.

POPULARITY
Kworb: #1035 most popular music artist globally
2.62m subscribers on YouTube; 650m total views accumulated on her official channel discretely
13.5m monthly listeners on Spotify ("Wait a Minute" has broken 1 billion listens, btw)
Billboard: 3 hits charting in the Hot 100 (all from 2021 or later), the top peaking at #21


CRITICISM / USER VOTE

Metacritic Score

• 51 = Ardipithecus
• N/A = The 1st
• N/A = Willow
• 79 = lately I feel EVERYTHING
• 82 = <COPINGMECHANISM>
• Not Yet Scored = Empathogen

RateYourMusic

• 2.62 = ARDIPITHECUS (2015)
• 3.03 = The 1st (2017)
• 3.32 = Willow (2019) [#1051 ranked album for the year]
• 2.88 = lately I feel EVERYTHING (2021)
• 3.31 = <COPINGMECHANISM> (2022) [#837 ranked album for the year; #143 in Alternative Rock]
• 3.58 = Empathogen (2024) [#43 highest ranked album for the year so far]

 

[StonedLemur]

Nope, not trolling at all. And it appears the tides have turned since I first made this thread because of her more recent albums; the ones I've praised and have been linking. The world has discovered she stands on her own two feet. She is acknowledged, and at least taken seriously as an artist. It's you guys, the haters, who are now in the minority.

POPULARITY
Kworb: #1035 most popular music artist globally
2.62m subscribers on YouTube; 650m total views accumulated on her official channel discretely
13.5m monthly listeners on Spotify ("Wait a Minute" has broken 1 billion listens, btw)
Billboard: 3 hits charting in the Hot 100 (all from 2021 or later), the top peaking at #21


CRITICISM / USER VOTE

Metacritic Score

• 51 = Ardipithecus
• N/A = The 1st
• N/A = Willow
• 79 = lately I feel EVERYTHING
• 82 = <COPINGMECHANISM>
• Not Yet Scored = Empathogen

RateYourMusic

• 2.62 = ARDIPITHECUS (2015)
• 3.03 = The 1st (2017)
• 3.32 = Willow (2019) [#1051 ranked album for the year]
• 2.88 = lately I feel EVERYTHING (2021)
• 3.31 = <COPINGMECHANISM> (2022) [#837 ranked album for the year; #143 in Alternative Rock]
• 3.58 = Empathogen (2024) [#43 highest ranked album for the year so far]

Im not a fan of popular music for the most part, but to each his own sir.