Two words: CULTURE and PROVOCATION. These past few years have felt a bit confusing, to be honest. In fashion, we’ve been drowned in micro-core fashion trends but mostly immersed in the ephemeral, the highly commercial gimmick, and the basicness of quiet luxury. In music, we’ve been inundated with hit pop singles, commercially promoted lifestyles, hairstyles, and even brat colors that didn’t last long. We’ve quietly moved on to the next and the next every single time for years. And by "quiet," we’ve been very silent for way too long. Nothing wrong with quietness; it’s needed sometimes. But it becomes suffocating when it builds a wall of insecurity within yourself, preventing you from revealing your identity without the fear of being canceled, judged, or considered "not cool" enough. And what is “coolness” anyway these days? It’s like an empty word with no content if it doesn’t include straightforward arguments that bring out the essence of an identity that should exist—an identity that is not judgmental, just pure, obviously never vague, and with no fear of failure.

This week, three diamonds in the music and fashion industry shone brightly: Erykah Badu was finally crowned Icon of the Year by the CFDA Awards, Tyler The Creator released CHROMAKOPIA, and Lady Gaga rose from the ashes to show everyone how it’s done. The reason these events should be considered a cultural shock and a wake-up call to our generation is that we’ve all been trying to find our identity again, probably since 2020. The truth is that building icons in music and fashion is something that should not be underestimated. We need to stop using the word “icon” for just anyone, as we have these past years, failing to realize that the icon status of a character has to be attributed to a lot of work—first of all, a lot of failures—mostly, not just instant recognition.

These three icons re-emerged this week to show us that, in Erykah Badu’s case, you’ll agree this award was long overdue. In reality, she has been crowning herself with this award for years. Badu has built a career of untamed creativity her whole life. She won the CFDA Icon Award not just because she’s an icon, but because she’s a provocative soul who doesn’t fit into any box of music artists. Erykah Badu has always been a clear fashion reference, and it took far too long to recognize the influence she’s had—not just in music, being crowned the neo-soul queen, but also by presenting a type of character that can only be described as influential and self-made. By “self-made,” I mean she dresses herself without stylists, even to this day. One notable aspect about her is that, like other major Black singers in the industry, Badu dressed herself with only emerging Black designers for at least the first decade of her career. Some of her most recognizable looks included headbands of African-American heritage, flamboyant hats referencing her bohemian style, and distinctive African-inspired handmade jewelry. To this day, Badu has also accumulated major collaborations with big brands like Givenchy and Marni, yet she still supports emerging African designers through her Badu World Market and is always a frontrunner in supporting Black artistry. Now, the question is: Why wasn’t Erykah Badu crowned as an icon long ago? Why did the CFDA wait for her to collaborate with major fashion houses before giving her the title she deserved from the moment she began collaborating with emerging Black designers?

Tyler The Creator released CHROMAKOPIA at a moment in his career where he believed he had reached a new level of maturity. We thank him for that, but he couldn’t have picked a better time for this album’s release because perhaps we didn’t realize we needed that glass of maturity ourselves. You could hypothesize that there’s a small probability the release of his album aligns with the recent Met Gala theme—who could better represent the theme itself? He is the modern evolution of the dandy. There’s nothing to critique about this new album, nor can anything be judged about his choice of editorial imagery for its release; it was truly perfect. The gimmick of it all is that Tyler The Creator creates no gimmicks—he’s an artist first and a performer who wears his heart and vulnerability on his sleeve. And this is where we needed to arrive: vulnerability. It feels like these past years, the concept of vulnerability has been lost between the lines of the most recent pop hits and even in the seams of some major fashion brands’ collections. It feels fresh to see a comeback of meaningful hip-hop music and a concept that goes deeper than the production behind it. Tyler The Creator is positioning himself as a future precursor of the truth about why hip-hop and rap music were created in the first place. When you think about it, it feels like déjà vu. But after all the Diddy mess that is emerging, it’s refreshing to know that after some music predators, we can finally give voice to artists who work their asses off to get there—pure meritocracy, something lacking in both the fashion and music industries.

Lady Gaga has always been one of the biggest stars of our generation. When she released her music video today, she admitted that her biggest demon had always been herself—and doesn’t that resonate with most of us? Gaga is seen by her biggest fans as a life mentor, and during these past few years, she’s been keeping it low-key in both music and fashion. The reason for this might be that, during confusing times when everybody follows an empty crowd, it’s hard to express your thoughts. Probably, Gaga needed that time to self-reflect to figure out her next move in music. This method needs to be applied to everything—it should be applied to music and fashion. But of course, you might disagree because while many of us need time to disconnect and self-reflect on our next move, the world keeps moving. By “world,” it means money and power keep moving. Music needs artists like Sabrina Carpenter to release the next summer hit to fill the charts and make the producer houses earn. Gucci needed to follow the quiet luxury trend because people were obsessed with Succession and all things quiet and old-money life vibes—even in this economy. We’ve been dreaming and pretending for too long. We’ve taken away the chance for music stars and fashion designers to shine bright too early because we haven’t seen instant gratification come fast enough. Everything has become instant—fast music hits, fast fashion growth—and we can only participate in slowing this movement down. Like Gaga’s song, she probably smells the sickness surrounding all of us right now, and we can only hope she’s back here to cure it.

The reason why these three events should be considered a cultural shock to our generation: Erykah Badu, CHROMAKOPIA and Lady Gaga’s New Music Video

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