Chappell Roan is once again standing up for what she believes in, despite the fact that it makes some people really, really mad. It happened again after her courageous Grammy speech last Sunday, in which she called for the “labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists” to offer health care and a livable wage, “especially to developing artists.” In response, The Hollywood Reporter published a guest column by Jeff Rabhan, former chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, titled “Chappell Groan: The Misguided Rhetoric of an Instant Industry Insider.” In it, the industry exec argues that Roan is “far too green and too uninformed to be the agent of change she aspires to be” and needs to “put [her] money where [her] mouth is” and turn things around herself. (The article also features a section header titled “Bill Maher had a point.” Do with that information what you will.)
In response, Roan did exactly what Rabhan asked. “@jeffrabhan wanna match me $25k to donate to struggling dropped artists?” she wrote on her Instagram story, tagging her publicist and urging the exec, “Let’s talk.” It’s not clear what specific fund Roan donated to, but she promised she could “show receipts of the donation” in a subsequent story. In the same post, she wrote, “Mr. Rabhan I love how in the article you said “put your money where your mouth is” Genius!!! Let’s link and build together and see if you can do the same” with three fire emojis. Never one to back down from a point, the Best New Artist winner then stood by her principles in a different way, championing “some artists that deserve more love and a bigger platform” like hemlocke springs, Sarah Kinsley, Devon Again, and Baby Storme in subsequent story posts.
Roan wasn’t the only one spurred to action by Rabhan’s column. Halsey also posted a searing retort on Instagram in her colleague’s defense, in which she characterized the article as a “ranting, seething tantrum” and told THR that they should be “embarrassed of the absolute personal attack that you’ve ran and disguised as critical journalism.” She went on to argue that Roan, who worked for over a decade to get where she is, “is not an ‘instant industry insider,'” and “to compare the payoff of her actions to those of an industry titan with the power and financial leverage of Taylor Swift, when Chappell hasn’t even spun the block enough times to see the residuals of her long earned but sudden success, is irresponsible for someone with your experience in this industry.” “Shame on you. Boot licking behavior,” she concluded.
You can listen to Roan’s full Grammy speech below:
