[Grunge Rap] Jez Dior – Who Drank My Whiskey?

Jez Dior
Who Drank My Whiskey?

Someone’s harnessing their inner Kurt Cobain and his name is Jez Dior. Taking a turn to the 90’s, Jezzy has served up a piping hot plate of sounds that will take you back to your younger years. “Who Drank My Whiskey” is a far departure from what we’re used to hearing from this often emotional rapper, yet as far as principal, it’s right on par.

The tune as a whole will take you for surprise. This isn’t a beat-centric, cinematic tune as what you’ve come to known from this LA based lyricist. If you’re expecting something similar to “Love me to Death” or “Candles,” know that you’re not going to find it here. However, this deviation from his artistic mean is a welcome refresher and a spiritual omen of what Jez’s going through in his development as an individual and artist.

The video that accompanies it is already stirring up some controversy, getting covered in a boldly worded slam piece by The Gloss, a female-centric online publication. Before we get into that, we’ve come to find out the meaning behind the video, which completely fits what we already know about this indie hip hop artist. Appreciating the fact that his music is often darkly stirring, displaying voids in his life through his artistry, we’ve always known him to be a deep thinker, capable of crafting songs that are far from any mainstream messaging.

While we’re not experts in the dissection of cinematic art, we can make the connection to what Jez, his director (who is a female), and his producer (who is a female) say they were trying to accomplish. However, Samantha from the Gloss felt different. Without requesting any additional information or a quote from Jez’s team or the director of the video, she brazenly identifies him as a “Hipster Rapper,” attempting to discredit him based on his exterior appearance before the reader can even get into her argument, which ends up covering a very sensitive issue. Obviously striking a nerve, she took a break from writing about Cameron Diaz topless photos and Lindsey Lohan’s sex list, to speak her mind.

Jez’s team quickly responded to the her post, commenting on the stream. Check out what the producer of the video had to say in response:

When you make a video with controversial imagery it’s inherent that critics will find you. But as somewhat of a feminist myself I feel I should shed some light on this video for you. My name is Paris Pickard and I am the producer/production designer of this video, that means those boobs on the wall were my idea. I also happened to have acted in the video, that faceless girl getting water boarded, me, the blow job girl, also me. In addition to this I’m also the director’s longtime girlfriend of 5 years. What strikes me as somewhat humorous is your alluded familiarity with the stereotypical male chauvinist tendencies of main stream rap videos because you got so close to understanding what the video was about and then made a sharp left turn into Nowheresville. The women of the video are in fact a representation of the evils of the rap industry, the blatant sexualization of women and copious consumption. Jez’s disinterest in the women is meant to show his departure from these values and the water boarding at the end is him fighting against the industry as it stands today, both musically speaking and socially. I know, metaphors, right? What are you gonna do? Valentina is a crazy Chilean she gets some weird ideas.

To say that our desire is to promote violence against women would be like saying Andy Warhol’s desire was to promote soup. It’s a commentary on the system but like all art, it’s open to interpretation. Thanks for yours, we had a really fun time reading it