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Lily Allen on Sheezus and Kanye West: "What I Love Is He's Not a Careerist; He's an Artist"

Google Lily Allen's name and the first news clippings that pop up are British tabloids discussing her weight and "erratic" behavior. The headlines read "Lily Allen flashes a hint of toned stomach" and "Lily Allen's behaviour 'worries pals.'"

When she launched her music career in 2006 with debut album, Still Alright, the 24-hour gossip cycle of celebrity-centric blogs and social media was still in its infancy. But now, on the heels of her latest release, the cleverly titled and perhaps opportunistically so, Sheezus, Allen finds her every move (and every pound gained or lost) monitored and often misreported by nearly every media outlet in the wired world.

See also: Review & Photos: Lily Allen's Sheezus Tour - Fillmore Miami Beach

But when pointing out the tabloid headlines and the press' criticism of famous women's bodies to Allen, she just shrugs it all off as part of culture we live in today. "It's not my responsibility to change that," she says. "I just write songs. That's all I do."

It's not that Allen doesn't care what is written about her. In fact, she's a self-professed loudmouth who says whatever is on her mind. But she understands that tabloids are looking to sell papers.

"I can tell when people write articles that they know the way they are reporting something that came of my mouth is not representative of what I meant at the time. That can be really upsetting. But they got their job to do, which is to sell newspapers, and I've got my job. It is what it is."

Still, Allen fights back in the best way that she knows how. On her first single off Sheezus, "Hard Out Here," she sings: "If you're not a size six, then you're not good looking/Well, you better be rich or be real good at cooking/You should probably lose some weight 'cause we can't see your bones."

Over the course of four minutes and 22 seconds, "Hard Out Here" mocks, critiques, and sarcastically slams our image-conscious culture, cheekily riffing on Three 6 Mafia's "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," declaring instead that it's "bitches" who have it hardest.

"We live in a world where people are obsessed with the way everybody looks," Allen says. "It's just the way it is. Instagram is huge, even bigger than Twitter these days, and that's because people want to look at pictures of other people. It's fucking weird that we're all doing it."

See also: EDM Is Sexist: Eight Reasons It Sucks to Be a Woman Who Raves

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Jose D. Duran is the associate editor of Miami New Times. He's the strategist behind the publication's eyebrow-raising Facebook and Twitter feeds. He has also been reporting on Miami's cultural scene since 2006. He has a BS in journalism and will live in Miami as long as climate change permits.
Contact: Jose D. Duran

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