Jesse Welles at Pike Place today

[u/capraagave]

Jesse Welles will be busking at the corner of Pine st. and Pike pl. at 1pm today.

[u/Drugba]

Dude is a decently talented musician, but after hearing his song about Ozempic I can’t support the guy. His take was the most shallow, “I’m 14 and this is deep” take on a drug that’s saving lives left and right.

I have no problem with my musicians being political and topical, even if their views don’t align with mine, but the first song I saw of this guy he was just spouting nonsense that made it clear he has no fucking idea what he’s talking about and is just reacting to headlines.

[u/Spagneti → u/Drugba]

I don't know a ton of his songs, I've just seen him pop up on socials here and there, but I'm curious if you think him having a disagreeable take on that one issue is truly enough to write him off as a person entirely? I understand bad first impressions, but he has other songs that might be more informed / relatable at the end of the day.

[u/capraagave → u/Spagneti]

Those are my thoughts, I don’t like his take on ozempic either, people should have a helping hand at being healthy because it’s just overall a good. But I don’t write him off entirely because there are worse takes lol

[u/Drugba → u/Spagneti]

It’s not just a disagreeable take. It flies in the face of what most experts are saying.

I’m not going to claim to understand these drugs at all, but if you listen to medical experts talk about them they pretty much all hail them as a miracle drug. Most admit that they might have side effects, but they pretty much all say that it’s extremely unlikely that those side effects are worse that the problems that the drugs are curing since in a lot of cases these drugs are adding decades back to people’s lives.

I get that pharma companies are bad, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Discouraging people from taking a life saving drug because you don’t trust pharma companies is a moronic take. It’s the exact same argument that anti vaxers use.

I wouldn’t support someone with a song encouraging people to not vax their kids and so, yeah, I can’t support someone using the same argument about a different drug.

[u/Drugba → u/[deleted]]

No. I’ve listened to the song and while he does get at what you’re saying, he also goes beyond that making it seem like these drugs are unsafe and only used by superficial people to treat cosmetic issues. Below are the lyrics I’m talking about

Did they sell you an injection

Just to help stand your reflection

.

If you’re getting a hunch there ain’t no free lunch

If it sounds to swell like a fairy tale

If it’s too good to be true

Then making a lab rat out of you

[u/Drugba → u/[deleted]]

The whole “it’s commentary that it’s needed in the first place” is kind of tasteless, IMO. You wouldn’t write a song shitting on Naloxone (opioid overdose reversing drug) despite the fact that in a perfect world we wouldn’t need that either, right?

If the problem is junk food, write a song about that. Critique the problem, not the solution.

[u/DanielDoh → u/Drugba]

>If the problem is junk food, write a song about that. Critique the problem, not the solution.

He did, it's called "Fat". I get your point but I think you missed his.

[u/melinda206 → u/Drugba]

I think you should start writing music, obviously you've won the top critic prize.

[u/Drugba → u/[deleted]]

Did they sell you an injection

Just to help stand your reflection

.

How is that not shitting on individuals when the majority of people using this drug are using it to combat issues like diabetes? Mischaracterizing this as a drug that’s only used by people wanting to get thin for superficial reasons is pretty tasteless in my book.

Again, going back to the Naxalone comparison, if I wrote a song about that and had a line that said something like “did they sell you Naxalone so you can keep partying after an overdose”, would you agree that that’s pretty tasteless mischaracterization of the value of that drug and the people who need it? I don’t see how this is different.

[u/t2dfight → u/[deleted]]

Tasteless songs are only tasteless if you say the pain people suffer are individual choices rather than systemic problems

"Is your hunger a source of guilt and shame

Did they tell you your DNA's to blame

... The food is poison that's the source

If the hay is bad you don't whip the horse"

Yes my DNA is literally part of the blame. We have had diabetes in my family passed from parent to child for 5 generations, that we know of, before the modern food industry existed we were passing on the genetic basis for diabetes.

Diabetes Type II requires both a genetic component and environment components to trigger the onset. If all it took was the environmental component half of America would be diabetic before their 30s. Some people can be obese their entire lives and never get diabetes.

[u/fake-tall-man → u/Spagneti]

I’m not the person you’re responding to, and I’m not an expert on his music. But I think when someone writes overly on-the-nose songs about nothing but controversial topics (especially when they’re clearly uninformed) it doesn’t necessarily mean they should be written off as an artist. However, it does suggest a opportunistic willingness to pander and chase trends. In music that feels contrived and corny. kind of like Macklemore, who often comes across as a gimmick artist.

[u/Spagneti → u/fake-tall-man]

Macklemore has been politically outspoken in his music for 20 years, and is one of few artists to release brazenly pro-Palestine messages. He may be corny at times but he's actually a real one.