Boombox Blitz: Natti Vogel scrutinizes absurd body standards & self-worth in ‘Brown Rice’
Vogel doesn’t hold back in his reflections of ridiculous body standards and self-image.
Welcome to Boombox Blitz, an artist spotlight series showcasing overlooked singers, songwriters and musicians who are quietly taking over the world.
The LGBTQIA+ community can be a downright savage and toxic place. From the glorification of youth and slim bodies, aggravated by a gross, thinly-constructed, 600-word “essay” in New York Times this week, which we won’t link here, the self-proclaimed safe haven has become a tired and exhausting cycle of absurd body shaming. Singer-songwriter Natti Vogel has had enough, as he tears away the glittery and flashy exteriors for his brooding and sex-positve new video “Brown Rice,” which serves a necessary reality check to the club scene.
The visual stars actor Matthew Wilkas (New York is Dead, Eastsiders) and follows his story through his crumbling self-image, detailing his many vices to numb the pain. “I want the general audience to feel the desperation of needing to be approved of and to question the lengths they are willing to go to gain that approval at the expense of whatever it is that might make them amazing to begin with,” Vogel says of the clip, which flickers between the blinding morning haze and the soft reds of a cabaret show, a juxtaposition of pleasure and pain. “I want audiences to actively yearn for whatever parts of themselves that they’ve been suppressing.”
“All this time spent bettering myself, has been so much better than had I been going on the dumb assumption that I was good enough / I don’t ask for pity from anyone, least of all myself / ‘Cause how could anyone get anything done by needing someone to love them,” he harpoons with immense self-awareness, deconstructing years of turmoil, rage and loathing. The images shift between close-up shots as he swipes on Instagram to a late-night rendezvous with a lover, a hook-up that means nothing but he needs that one more fleeting fix. It’s a devastating reality we all can relate to in some capacity.
Thanks to director Eamon Foley (who has enjoyed roles in such Broadway shows as Gypsy, Assassins, Everyday Rapture and others), the music video handles the storyline with great care ⎯⎯ with a flair for the dramatic, of course. “I wanted everyone to be able to find themselves in this character, and question if what consumes them is leading them towards happiness,” Foley notes. “Even the man who looks like he has it all with his 100K followers and free underwear feels inadequate. [Many] gay men are organizing their lives around an unachievable ideal that won’t take care of them in their old age.”
The facade is falling away, and the truth-tea is being split. Today is an important moment in our LGBTQIA+ history, when we take responsibility for perpetuating these beauty standards and learn to love ourselves for who we really are. We all could stand to reassess our priorities.
“Brown Rice” is lifted from Vogel’s debut EP, Serving Body, out now on Spotify. He is set to play National Sawdust in Brooklyn July 20 (grab tix) and 28.
Watch below:
Photo Credit: Haley Varacallo
