At the beginning of July this year, Bebe Rexha tweeted, “I could bring down a BIG chunk of this industry. I AM frustrated. I Have been UNDERMINED. I’ve been so quiet for the longest time. I haven’t seen the signs even though people constantly are bringing them up and they have been SO OBVIOUS. And when I have spoken up I’ve been silence[d] and PUNISHED by this industry. Things must change or I’m telling ALL of my truths. The good the bad and the ugly.” The release of “I’m The Drama” feels in line with that pronouncement, as Rexha makes a heavy-handed allusion to the ways in which she’s been mistreated throughout her tenure in the music business by singing, “There’s a silence only I/I was born to break.”
Alas, Rexha has yet to go into full detail about what, exactly, has happened to her. When asked by a fan on Twitter (again, it’s not “X”), “What stops you from speaking? Do it! We are with you,” Rexha ominously replied, “THEY PUNISH YOU.” On the heels of releasing two other singles, “Chase It” and “My Oh My” (with Kylie Minogue and Tove Lo) this year, it seems as though Rexha is primed to release a fourth album, therefore doesn’t totally want to rock the boat when it comes to blowing the lid off the abuse she’s suffered. Particularly since Better Mistakes and Bebe didn’t perform as well on the charts as they should have (though her 2018 debut, Expectations, was certified platinum and managed to climb to number thirteen on the Billboard 200 album chart upon its release).
But that doesn’t mean that more “subtle” digs can’t be made at the industry, with the Jak Payne-directed video for “I’m The Drama” channeling Britney Spears in the 00s (think: the video for 2007’s “Piece of Me”). Particularly as it opens on Rexha surrounded by a sea of paparazzi, herself serving as the eye of the storm while wearing oversized black sunglasses (a very Brat emblem these days), a fur-trim coat and hair that’s dyed with black stripes to contrast against the overall blonde tresses.
In another intercut scene, Rexha appears to be at a venue that looks like a wedding reception (or any generic after-party, really) as she stands in the center of it all wearing a black floor-length gown (which is also her steez in the “My Oh My” video). She then dives into the chorus with an intonation that sounds decidedly mantra-y as she chants, “I’m the drama, I’m the face/I make heads turn in this place/And they lining up, and they lining up/And they lining up for a taste/I’m the drum set, I’m the bass/A goddamn filthy disgrace/And they lining up, and they lining up/And they lining up for a taste.” While this might be what constitutes that majority of the song’s lyrics, the infectious backbeat produced by Jimmy James and Punctual is what sustains it as an undeniable earworm rather than coming across as overly repetitive.
When she deviates from the chorus to announce, “When I walk in, feel your eyes/Oh, and they call my name,” the scene then switches to her sitting at the head of a table in what looks like a quintessential record label office (further emphasized by the framed records hung up on the wall) filled with executives in suits who don’t have an artistic bone in their body. Thus, it comes across as particularly pointed that she repeats the line, “There’s a silence only I/I was born to break” in this room, as though to none too abstrusely indicate who/what she’s talking about: the music industry “powers that be.” For, like Britney Spears, it seems there is so much more going on behind the scenes with Rexha’s oppression than fans and casual enthusiasts alike could ever fathom, with Rexha herself fueling the flames of that “conspiracy theory” fire by saying, as mentioned, “Things must change or I’m telling ALL of my truths. The good the bad and the ugly.” It sounds a lot like Kesha warning Dr. Luke in 2017’s “Praying,” “And we both know all the truth I could tell.” (Uncoincidentally, Rexha promoted her fangirl love for Kesha by posting a story on her Instagram where she’s singing the lyrics to her first independently-released single, “Joy Ride,” and captioning it, “KESHA YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO SLAY SO HARD WITH THIS ONE.”)
Rexha might just be reaching her breaking point in that truth-telling regard, as “I’m The Drama” pronounces both lyrically and visually. Unlike, say, Taylor Swift, who “self-effacingly” admits, “It’s me, hi/I’m the problem, it’s me” on 2022’s “Anti-Hero,” Rexha isn’t saying she’s the problem when she declares, “I’m the drama, I’m the drama/They lining up for a taste,” so much as riffing on what Britney said when she goaded, “You want a piece of me?/I’m Mrs. ‘Extra! Extra! This just in’/You want a piece of me?/I’m Mrs. ‘She’s too big, now she’s too thin’/You want a piece of me?/Piece of me.” Of course, Britney’s paparazzi-plagued 00s aura isn’t the only element of the aughts Rexha is serving throughout the “I’m The Drama” video—there’s also some major Lindsay Lohan in “Rumors” vibes (including the occasionally-reminiscent-of-the-“Rumors”-video color palette and the assaulting paparazzi visuals Rexha brings back from the 00s).
To further explain the message behind her song, Rexha stated, “I just wanted to create something people could relate to. The drama in it captures those moments where you feel like all the eyes are on you, whether good or bad. It’s embracing that and making something so empowering about it.” Just as Britney tried to do time and time again before they turned her into America’s fucked-up voodoo doll. Hopefully, the same won’t happen to Rexha, though, the way this year has been going for her (see: the hate crime in Munich incident), it would be understandable if she had a full-on Britney-with-the-shaved-head-and-umbrella moment.
In the meantime though, Rexha’s fans would probably like to believe she’ll do as she does at the end of “I’m The Drama” and simply spray a bottle of champagne among the crowd to celebrate her many instances of overcoming adversity in a business that still seeks to chew women up and spit them out like more grist for the mill.
