Turns out there’s more than a bit of truth to that whole “Free Ke$ha from Dr Luke‘s Evil Grip” campaign that some of her fans concocted recently. In fact, Ke$ha does actually feel like she has no say in her own career and has admitted that there’s lots of stuff she’d like to do musically that she can’t under her current contract.
From Rolling Stone:
There’s an online petition trying to emancipate you from your longtime producer, Dr. Luke. Have you seen it?
I have, yeah.They have over 3300 signatures now. Their argument is that Dr. Luke, and I’m quoting them here, is “controlling Ke$ha like a puppet.” Is this a petition you support?
I feel like my fans are really protective of me. They just want to see me grow as an artist, which I agree with. Hopefully in the future, I’ll be in a position where I can put out a ballad or a more vulnerable song.You don’t have any creative control now?
Not really. What’s been put out as singles have just perpetuated a particular image that may or may not be entirely accurate. I’d like to show the world other sides of my personality. I don’t want to just continue putting out the same song and becoming a parody myself. I have so much more to offer than that and I can’t wait till the world really gets to hear that on the radio.
I dunno, I mean, sure, maybe ‘Tik Tok’ isn’t her, but Ke$ha is a bit of a weirdo – she thinks dead spirits are always clinging to her and has had a vaginal exorcism (whatever that even is – maybe just a really good orgasm?), so I don’t think the next artistic genius is being suppressed, but it’s fucked up that she’s not able to do what she wants as a musician, either way. Surely there must be some way to get out of it? Take that shit to court, Ke$ha.
I think Ke$ha is an artistic genius. I’ve listened to all of her unreleased work including self recordings she was doing as a teen. The girl has serious talent. And Past Lives and Animal are very artistic songs in my opinion. Many brilliant and artistic people are weirdos, so I actually think that’s a point in her favor.
I don’t know if I would call her an artistic genius but she is seriously underrated. She’s a pretty good songwriter, I put her above her peers in terms of songwriting ability. She doesn’t have the best voice but it is pretty good. She sounds good without autotune, I was impressed with her vocals on the new Pitbull song.