GHE20G0THIK founder Venus X has announced that she's quitting music and shutting down her celebrated underground night club – and we only have Rihanna to blame. In a series of tweets, the NYC-based DJ called out Rihanna for appropriating her "brand", labelling her a "dumb industry sex slave bitch".
It all started with E! Online and other blogs referencing Rihanna's goth-inspired outfit at the iHeartRadio Awards earlier this month, crediting the singer as the inventor of the "Ghetto Goth" trend. If you've followed Rihanna on Instagram (at least, until her account was deleted), you'll notice that she's been hashtagging her forays into a darker look as #ghettogoth or #ghetto #goth since last year.
Venus X has been developing the GHE20G0THIK brand and aesthetic since she first organised the now-iconic NYC underground parties alongside Hood By Air designer Shayne Oliver, and believes that Rihanna has appropriated the scene she worked so hard to nurture.
"If they will not accurately tell our story and let the brand grow into a worldwide alternative space for the weirdos of this generation, particularly minority youth, I (can) no longer pour all my money and time into this movement," she wrote in an Instagram post. "No more #ghettogoth parties. No more DJ-ing for me. I do this all alone and don't have the means to fight for the brand."
It's not the first time Rihanna's blithely appropriated an underground subculture, either – remember when she referenced seapunk in her Saturday Night Live performance of "Diamonds"?
You can watch Venus X talk to WAH Nails founder Sharmadean Reid about the inception of GHE20G0THIK, below:
