Attention Whores Kesha, Slayyyter and Rose Gray Join Forces for to Deliver a Summer Anthem

As Miley Cyrus said on her own 2023 track, “Attention” (from the live album of the same name), “I need attention.” In a similar intonation, Kesha kicks off her own “Attention” with, “Do I have your attention?” Of late, the answer to that question has been: of course. For, between starting her own record label (Kesha Records) and releasing what will be her sixth album, but, in truth her first (because it’s the first she’s recorded without the specter of Dr. Luke hanging over her), Kesha has made plenty of waves this year already. However, as if that weren’t enough, she’s also embarking upon the “scandalously”-titled The Tits Out Tour (for which both Slayyyter and Rose Gray will serve as supporting acts during different legs of the tour). Which will no doubt be as much a joyful celebration as Period (the glib name of her new record) and its poignant release on July 4th a.k.a. Independence Day (just as the lead single from Period, “Joyride,” was also released that day last year). 

Plus, on the heels of putting out the single and video for “Boy Crazy,” it’s apparent that Kesha is very much back in a partying mood in a way not seen since 2012. Except that now, rather than partying to outrun some overt emotional demons, it’s clear that Kesha is partying just because she fucking feels like it. And in her heightened state of “coming through the other side” of that dark tunnel she was in since 2014, when Kesha v. Dr. Luke first began, it seems she’s now filled with plenty of useful life advice, including, “Drive like an asshole, dress like a bitch-bitch-bitch-bitch/I want a billionaire, but I’m already rich-rich-rich-rich.” Apart from exhibiting Kesha’s recent Charli XCX-esque (and Lana Del Rey-esque, for that matter) predilection for cars, it also reinforces a similar declaration she made in “Joyride”: “Are you a man?/‘Cause I’m a bitch/I’m already rich, just lookin’ for that, mmm.” 

And yes, Kesha has been quite open this year about her quest to find a sugar daddy, despite having plenty of her own bread to “treat herself.” Even so, as she mentioned during an SXSW panel with Feeld (the dating app she’s been promoting), “…where I’m at is I am looking for a sugar daddy. I love being able to just be open and honest about it, because I’m fucking into somebody taking care of me, putting me on a pedestal, taking me on their yacht and flying me on their plane. I’m just into it, and I will not feel shame about that.” Nor will she feel shame about boasting, “Click on the link to see me naked/If you want it, gotta chase it/When you f**k me, you can say you made it.” Again, “Attention” is one of Kesha’s ultimate studies in braggadocio. 

To help amplify that quality, Rose Gray chimes in to rework Kesha’s question, “Do I have your attention?” with, “Can I have your attention please?” Considering that Gray is very much on the most extreme possible cusp of being Gen Z (she was born on December 31, 1996, just before 1997 would mark the beginning of what’s considered the Gen Z years), it’s possible she forgot that Eminem already said that phrase at the beginning of “The Real Slim Shady” (released when Gray would have been three years old)—with “Slim Shady,” most shockingly of all, using the more polite “may” instead of “can” to kick off the question. Gray then complements Kesha’s vocals in the chorus, “Tits out [an obvious nod to the tour title], ridin’ with the windows down/They’re playin’ me on the radio right now [or, as Del Rey once sang, “Baby, love me ‘cause I’m playing on the radio”]/My name comin’ outta all of y’all’s mouths/Is it even a question?/Do I have your attention?/Attention.” 

And yes, it’s the question that’s been foremost on everyone’s mind ever since social media became a daily part of existence. The quest for attention (a.k.a. “hearts” and “likes”) driving most people’s raison d’être since at least 2006, when Twitter was created and Facebook became open to the public (a.k.a. non-college students). Though some might argue it all began in 2003 with MySpace. Either way, it was in 2010, with the unleashing of Instagram, that social media in its more modern format started to reshape people’s already attention-seeking brains. Now reformed to seek out attention through a means that has been tried-and-true for centuries: baring skin/generally looking hot. Because, to quote Lily Allen’s “The Fear,” “I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless/‘Cause everyone knows that’s how you get famous.”  

Slayyyter (a fellow ‘96 baby like Gray) plays up this narcissistic way of being by alluding to Narcissus himself in her verse, “Ms. Kesha, Slayyyter/Rose Gray on the track/Can I have your attention?/Yeah, maybe I should mention I’m in love with my reflection.” At least she admits it, unlike the Kardashian-Jenner clan. With Pink Slip’s (not to be confused with the band name in Freaky Friday) 90s dance-inspired beat pulsing, Slayyyter delivers her final contribution to the song as she insists, “This beat your new obsession/Tits out, think fast, I rage in the middle of the night/Little Midwest bitch [she’s from Missouri, like Chappell Roan], work hard, play harder, party on a private flight/No guest list shit, I walk in the club where everybody still outside/Big comeback like Jesus’ resurrection/Can I have your attention?” When being blasé about religious similes, of course she can. 

Funnily enough, although Slayyyter is billed second after Kesha in the song, it’s Gray who offers more vocal contributions and layers to the single. For, in addition to jumping on the chorus both with Kesha and without, she also gets her own verse that goes, “Knock-knock, who’s there?/You don’t know my name yet, fair/But give me a sec-sec, I’ll be everywhere.” This first part of her verse proves two things: 1) Kesha is always ahead of the curve in recognizing new talent and 2) not a lot of people seem to realize that Gray is a “big deal” already because she’s with Harris “John Lennon” Dickinson. 

Perhaps snagging him as a boyfriend is part of the confidence she exudes as she continues, “With my red hair down, fuckin’ it up with my party people tonight/I’m a London girl, but NYC, you make me feel alive [oof, that old cliché]/I’m sun-kissed in the backseat [a very Addison Rae-sounding sentiment], American boy/Do I have your attention?/Like my bikini, I can see it spillin’ outta your shorts/You wanna see me, waist so teeny, leave you beggin’ for more.” In a way, “allowing” Gray to contribute that not so body positive line is a bit surprising on Kesha’s part, considering the eating disorder she suffered for so many years (mostly due to Dr. Luke’s verbal abuse). But then, perhaps it just goes to show that Kesha is all about freedom of expression, wanting people to feel safe and comfortable enough to be who they are without fear of judgment. And “Attention,” narcissist’s anthem or not, aims to foster precisely that kind of environment. So hopefully, the track will at least appear on the inevitable deluxe edition of Period, since, so far, it’s not on the tracklist of the standard one…