Rebecca Black Isn't Your Typical Girl Boss in "Personal" - PAPER Magazine

By now it's well-established that Rebecca Black has gone from victim of meme culture to master of virality. Black's 10-year anniversary remix of "Friday" — featuring Dorian Electra, Big Freedia and 3OH!3 — was a reclamation of the track that made her infamous, transforming it for a generation of hyperpop, shitposting fiends. Today, the 23-year-old dives deeper into the internet's most bizarre pockets for "Personal," a Weston Allen-directed visual that blows up girl boss culture and puts it through a queer lens.

The post-breakup anthem, which is by far Black's strongest single to date, features all the familiar iconography we've come to villainize: A humble welcome mat, "Live Laugh Love" decorations, her "Boss Lady" notebook, ridiculously opulent at-home attire and green juice. Lots of green juice. Things take a turn though, when she discovers a diamond-encrusted chainsaw on a home shopping network and decides to splurge.

Related | Rebecca Black Celebrates Her Queerness With 'Girlfriend'

This juxtaposition between Black's high-femme character and the Patrick Bateman-inspired rule-breaker is abstract but intentional, according to Black, who says "Personal" represents her reckoning with the consequences of heartbreak. She hadn't understood "the guilt and heaviness that comes with being the one to put an end to a relationship when that is not what the other person wants."

Black continues, "I've learned you can't really stop two people on roads heading in opposite directions, and it can feel so difficult to consciously make a decision that you know will hurt someone you love, while at the same time knowing it's the necessary choice for yourself at the end of the day."

Behind the Scenes

Weston Allen directed this video. We recently worked together on the "Friday (Remix)" video, and I always appreciate his ability to be truly collaborative and respectful to the ideas I have. I've been pretty obsessed with the way the internet has been looking at girl boss culture recently, and together we found ways to incorporate and nod to that with the concept and these characters.

The follow-up to 2021's "Girlfriend," watch Rebecca Black's "Personal" music video and stream the Micah Jasper-produced single, below.

Photos courtesy of Rebecca Black

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