STFU!

Single by Rina Sawayama

## Music Video

"**STFU!**" (an abbreviation for "Shut the fuck up!") is the lead single and third song off of Rina Sawayama's debut studio album *Sawayama* (2020). Written by Rina with its producer Clarence Clarity, the song was released on 22 November 2019 for digital download and streaming.

"STFU!" is a nu metal, heavy metal, hard rock, pop and avant-pop track which criticizes microaggressions against Asian people. It received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its aggressive tone and the shift in genre and direction.

An accompanying music video for the song, directed by Sawayama and Ali Kurr, was premiered along with the song. It was inspired by the artist's experiences with stereotypes of Asian people.

## Background

According to Sawayama, the track was inspired by "early 2000s pop-rock and nu-metal; [...] No Doubt, Limp Bizkit, t.A.T.u. and Evanescence". She also added that she "was really itching to do something that was inspired by like N.E.R.D. or Evanescence or like t.A.T.u., or some of the heavier Britney [Spears] stuff" and that her goal with the track was to "shock people because [she]'d been away for a while." She explained, "the song before this was [2018 single] 'Flicker,' and that’s just so happy and empowering in a different way. I wanted to wake people up a little bit. It’s really fun to play with people’s emotions, but if fundamentally the core of the song again is pop, then people get it, and a lot of people did here. I was relieved."

In an interview with *Dazed* magazine, when asked about what inspired the song, Rina said:

> There was a lot of anger I needed to get out in that moment, and it just flowed out completely. Clarence Clarity had already written these two contrasting sections: heavy metal, and kind of JoJo. The last line of the metal bit was like, “Why don’t you just sit down?”, and then it just kind of rolled off: “Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up!” In nu-metal they scream it, but I was like, “Why don’t I just say it really sweet, so it sounds even more sinister?”
> I think I was able to write [“STFU!”] because I’m at a point where I’ve found my community of people and I can laugh about these things. I hope that people see this song as being quite funny. When you’re growing up, you don’t understand all these things happening to you. Perhaps you don’t live in an area where there is, for instance, other gay people – or other Japanese people, for me – and you still haven’t made sense of how the world views you. I’m at a point where I’ve got communities of people where we can just laugh at all the ridiculous things that people say to us.
>
> — Rina Sawayama on her nu-metal-inspired single ‘STFU!’, *Dazed*

## Critical reception

"STFU!" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its aggressive tone and the shift in genre and direction.

Writing for gal-dem, Sarah Lasoye stated that Rina "Rina successfully revives the spirit and sound of 00s pop-rock to bring forward a deft new sound. The track also marks new territory for Rina in subject matter – an explicit response to racist, fetishistic and infantilising microaggressions that the artist has encountered as a Japanese woman in the West." Hannah Mylrea from *NME* said that "over thrashing nu-metal riffs fused with sugary pop hooks, Rina gives a massive fuck you to everyone that’s who’s made a comment like this to her." She also called the song's music video "brilliant": "Conceived and co-directed by Rina, it draws on her past experiences. Starting with Rina on a terrible first date, her companion tells her: “So you’re a singer…I was quite surprised you sang in English!”"

## Music video

### Background

The accompanying music video for "STFU!" was co-directed by Rina and Ali Kurr, and was premiered on 21 November 2019.

According to Rina, the original concept of the music video would be a inspired of Pixar's 2015 film *Inside Out*, she said, "I don't know if you've seen Pixar's Inside Out, but it's about the drivers inside your head that govern your responses to things. So instead of Joy and Sadness, I wanted to do Justice and Empathy, and I wanted to show like, the inner battle that goes on every time there's a microaggression thrown at you." However, the concept was scrapped since Rianne White, the original director of the music video, had "a really bad accident". So when Rina started working with Ali Kurr, they had to change the concept a little bit.

> That is when the date scene got developed into something bigger. What are the times that I've wanted to tell someone to shut the fuck up? I'd actually just come back from a wedding. We were in the queue to the bar where this guy, he goes to me: "–Oh, where are you from? –I'm from London. –Oh no, no. You know where, where are you from, from? –Well, my parents are from Japan. I was actually born in Japan and I like moved here when I was four." And he cuts me off. Then it starts - the magical conversation that sparks the inspiration for "STFU!". He then goes on to ask me about all the restaurants around my area that I might know about and all of them are Japanese, by the way FYI. Just cause I'm Japanese, it's not like I'm eating ramen in the morning, sushi in the afternoon, Japanese curry in the evening. I might love all those things, but it doesn't mean that that is literally what constitutes my entire diet. And he's like, "well, it's so funny you're Japanese because I'm writing a fiction, and it's actually told through the eyes of a Japanese woman—It's funny because I've shown my Japanese friends my book, they already didn't have that much good things to say, but I feel like Japanese are very bad at giving criticism." And I'm there like... Okay, I need to write about this because this happens to Asian people all the time. Not just Asian people, I know, but I mean it's pretty easy. I'm just going to write all the things that people have said to me into a scenario where people will think what they're saying to a Japanese person is flattering, when it's totally not. And so that was the core inspiration.
>
> — Sawayama, *How to make a MUSIC VIDEO in 5 STEPS: the filming of STFU! music video*, YouTube

#### Credits

* Cast
* Crew

 **Female Dancer 2** | Shante Simpson

### Synopsis

The music video begins with Rina Sawayama on a date with a man (played by British comedian Ben Ashenden) having a conversation. The man asks Sawayama numerous questions, including whether or not she had visited the Wagamama restaurant at Heathrow Airport, why she sings in English and doesn't make J-pop music, as well as compares her to Sandra Oh and Lucy Liu and reveals that he's working on a "new-age *Memoirs of a Geisha*". He proceeds to make a movement with his chopsticks yelling "kee-yah", causing a grain of rice to jump into Rina's face, and then he takes it away without her permission saying "a little kamikaze mission". Then, he asks Rina if she's a mixed-race because she "doesn't look like Japanese", he says while making slanted eyes with his chopsticks.

The song starts when Rina eventually erupts, giving him a slap. In another scene in the same date, Rina has a different outfit and hair, as she goes up to the table, throws the food, and surrounds her date. She also appears on a dark set with orange lighting and smoke, along with two backup dancers. When the song ends, Rina looks on the camera and leave.

The music video ends with the credits and another footage of Rina's date with the guy.

[1][2][3]
1. *Rina Sawayama wears a t-shirt and an elastic belt by Alexander Wang, .*
2. *Rina wears a dress by Yuhan Wang.*
3. *Rina wears a waspie corset by Agent Provocateur, and knee boots by Christian Louboutin.*

## Live performances

"STFU!" was part of the set list for Sawayama's concert tour The Dynasty Tour, which commenced on 8 November 2021 in Dublin, Ireland.

## Lyrics

Let's go

I want to know, I want to know, yeah

I want to know, I want to know, yeah

I want to know, I want to know, yeah

I want to know, I want to know

Silence finally in my head

But it's too late, you already left

You're preaching even though I'm dead

Like the first time, I'm in my prime

How come you don't expect me

To get mad when I'm angry?

You've never seen it done

I know I'm not the only one (Uh)

How come you don't respect me?

Expecting fantasies to be my reality

Why don't you just sit down and

Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up (You)

Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up (Uh huh, shh)

Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up (You, I see you)

Shut the fuck up (Uh huh, shh)

Have you ever thought about taping your big mouth shut?

'Cause I have, many times, many times

I want to know, I want to know, yeah

I want to know, I want to know, yeah

I want to know, I want to know, yeah

I want to know, I want to know

Patience, overrated

If you want it, come and get it (Come and get it)

That feeling, eating at my chest

Rips me open (Rips me open), rips me open (Rips me open)

Not never naturally negative, no

I don't wanna be that girl again, 'cause

I've been done and been through more friends

Than I can count on my fingertips

How come you don't detest me?

I am your medicine, and your reality

Why don't you just sit down and

Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up (You)

Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up (Uh huh, shh)

Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up (You, I see you)

Shut the fuck up (Shh)

Have you ever thought about taping your big mouth shut?

'Cause I have, many times, many times

Have you ever thought about taping your big mouth shut?

'Cause I have, many times, many times

Like the first time (Like the first time)

Like the first time (Like the first time, yeah)

Like the first time (Like the first time, uh)

Like the first time (Like the first time, yeah)

Like the first time (Like the first time)

Like the first time (Like the first time, yeah)

Like the first time (Like the first time)

(Like the first time)

Yeah

Like the first time, please

Like the first time, please

Like the first time, please

Like the first time, please

## References

1. ↑ SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama on Apple Music
2. ↑ Rina Sawayama on her nu-metal-inspired single ‘STFU!’
3. ↑ ‘STFU!’: Rina Sawayama talks raging against microaggressions
4. ↑ Rina Sawayama: “We can’t just normalise using Japanese culture in the way that we’ve been doing”
5. ↑ 🧡How to make a MUSIC VIDEO in 5 STEPS: the filming of STFU! music video| Rina Sawayama (RINA TV)
6. ↑ Rina Sawayama's brilliant bad-date promo slams casual racism
7. ↑ Rina Sawayama goes hard on explosive new single STFU!