“Of course she didn’t write it, but a ghost writer/ You’re just a marketing product”/ What “Industry Plant” conveys

Erika Isac released “Industry Plant”, a song in response to the hate wave and controversies that arose after the songs with feminist messages “Macarena” and “Women in Parliament”. The song continues the series of the two most recent tracks, controversial and through the prism of the licentious lyrics.

• In translation “Fabrica industrială”, it represents a pejorative term used when you want to describe upstart musical artists, who become famous not by their own strength, but by nepotism or other connections or assets outside of the professional ones.

“Of course she didn’t write it, but a ghost writer/ She can’t be that good, right?/ (…) You’re just a marketing product”, recalls Erika in the new song, alluding to the hundreds of comments on social media the media in which she was accused of being just a marketing strategy and that, in fact, she does not believe in what she sings, nor in the feminist messages.

• “Industry Plant is for all those who filled the comment section for no good reason, it’s the answer that Erika couldn’t deliver better than musically,” reads a press release sent by the record company.

The lyrics of the song “Industry Plant” were written by Erika Isac, the music belongs to the artist and ZIOAN, GAV, and the production belongs to the latter two, the release also states. The video was directed by Sânziana Pantazi & frnk. and produced by Rabbit Studio.

Erika Isac became known in 2023, with the appearance at Urbanist Sessions, thanks to the song “Tap Tap”, the first that opened the series of releases with a message dedicated to women, considered “controversial” through the prism of licentious lyrics. The two most recent songs before “Industry plant”, “Macarena” and “Femei în Parlament”, generated millions of reactions.

Context

A wave of hate and another of support started in February on social networks after the song “Macarena” by the rap singer Erika Isac went viral thanks to the lyrics and the message.

The 24-year-old spoke about violence and abuse against women on an adapted soundtrack version of the song that was all the rage in the 90s.

Erika Isac’s lyrics provoked the very reactions that the artist talks about in the song: The most negative reactions were recorded especially among men who reproached her in a violent way for “swearing” or for “speaking badly”, addressing – they even curse and make sexual innuendos, thus diverting the discussion from domestic, sexual violence and the aggressions of men against women.

In fact, even the trapper points out in the song that caused a wave of debate in the online environment and quickly climbed to the first place in YouTube trending that she is reproached that “a young lady” must “speak nicely”. Erika Isac also shows on Instagram that she wrote the song “to be understood more than listened to”.

However, Erika Isac also received hundreds of messages of support, especially from girls and women. Journalists and activists also wrote about the trapper and her approach to putting the abuse against women at the center of the discussion on social networks, in most cases as a sign of solidarity and encouragement. One of the most viral messages in the artist’s song is “If it wasn’t for men, who would protect you? / To protect us from who?”.

Last summer, another controversy was sparked due to the lyrics, this time by trapper Gheboasa who was accused on social networks of racism, incitement to violence and discrimination against women.

After the appearance of controversies in the online space, the trapper was fined by the gendarmes after the Untold concert because he allegedly “pronounced insults, offensive or vulgar expressions, likely to disturb public order and peace or provoke citizens’ indignation or harm the dignity and their honor”.

After “Macarena” Erika Isac released “Femei în Parlament”, which continued the message of “Macarena” and was released on the eve of Women’s Day. Erika Isac said at the press conference that she thought of the new song as an endorsement for women in leadership positions.

The artist specified that a year ago, when she thought of the song “Women in Parliament”, she did not know that the 2024 elections were coming and that everything was spontaneous: “The lyrics simply come to me, like anger, a desire for revenge, maybe it’s a hard word (…) I’m not looking for a marketing strategy”.