On Oct. 7, Willow Smith released her highly-anticipated seventh album, “Coping Mechanism,” and her newest single, “Hover Like A Goddess.” This album contains music of the alternative and indie rock genre. “Coping Mechanism” is a particularly good listen because of what it took to create it.
Ever since Willow Smith was young, she has seen black female artists brought down by the “white guardians” of metal and rock. As a child, she watched her mother face racism and sexism while on tour with Wicked Wisdom. When she went into metal and rock, she knew there would be challenges, and she knew that some people thought that a black girl like her shouldn’t be making punk or rock music at all, seeing as she was breaking into a largely white genre. She was inspired and supported by other artists who went through the same problems coming up, such as Jada Smith, Nicki Minaj, and SZA. Now on her seventh album, she is showing the world that the rock genre is where she belongs.
Even through facing racism and sexism, she was able to create work that sends a strong message about dealing with emotions. She is able to relate to her audience on the struggles of love and heartbreak. Willow has dealt with a lot from dealing with stressful heartbreaks to the entanglement drama with her parents back in 2020. She uses her music as an outlet to express how she feels.
For example, her recent albums “Lately I Feel Everything and The Anxiety.” With these albums, she shows her battles and struggles with mental illness and her journey in healing from it. Before creating this album, she felt there was something missing from her music's emotion. It was harder to explain her struggles on one-sided love in past songs like “Transparent Soul.” Other songs like “Gaslight” speak on the power of self-love, but don’t exactly get to all the emotions she feels. With “Coping Mechanism” and “Hover Like A Goddess,” she really delves into not only her battles with stress and anxiety, but also the hardships of unrequited love.
Willow Smith’s music is relatable and catches the attention of preteens and teenagers. Willow makes her music on the day to day struggles that most teenagers deal with. With her music touching on the power of love, hate, anxiety, stress, and processing heartbreak. It's easy for young people to connect with her through her music.
Willow Smith is an artist climbing to the top of the rock genre, and “Coping Mechanism” along with “Hover Like A Goddess,” put her in a good place to do that.