Track Review: Lady Gaga featuring R. Kelly, “Do What U Want”

Lady Gaga lashes out at her critics on “Do What U Want,” a newly released teaser single from her upcoming album Artpop. In case there was any confusion about who the song is directed at, Gaga posted a series of tweets yesterday repeating accusations that have been flung at the singer over the last few years: that she’s fat, that she’s a hermaphrodite, that she’s on drugs (“My recovery is a daily battle,” she proclaimed, saying she’s been an addict for 10 years), just to name a few. In response to claims that “Madonna hates Gaga,” she posted, sans apostrophes but full of defensiveness, “I dont need anybodys permission to be remembered. I will be. Whether they like it or not.” It probably would have been wise to let “Do What U Want” speak for itself, since Lady G’s social media diarrhea only served to highlight just how preoccupied she is with her own public image—or, at the very least, that she spends a little too much time Googling herself. The track, which features a verse from R. Kelly, is a measured electro banger that smartly doubles as a love song and finds Gaga doing her best impression of Christina Aguilera as she instructs detractors and/or a lover: “You can’t have my heart/And you won’t use my mind/But do what you want with my body.”

Artpop drops November 11th on Interscope.

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