The Tragedy of 4Lung

I listen to a lot of furry music, and the first artist I discovered, way back in high school, was 4Lung. 4Lung is a trans fem musician focusing on a genre known as breakcore. Fast electronic music with a bumping beat that you can't help but dance to. I loved not just her music, but her aesthetic, which takes heavily from scene culture. This colorful aesthetic, embracing cringe culture and being oneself fully and entirely, made her tumblr page a very appealing one to teenage me.

But not all things go good for long, and 4Lung would find herself at the center of a controversy. She was accused of a bunch of different things, of which most were lies. The absolute worst thing that was true, was that she was a "babyfur," a part of the furry community that focuses on age regression. This is not something worth "cancelling" someone over in furry, most of the fur conventions run because of babyfurs. Unfortunately, Tumblr was not a safe space for 4Lung, and soon enough, the internet as a whole would descend on her.

Stalked, harassed, socially killed, 4Lung was thrown to the wolves, and they ate her up. I, however, still listen to 4Lung, and while I do enjoy the breakcore, there is something I find more fascinating with her body of work. "$20" from the album "The New 4Lung Album" is a personal favorite of mine. The song explores a certain pain 4Lung has experienced time and time again. The track opens up with a ringtone, with 4Lung commenting on the nerve of the caller to actually call her. She picks up and starts a conversation, where, presumably, someone tries to apologize to her for slandering her, and that they are an age regressor now, and are cool with 4Lung because of this. 4Lung doesn't respond kindly, and hangs up, leading into the song.

The first set of lyrics gives more context to the phone conversation: "Once or twice a week it seems some tranny wants to talk to me to let me know they're so sorry for all the times they tried to kill me." It seems that this is a reoccurring event in her life, someone who railed against her finds themself to be a babyfur and tries to apologize, but as the song goes, 4Lung does not want these apologies, and instead suggests giving her $20 instead. She mentions how she tried to be strong in the face of all the criticism and harassment, and not show how it actually impacted her. The song ends, then, with her admitting its hard to have friends, and that she's tired.

The opening song for that same album, "Cry To Survive+" is also interesting, with 4Lung welcoming the listener into the hole she lives in, hiding from everyone else, watching the world unfold. An extreme sense of lonelinesses emanates from the lyrics. Its palpable, how she feels. Other songs from other albums also explore her experience with being dehumanized and killed socially. In "Cluster A-OK (2023)" 4Lung sings "I'm the subject of suspicion, so consume me at your volition." Not only does she mention how people consider her suspicions, if not outright problematic, but she specifically uses the word "consume" as if she is a thing to be consumed.

The song "Reactoid," an unfinished project under the name Rat King World Champion, describes a titular reactoid, who cares not for human life, threatens friends and family, doesn't care about the truth nor needs proof. Reactoid simply reacts, and in a violent way. Another song under the same name is "Quit While You're Ahead," which has the following lyrics: "countless nights with zero sleep, everyone says I'm a creep, hey tranny can you relate to me?" Yes, I can.