Saucy Santana is a star. His talent is undeniable and paired with his charisma and effortless style; he is indeed someone to watch. Santana is a rapper and TV personality, formerly known as Santana On the Beat. Saucy Santana first began seeing success as a rapper in 2019 when he released his hit song โWalk Em Like A Dogโ on Soundcloud and his sound instantly took off.
At the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, Saucy Santana began releasing bodies of work and scored several other viral hits including โWalk,โ โUp & Down ft. Latto,โ and โMaterial Girl.โ With hit after hit after hit, the Material Girl is proving that he has staying power and star quality. And with all of this already present success, you can always count on folks to add a little fatphobia in the mix for razzle dazzle.
The Material Girl Encounters Fatphobia
Saucy Santana is a dark skinned, curvy/thick, femme presenting rapper from Perry, Florida and seeing him thrive in a genre that is heavily cishet male dominated, thereโs bound to be critics. Recently, some naysayers have taken to social media to criticize the rapper and his body.
A recent Twitter user said: โIf Santana lost about 20-30 pounds, he could really be the next big thing.โ Santana in his true style and personality clapbacked stating there was no reason for him to lose weight when he is receiving all his stardom and success now โ at this size.
Unfortunately, Santana isnโt the first and wonโt be the last public figure, rapper, singer, or entertainer that will be told they donโt have โthe lookโ to be successful in the industry or to be accepted. Fatphobia, which informs everything in society from beauty standards to employment, accessibility and beyond, has often shaped peopleโs access to resources and achieving whatever dreams they may have for themselves.ย
Body Augmentation & Capital
On social media, Iโve seen Santana be referred to as everything from โbad builtโ to โRick Ross in makeupโ and at every turn it becomes more evident that the world believes someone like Saucy Santana should not be where he is and his mere presence in Hip Hop spaces dominating a male genre and rapping alongside his femme and women peers is certainly, shaking the table.
Over the past two years, weโve seen Santana share his journey with liposuction, recently expressing heโs gearing up for another round. There are so many ways beauty standards and the worldโs fatphobia influences us to change, mold, and recreate our bodies to make them more palatable for those around us.
Beauty culture and thinness, which is inherently anti-Black, lands you a closer proximity to whiteness which lends someone, like Saucy Santana, more capital in an industry that profits on people who look like him, hating themselves.
Bold, Gay, & Confident
Bodies like Santanaโs donโt get the chance to be seen as sexy and pretty, in both heterosexual & queer spaces. In a perfect world, Saucy Santana wouldnโt feel the pressures to receive lipo and would of course still always reserve the autonomy over his body to do so if he chose. Santana is redefining rap not only in queerness, but also in body.
He is flourishing in rap because heโs breaking molds and doing all the things in THIS body and identities that heโs been told canโt be done.
And honestly, weโre living for it!
Are you a fan of Saucy Santana, as we are?! Tell us what you love about them in the comments below!
