Otep Continues the Fight for Social Justice with Provocative, NSFW Video for “Equal Rights, Equal Lefts”

In case you’re wondering, no, Otep has not lost her gift for provocation in the three weeks since she called out Phil Labonte and the Butcher Babies.

Her new video for the song “Equal Rights, Equal Lefts” is basically two clips fused together.

One is a hip-hop video like a million hip-hop videos you’ve seen before with a rapper or rappers basically peacocking and telling you how awesome it is to be them, the twist being, of course, that it’s Otep telling you she fucked your girl, not N.O.R.E..

The other looks like a classy ad for the new fragrance from Calvin Klein, with lots of footage of nearly nude same-sex couples being affectionate. It is unlike anything you have ever seen in a metal video before.

Admittedly, strictly speaking, “Equal Rights, Equal Lefts” isn’t a metal song. But Otep is a metal artist and her fanbase is primarily metal people and this video is gonna be on MetalSucks and Metal Injection and Blabbermouth and every other metal site you can think of. Plus, given that it’s a single now, it’s safe to assume Otep will perform the song frequently at future live shows (at least while still promoting her most recent album, Generation Doom).

My point is, this song and video are going to make a LOT of metal fans confront their feelings about sexuality and how they treat people who are different from them. That’s an amazing thing, regardless of whether or not you actually like the song.

(I don’t like the song. But I do think the lyric “Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not” is fucking amazing.)

Watch the video below. Generation Doom is out now on Napalm.