[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.]

A glitter-covered, hair-tattered mess toting ripped clothes and catchy hooks, Ke$ha stepped onto the scene with her hit “Tik Tok” in 2010, and it's not a total exaggeration to say nothing has been the same since.

It was easy to list the reasons why this supposedly white trash Britney-wannabe would be a novelty act. She was not, for one thing, the world's best rapper, and her tween-music promotion of Jack Daniels as toothpaste had parents reeling. There was certainly no depth to her songs, no intelligence behind her disheveled appearance, right?

I don't think so. In fact, fast forward four years later, and I own every one of her albums.
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Yep, that's right, I own Animal, Cannibal, and her most recent release, Warrior. Sure, I didn't, like, buy the CDs (what is this, 2007?) but I did take the time to download them from some questionable Mediafire links found on a Tumblr blog.

Yeah, I enjoy her music mostly because it's amazing to dance and work out to, but you know Ke$ha is pretty much a genius, right? 

The Nashville-raised Kesha Rose Sebert was destined for Barnard College with a 1500 on her SAT (back when it was out of 1600), before veering off in favor of music. That much-decried (but actually awesome) dollar sign in her stage name represents her caring less about her lack of funds in her early days.

And even when she was on the come-up, the money wasn't coming in. She wasn't credited for singing on her first featured track, FloRida's “Right Round.” (I always thought it was the voice of Katy Perry. No, but turns out they're pals, and Haim is also buddies with Ke$ha.)

As she came up on the scene, it's clear that her pop-rap was just as good as anyone else's – or, at the very least, as good as FloRida's. But the amount of slut-shaming she's been forced to endure is shameful. She's portrayed as a ho, or at the very least as a woman on the verge of a sex addiction.



But dig a little deeper and you'll find themes of female empowerment, or at least songs that flip traditional sex roles. Her 3Oh!3 collab “Blah Blah Blah” is a song about wanting a guy to stop with the “chit chat” and just hook up already.

And, seriously, let's stop saying she's dumb. Having written hits for The Veronicas, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears, Ke$ha knows how to manufacture a good earworm. As obscene and grimy as are “Take It Off,” “Sleazy,” and “Blow,” she also has self-acceptance anthems like “We R Who We R,” “Animal,” and “Crazy Kids” – and is a favorite in the LGBT fan community. Her image is also somewhat novel. She's the girl that guys would be afraid to bring home to their parents, but would love to have a drink with.

At some point it became clear to me that Ke$ha's plan was to outsmart us all. She wanted to be everyone's guilty pleasure.

But like everyone, she had a breaking point. Having only very recently returned from treatment for an eating disorder Ke$ha (now requesting to be called Kesha) has decided to eliminate the negativity in her life, partly by ditching her self-deprecating Twitter handle @keshasuxx. You can now find her @kesharose.

It's clear to her, and it's clear to me, so y'all should take heed: Kesha most certainly does not suck. 

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