Monica Lewinsky was invited by Forbes to speak at the "Under 30 Summit" in Philadelphia recently, which serves as a place to teach how to learn from other people who made major moves in their twenties. Lewinsky reintroduced herself by saying:
Some of you might be asking, “Who the hell is she, this Monica, and what is she doing here?” or maybe even, “What is she doing in all of those rap lyrics?”
Then she went in on number of artists responsible for those lyrics:
Thank you, Beyoncé and Eminem. And Nicki Minaj. And Kid Cudi. Lil B and Lil Wayne…and of course G-Eazy. But let’s not forget Jeezy. And all the rest.
Besides using hip-hop as a sarcastic reason for her reputation being tarnished, she has managed to turn around her storied history with former president Bill Clinton into many business opportunities for herself. Even though the lyrics may bring back a dark time in her life, the references are mostly factual and have kept her name relevant after over a decade. The most recent references to her, G-Eazy's "Monica Lewinsky" and Beyoncè's sultry "Partition," have brought the incident to a new generation, ahead of her new write up on the exact same affair in Vanity Fair a few months ago. It is cool that Monica has kept mental notes on the sheer number of times she has been mentioned in music, but maybe she should be sincerely thanking the artists for keeping her relevant for all these years. But she did touch on some important points, including online bullying, as well.
“Overnight I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one,” she said. “I was patient zero. The first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet. There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then. But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails could be forwarded.”
