Grimes is reflecting on the state of the world amid the ongoing wildfire crisis in Los Angeles, from which she and nearly 200,000 other Californians have been forced to evacuate this week.
In a tweet posted Thursday (Jan. 9), the musician wrote that she thinks “the vibe is rather Biblical out here,” positing that “we might be outta time w regards to twiddling our thumbs whilst every level of our culture, environment, government, institutions, mental health, etc have obviously crumbled.”
“Luckily unlike all previous dark ages, we have an immunity against lost information,” she continued. “Printing press, hard drives etc. but what are we going to do about it?”
Grimes’ post comes about two days after wind-fueled flames first broke out in the Pacific Palisades area Tuesday (Jan. 7), quickly spreading across L.A. County and claiming an estimated 10,000 homes and structures. More fires have since torn through the Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, Altadena, Sylmar and Calabasas, with at least 10 people reported dead in the destruction, according to CNN.
As of Thursday, about 180,000 residents had been placed under evacuation orders or warnings — including the “Oblivion” singer, who tweeted the day prior, “Just had to evacuate, tried to go to a friends place / it got an evacuation warning on the way there – now aimlessly driving out of the city.”
“is the whole city gna be gone?” she’d added. “This is a serious tragedy for LA – I feel profoundly sad for everybody.”
In the replies to her tweets, Grimes sympathized with the “billions of climate [refugees] from less wealthy areas of the world” who might also be affected by similar environmental disasters outside of L.A. and said that the wildfires feel “like a weird invisible hand poking the dominoes.” And when one commenter tried to pivot the climate conversation to her past relationship with Tesla boss Elon Musk — with whom she shares three young children — the Elf Tech founder shut it down.
“He’s pretty vocal about climate change and is primarily known for, in part, revolutionizing electric vehicles,” she replied to a person who’d called the billionaire “one of the most evil climate deniers of all time.”
“I think there’s plenty to be angry about but when you stray from fact and reason, your critique loses power,” Grimes continued of her ex partner, who has reportedly taken up near-permanent residence in Florida near soon-to-be-inaugurated President Donald Trump, a vocal climate change critic.
“The biggest challenge right now is not falling into creating and consuming dopamine rage bait on social media and focussing on thoughtful, rational, truth based discourse so that we can properly diagnose and solve our problems,” Grimes wrote.
The “Miss Anthropocene” musician and the Tesla CEO had an on-again, off-again relationship between 2018 and 2022. In 2020, they welcomed their first child — a son named X Æ A-Xii — and later became parents to daughter Exa Dark Sideræl (now 3) and son Techno Mechanicus (2). Musk is also Dad to seven children he shares with his first wife, Justine Wilson, and twins Strider and Azure, whom he shares with Neuralink director Shivon Zilis.
In December, Grimes touched on their breakup during an exchange with Azealia Banks on X. “i didn’t ‘get dumped,’” the former wrote of Musk at the time. “I bounced. My amazing baby is asleep in my bed beside me, I’m in love. no regrets. Life is as beautiful as u want it to be.”
Click here for a list of organizations providing assistance for music industry workers during the fire emergency.
See Grimes’ tweets about the L.A. wildfires below.
