Category: News

At this year Grammy Awards white rapper Macklemore album “The Heist” beat Kanye album “Yeezus” for album of the year. The Grammys show a statistical preference towards white artist.  Hip Hop music for white is more about a certain sound, story or style than it is about skin color.  White hip hop music is more about poppy beats, suburban stories, articulate flow, sensitivity and hooks.  Notable rappers such as Will Smith, Drake, early Kanye, The Creator, Childish Gambino and Earl Sweatshirt are often accused of making white music.  Earl describe his music as being “Too black for the white kids, too white for the black kids.  Hip Hop blogger TRUTH Minista Paul Scott claims Drake is so white  that his music is “tarnishing the legacy of real Hip Hop”.

He thinks Drake is out of touch with the black culture and he should be ban from using the n-word.  Other Hip Hop artist such as Lil Wayne and Rick Ross uses the n-word but they use it appropriately.  What make Drake music less black than other rappers?  Some say the American ghetto stories, drug slangin and gunplay.  These topics is what distinguish black music from white music.  Using those topic to define black hip hop is problematic. Rap songs with lyrics about drugs, gangs, pimps and hoes and the sexiness and dangerous lifestyle is what executive believe is what the white audience craved.    In 1991 it was recognized that suburban white men consume around 80% of hip hop music.  Describing hip hop as black or white come from this cultural disconnect and it an entirely mean of comparison.   Stereotypes is what help white people dismiss the violence and poverty in the black communities as if it’s black people own fault.  People see black kids to equate articulate styles of speech as “white” instead of a sign of intelligence.  Hip hop music is well established and accepted art form.  We should support real hip hop music whatever you believe that to be.  Stop talking about blackness and whiteness as if the were sounds.