The powers-that-be has placed the long practice in the world to judge other people on many different things. It makes it much easier to condemn others for you own insecurities and lacking of an open mind. So in and around you no matter where you are, you find the poor laughed at by the rich, the young use their middle fingers to disrespect the elderly, skinny people slipping through seats at movie while the overweight, wait in the lobby for the aisle seats. Short nerds chat on shinny computers about missing their proms because the athletes have taken all of the girls away. Only the skinny girls with the longest and or blondest hair and largest man magnets get to find the true sexual prowess of the school’s best athlete based on what we all know to be penis size. They say the bigger the better. What about when it comes to hip hop& is the blacker the better?
Racism comes from people’s insecurities about themselves and the need to feel comfortable in there own skin (there’s a pun in there somewhere). We all want to be accepted and respected in life. I can’t deny that. It just seems odd to me to say what someone can and can’t do base one’s skin color. Its not my fault that white guys were too stupid to be born black so they could dance, have large pleasure giving genitals and play sports. Its also not my fault that the black people didn’t have they brain’s to be born white so they could avoid slavery, know how to keep a job, have good credit and live with the comfort of a front and back yard. Since nobody can really be blamed for what God gave him or her to work with on this planet, why put it at the forefront of every assumption in your head.
Being an artist, I have found that the best voices in expression speak about universal truths, things that speak to everyone more so for being human than anything else. The Hollywood calls movies that involve black people either “Black films”, or “Films about the black experience” Why can’t it just be about an experience. Artists that happen to be black should natrually do “black art.” I was taught that true art is first self-expression and secondly universal. Hip Hop I do consider an art regardless of how it horrible the billboard chart artist are, or what fools are currently on MTV. So saying that white guys can’t do hip hop, that it would only “white version” of hip hop of would be like telling me that I can’t do art, only “black art.” Ludicrous. For hip hop to be an art that grows and expands people’s ways of thinking about everything, it has to be a true one. It has to shake the media’s restrictive definitions of what it has to be because of its origins and bloom into a fruitful form of expression. It has to piss some people off.
So enter the infamous “white rappers.” The media seems to feel the need in restricting the hip hop culture with these terms. The same rings true for “gangster rap, jiggy rap, hardcore, horrorcore, pop, Southern rap, West Coast, East coast, etc. Giving different titles to various artists, while seemly widening the different kinds of hip hop, it actually stifles imaginations and imposes rules of content and style to the rappers. Its takes talented individuals to break molds and take the ultimate risk of being themselves. You might know this as “keeping it real.” If rappers are being themselves, and providing their viewpoint, when does race come into the picture?
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I told my little brother that Eminem was one of my favorite artist (he gets juggled around the in the top three with Scaramanga and Common). To prove how dope he was, I sent him some unreleased Eminem songs to feed oncausing him to list Mr. Mathers as his current favorite. He said that when he tried to explain to his friends who’s hip hop diet was strictly radio hits, Ruff Ryders, Cash Money Clik, and No Limit how good Eminem was, they called him crazy and said “that white boy can’t rap”. He told me that they didn’t like him mostly because he’s white. My brother said that his friends like the Ruff Ryders, Cash Money and the like, because that’s what everyone else likes. I told him to, ‘like whom you like because you like them and not because it is in to like so and so.’ I have found that many cats don’t want to like white rappers because their homeboys might ridicule them for liking non black artists. I suppose they think that Vanilla Ice showed what white guys would do with rap and was a lesson for all white guys to come after him. What’s the difference in saying that and saying that every young black male has a criminal record? It’s what’s shown in the media, but again, far from the truth.
White rappers that happen to be on MTV aren’t limited to the Beasties, Eminem and pseudo rappers, Limp Bizkit, Insane Clown Posse and Kid Rock. Even though the media thinks its the ‘in thing’ to be a white rapper, the hip hop community has been rich in ethnic diversity for a while now. Artists like Sole and Company Flow have been producing awe inspiring hits not for the radio but for the sheer advancement of hip hop and to condition heads to bop to the beats of different drums. Groups like Atmosphere whose album Overcast! still plays as fresh as its 1997 release date. Why? Because it was made from the heart without the interference of marketing schemes and sales analysts billboard speculations. I doubt the wanna be gangsters and thugs with their names tattooed on their arms will appreciate the art world references or ultra 128-bit accelerated nerd style of hip hop being made by MC Paul Barman. How could they bump him after a new Ruff Ryder or Murder Inc. hit? What would their boys say or shorties think? So don’t expect him to guess star on a hits with Jay-Z or DMX. Cage, Mr. Eon and Mighty Mi come together to form Smut Peddlers. They are a group who use the word nigga and could care less about the rules of what white rappers are supposed to sound like or be. They are only concerned with what sounds dope. This is only a bit of salt sprinkled in this flavor filled dish called hip hop. Many contributors other than American Caucasian background give widening viewpoints to this art. You can find talented emcees from Japan, Sweden, Spain, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.
In closing, I want to share a great gauge for finding wonderful hip hop for listening pleasure. Its even better than using race, much more accurate, and offers a wider variety of talent than what your boys listen to and think is hot. The next time you find you are sampling someone you have never heard of, ask yourself this one question: Is he or she nice or not? In the end, beyond all of the marketing, platinum status, popularity on MTV, group, coast or country affiliation, thats all that really matters. And God knows being black is not a prerequisite for the ability to rap or anything else, no matter what you read in glossy magazines. The only talent needed is the ability to not settle for mediocrity.
