Freddie Foxxx aka Bumpy Knuckles, part of the Gang Starr Foundation and one of hip-hop’s most respected and feared emcees, recently spoke his mind on Eminem, white people in hip-hop, and racism to allhiphop:
Hip-hop now, is the only music since the dawn of time that has crossed every color line. Meaning, the rebellious sound has given the rebellious nature of rock and roll a flat tire. Now, when I go to Switzerland, or go to Holland, or London and I see ten, fifteen thousand White kids that come to see Freddie Foxxx throwing up his middle finger to say, ‘fuck the police or fuck whoever,’ to me, that gives me a sense of power. Since when has anybody been able to see a Black man, stand on stage and rowdy up a gang of White kids? Usually, there was a lynching.
Now, we’ve broken that chain. So now, the only racists motherfuckers that have anything to say about it are out of the hip-hop culture. Because hip-hop is a culture. There’s no room for color in hip-hop. If there was room for color in hip-hop, it wouldn’t be hip-hop That’s not what hip-hop is about. It’s about being a culture fucking colorblind of anything. So when we talk about, ‘fuck that motherfuckin’ cracker,’ he’s not in hip-hop! We talking about motherfuckers like old Bill O’Reilly or whatever the fuck.
I got White dudes that I’m cool with that be like, ‘fuck that White motherfucker!’ And they’re not talking about his skin color. They’re talking about his ideology. And then I got Black guys who can’t accept Eminem being built as a motherfucker. It’s like he’s treaded on their ground. He makes every motherfuckin’ Black rapper have to step up in the game. And I’m sure he may have come up in the hood, which is cool because all White people ain’t necessarily born with a silver spoon in they mouth. So the science behind racism in hip-hop is just a poor excuse for a motherfucker to not get on top of his game.
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This is about skills, man. This is about who can do something other than the norm that can interest a listener. And when you can’t do that, you lose your ground. So I don’t concern myself with, ‘Yo man, they playin’ Eminem records…’ We already know that. [Eminem] had three dates on Night Line when he first came out. So we know what that’s about. But f*ck that. Eminem even said it. So after he’s admitted that people may treat him better because he’s White, do you blame it on him? No. Is it his fault he’s White? No. The problem comes when people start charging him for being White.
