Rap music is no longer Black music—and it hasn’t been for a while. It has morphed and formed from a genuine artform into a product meant purely for consumption and money. Rap music, in a way, is the new pop music. You can see a real impact in the ’90s with the first successful commercialization of a white solo act in Vanilla Ice and today with the newest golden child of rap discourse, simply named: ian
Some people often fail to understand that rap music is a cultural thing. A Black American thing, not just an American thing. It has Black American origins, created by Black people, in a Black and brown neighborhood. The reason you see white rappers with their hair braided down to their scalp, mimicking regional slang, dances, speaking in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or getting to anything they can touch, is because Black culture is so integral to rap music.
For example: Post Malone, who has recently made the full transition to country music, released an 87-minute album titled “F-1 Trillion: Long Bed”. This has been a stark contrast to who he was nine years ago starting out in the music industry. With his hair braided all the way back, dabbing (which was cool at the time), golden jewelry around his neck, fingers and on his teeth, talking about “I got me some braids and I got me some hoes.”
Another example of using Black culture and music as a steppingstone in a grander scheme is the treatment of rap, hip-hop and Black culture being used as “disposable” to the music industry, as it’s just purely a pedestal, phase or aesthetic to promote an artist or celebrity. Like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Elvis Presley, Machine Gun Kelly or Mark Wahlberg (formerly known as Marky Mark), just to name a few examples.
I think that there are big differences between ‘white rappers’ and ‘rappers who are white’. A lot of ‘white rappers’ are often a product, put together and pushed to the general public by the minds of whatever interns, at whatever record label. Then, labels will promote the Lego kit-esque rappers’ race due to the visible contrast among the rest of the respective field. It’s purely a novelty, a gimmick. It no longer becomes an artform, but rather just a very obvious cash grab. There’s no passion within the music, no desire to bring something new to the table, but rather to take and remake whatever is popular at the time. It’s pop-rap. But, there have been ‘rappers who are white’ that approach rap and music in a respectful way, coming from a place of care and passion. Artists like Mac Miller and Action Bronson are two widely respected artists that didn’t and don’t treat it as mockery, but rather a genuine art form.
I would also like to clarify that I don’t think ian, Post Malone or even Vanilla Ice make or made terrible music. You can still be a technically talented musician and artist, while being a culture vulture. You can have great beat selection, a great ear, the ability to write and find a pocket, great songs and whatever else comes with being a good artist, all while stealing.
Over the last couple of years, music production has become increasingly more accessible, with a lot of artists today creating hits off the mobile apps, “GarageBand” or “BandLab”. I bet even you, the reader, have used them before, or at least know somebody who has. Even I’ve been on them before making bad beats and even worse songs. While I do think that accessible music production is a great progressive step in technology and creativity, this—with the help of record labels commercializing music—has created this disillusionment of regional sounds within hip-hop. Something that used to really mean something.
Now, everybody sounds the same. You could be from the middle of Kentucky making music that has a “New York sound” or a “Texas sound.” While I do think the ability to region-hop musically is amazing, it takes away the meaning of being from somewhere, it takes away regional pride within music. There is barely any boundary pushing within the sound anymore. This is due to people trying to replicate the same exact song as whichever already-commercialized artist is making to make a quick buck or get their 15 minutes of fame.
Culture vultures kill workmanship and pick at the carcass of a culture.