Hip-Hop Social Inequality
Professor lewis-McCoy
March 23,2016
Every rapper isn't black and didn't grow up in poverty stricken neighborhoods or actually have to struggle through life like many accomplished rappers have endured in their lives. Being a white artist specifically in Hip-Hop can be a challenge because your skin color already puts you at a disadvantage in the eyes of black people who originally birthed Hip-Hop.
White artist that are apart of Hip-hop are viewed as not being traditional less authentic because their aren't black. Artist such as Macklemore and Iggy Azalea are white so they have more of a broader audience which are white people, they may relate to them more because they have something in common, their skin color. African Americans don't necessarily see it that way, they view it as them being more commercial not really understanding what Hip-hop is all about because they didn't come from a life of struggle and hardships like many of Hip-hops black artist have.
According to the New York Daily News, being a white artist in Hip-hop is an advantage because people are more likely to listen to their music and support their them since they are white, and not to mention win or be nominated for certain awards even if they aren't that deserving of them. Whiteness sells, it reaches a more diverse audience and the major record executives know exactly what they're doing when they sign white artist to their record labels, they're more easily marketable.
Some people actually have a major problem with white artist coming into the world of Hip-hop and trying to make it their own and be apart of something they know nothing about, because they don't know the true meaning behind Hip-hop, the struggles, living in the ghetto, they are looked at as "not real" just someone trying to imitate their culture and make it their own. A person doesn't have to come from a struggle to understand or relate to Hip-hop.
Hip-hop has united so many people from all walks of life all shades of color without people really realizing it. Instead people focus on why are white people trying to rap, be apart of Hip-hop culture they don't belong, they don't know what Hip-hop is all about. Music has no color, being white doesn't make you any less of an artist in Hip-hop or just like being black doesn't make you any more realer. People gravitate to what they can relate to and what moves them, if that means Iggy Azaleas song "Fancy" is more popular than Nicki Minajs then so be it. Its all about the artist and their skills not their nationality.
Work Cited
Jim Farber(2014,June 24)
Title Hip hop is getting white hot
Retrieved from New York Daily News
Title Is Hip hop's Audience Really 80% White?
Retrieved from hiphopnadpolitics.com
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