Authenticity of White Rappers

             Hip-hop’s origins trace back to the South Bronx in 1970s where Black and Puerto Rican residents formed a culture that would ultimately come to serve as the voice for the voiceless. From its rise to eventual commercialization there have always been questions about authenticity and who is “real” in the hip-hop game. Authenticity is central to hip-hop because it becomes an indicator as to who can legitimately portray the culture (Farley, 2009). According to McLeod, hip-hop has been made by and for a Black audience. Naturally, the authenticity of White rap artists has always come into question. The perceived authenticity by the audience can ultimately make or break a hip-hop artists career.

            Hip-hop authenticity has always been defined and tied to African American culture.  White artists like Vanilla Ice have used strategies such as cultural immersion, imitation, and inversion to establish their authenticity (Hess, 2005). According to Hess (2005), African Americans frame hip-hop as Black expressive culture being threatened by a white-controlled record industry. In order to justify their presence and not go along with this view of threatening black culture, White rappers like Vanilla Ice imitated the Black rap artist rags-to-riches narrative (Hess, 2005). Vanilla Ice’s rags-to-riches story of growing up in lower-class neighborhoods in Miami, being involved in gang activity, and at one point being stabbed, turned out to be false (Hess, 2005). The reveal that his story being false led to the downfall of Vanilla Ice’s career because he looked like he was imitating Black artists in order to become rich. This demonstrates how significant authenticity is when being a hip-hop artist, especially a White artist since their authenticity is automatically questioned.

Eminem at Lollapalooza 2016. Photo credit: Jeremy Deputat.

            According to Hess, Eminem took a different approach towards legitimizing his authenticity (2005). Eminem not only recognized the fact that he was white, but rather than cater to a White audience, like is usually done with White rappers, he included that as part of his struggle (Hess, 2005). Being White only proved to be a challenge in being taken seriously as a rapper, especially because he was coming up after Vanilla Ice. Eminem didn’t want to be categorized as a White rapper, he wanted to be taken seriously in the Black dominated scene because of his talent (Farley, 2009). Hess identified Eminem’s authenticity through McLeod’s semantic dimensions of authenticity, saying that Eminem exhibited being true to oneself, claiming local allegiances and territorial identities, and establishing a connection to an original source of rap like style, location, or established artist (2005).

            Eminem’s success was proven when the semi-autobiographical movie Eight Mile was released in 2002 staring Eminem himself. His role in the movie was key to it’s success which had “the eighth highest grossing opening week of any major motion picture released during 2002” (Fraley, 2009).

            The success and perceived authenticity of White hip-hop artists can challenge the view that hip-hop authenticity is exclusively Black. However, regardless of these challenges authenticity is still defined by the “Black experience”. White artists must prove that they have the same characteristics of Black rappers such as staying true to themselves or having some struggle.

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References

Farley, T. (2009). I Got Natural Skill...: Hip-Hop Authenticity and Whiteness. The Howard Journal of Communications, 20(1), 37-54. DOI: 10.1080/10646170802664979

Forman, M., & Neal, M. A. (2012). That's The Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2nd ed). Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened With Assimilation (164-178). New York, NY: Routledge. 

Hess, M. (2005). Hip-Hop Realness and the White Performer. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22(5), 372-389. DOI: 10.1080/07393180500342878