Some people may stumble across any of my social media profiles and immediately notice the “Hip-Hop Culture From A BLACK Angle” phrase stamped in my bio section. Over the past decade, there has been a growth spurt in the hip-hop head audience. Let me define that…hip-hop head. A Hip-Hop Head is an individual who is in tune with Classic Hip-Hop music. Classic Hip-Hop is known to be hip-hop reigning from the 70s, 80s, and 90s-at most. These eras of hip-hop music are also considered by many as Old School Hip-Hop. Even though many hip-hop class acts are not too fond of calling their music “old school”, younger generations who are addicts of classic hip-hop indubitably use the label.
The hip-hop head audience has a variety of group types. These group types reign from all categories including age and race. Despite how multi-cultural Hip-Hop music is today, these categories do exist as groups in the hip-hop community-no matter how many attempts people try to deny this. It does not necessarily mean there is negative intent with the recognition of types.
There is one group type that happens to take up a majority of the hip-hop head listening audience. This group is certainly a race, who has done all in their might and power to make their presence known in Hip-Hop Culture. This race is none other than the White race.
The interesting thing is that Whites have been scoping out Hip-Hop Culture ever since its early days. They were not involved on a cultural stance, but more on an unconditional business stance. The brewing popularity of “hip-hoppers” was viewed as an opportunity to make a couple of bucks to white business men. Most whites were club owners and promoters for the spots where hip-hop pioneers rocked their elements.
The Roxy, a club formerly located in Chelsea of New York City was owned by Richard Newhouse & Steven Greenberg, who of course are white men. Every week there were hip-hop pioneers doing MC hostings, b boy and b girl competitions were held, graffiti murals were curated, and DJs were rockin’ crowds. Kool Lady Blue (yes, a white woman) was one of the biggest promoters at The Roxy who helped break hip-hop class acts Run D.M.C. and a young LL Cool J.
There is one hip-hop element that is heavily connected to white communities. Graffiti Art. Whites who had an eye and heart for detail, and who were also young writers themselves became heavily involved with hip-hop’s graffiti element. As a matter of fact, in the 70s there were whites who are even labeled as “pioneers” in hip-hop’s graffiti element such as Richard Mirando, best known as SEEN.
Most of the graffiti writers from the 70s were young whites who were not associated in any way, shape or form with the black and latino community. They were not attending park jams, not members of rap crews, or b boying. The brewing culture of hip-hop was not a station for these writers.
Due to the fact that most white graffiti writers did not reign from the ghettos of black and latino communities, there is a controversy about graffiti’s association with hip-hop culture. This controversy has been recognized and co-signed by graffiti legend SEEN and one of hip-hop’s most influential pioneers, Grandmaster Flash (a black man). There is a high level of truth that comes out of this controversial statement, which is: Hip-Hop is a Black Culture.
When it comes to hip-hop culture, it is very important to understand its social organization, which is the pattern between the art form and the bodies keeping the art form in motion. Even though numerous whites were heavily involved in the graffiti culture, there was also an abundance of Black graffiti writers.
Stamped as the first modern graffiti writer in the world, Darryl McCray best known as Cornbread took the walls and surfaces of Philly by storm with his signature tagging and fortuitous hits. And of course, Cornbread is a Black man.
Another pivot in the evolution of the graffiti art is Ted Joans. Ted Joans is a class act visionary who is responsible for the “Bird Lives” scrawls throughout jazz clubs across the country in the year, 1955. Joans’ “Bird Lives” scrawls was in honor of Charlie Parker-a jazz soloist who was highly influential to the art of jazz and essence of bebop. And of course, Ted Joans is a Black man.
The aforementioned scope into the development of the graffiti movement alone will lead you into deeper grounds about Black music genres and arts. Hip-Hop is recognized as a genre that is influenced by a variety of music cultures be it rock and roll, jazz and blues, disco, and rhythm and blues. These are genres of music that own origins within Black culture in America. Regardless of the evolution of white washing in these genres, which is witnessed from acts in the likes of James Brown, Otis Redding, and Little Richard to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen, the bodies in hip-hop music deeply embraced the funk of their melodies.
Hip-hop’s rap element is directly respective to the significance of verbal outreach among Black people. It was one of the last elements to manifest itself within the structure of hip-hop culture. The undertaking of verbal outreach by Blacks in hip-hop is another form of the African Oral Tradition.
The African oral tradition is how Black people in America retained features of the African way of life, in this specific case within the rap or emcee element of hip-hop culture. Whether they were conscious about it or not, the act of rapping is a generational genetic connection to the Black identity.
The primary way that the men, women, and babies of the African continent communicated among one another was by word of mouth. Traditionally, this is how African nations built upon concepts and passed down their legacy.
In most tribes of West African countries lies the Griot. The Griot is the elder tribesmen who through song and rhythm recites the history of their village. This form of aggressive chanting is recognized as one of the first occurrences that The Black man dropped a rhyme. It is accurate to say that based on this African tradition, the Griot is the original rapper.
There is an ancient belief in West Africa about the magical power of words. This belief is known as Nommo, reigning from the Dogon people of Mali. This concept was sanctioned into the mentality that mastery over words gave you the ability to master the universe. As we can see, this belief has proven itself with the culture of hip-hop, as its lyrical component reigns supreme all over the world in ever sector of people activity of every race group.
Hip-hop’s global expansion is due to it’s grand kinship with Black culture. The civil rights era of the 1960s is certainly among those connections, and in reality is the trigger of the hip-hop MC. You see, the Civil Rights Movement was an attempt through activism to shield integral political, social, and economic rights for those of African/Black identity in America.
Pro-Black groups in the likes of The Black Panthers were a direct influence on Black communities. Black Panther bodies in the likes of Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton and Huey Newton owned voices that grasped the senses of African-Americans young and old. This added on more heed to the condition of Blacks in America (Blacks have been fighting for justice in America ever since the soil of America was colonized).
There has always been a need to elaborate on the harsh condition of the Black community. During the days of slavery this was done with slave songs which the politically correct term is, work songs. Songs such as “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd”, “Let Us Break Bread Together”, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” are regarded as slave song classics and are even being sang by groups and individuals till this day. Work songs in the likes of “Hoe Emma Hoe” included metaphors for the slave master and overseer such as “possum” and “Pharoah”. The performance of these melodies provided a sense of relief for Blacks facing slavery, as it contributed to their hope meters.
The influence of Black leadership allowed the statements made by Black leaders to become prominent phrases within the language of Black communities. Speeches verbalized by key influencers in the civil rights era of the 1960s became foundations for post-civil rights era movements and arts.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech of 1963 became internationally recognized as the head action in African-American communities. The “I Have A Dream” term became the pillar of motivation for Blacks, as Martin Luther King Jr. was recognized all over the globe as a leader for the African American collective.
Come 1964 is the great Malcolm X with his speech at the founding rally for the Organization of Afro-American Unity, where he stated one of his most notable quotes, “By any means necessary.”
By far one of the most influential phrases in Black culture and utmost to hip-hop lyricism was pioneered by the one and only Stokely Carmichael best known as Kwame Toure during is 1966 speech “Black Power”, “Black Power!”
The exposure of these speeches and coining of the aforementioned phrases in the likes of Malcolm X’s “By any means necessary” and Kwame Toure’s “Black Power!” was a way the African-American masses gained a sense of relief from their current conditions under the act of oppression. During slavery, this was done through song and also within the genre of rhythm and blues. Come the late 1960s emerged an evolution among the melodies of Blacks that would push on the fight for justice, the spoken word evolution.
For sure, the civil rights movement had relations to other black movements in the likes of the Black Arts Movement and the Black Nationalist Movement which influenced the next voices for the fight of justice. In 1968, reigning from East Harlem were The Last Poets. With primitive emergence out “East Wind”, the Harlem Writers Workshop were a collective of wordsmiths who quibbled the feelings of Blacks in America, along with all the oppressed people of the world.
Due to The Last Poets highly political stirred rapping, tense rhymes, and devotion to the Black re-awakening, these wordsmiths exclusively are among those who laid down the blueprint for the birth of the hip-hop MC. The Last Poets performed in various combinations with each other, with the chronicles of the group piloted by Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin and Umar Bin Hassan projecting them to legendary dignity.
The most recognized chronicles of The Last Poets involve Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan, Kenyatte Abdur Rahman, Suliaman El Hadi, and Abu Mustapha. These men paved the way for the socially conscious Black emcee. There is a possibility that Melle Mel’s performance on “The Message” would not have been as popular all over the globe if it were not for the chants of The Last Poets nearly ten years prior.
Come the early 70s, also highly influenced by the ideal of Black liberation was the symphonic vocal diction and monologue bound rapping of Gil-Scott Heron. Best known for his compositions in the likes of, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox”, Heron was received by the masses for his perverse boldness. His musical content was filled with blatant rhetoric concerning mass consumerism, the white superficiality of television, the hypocritical identities of some so-called “black revolutionaries”, along with the ignorance middle-class whites had on the difficulties faced by inner-city tenants.
The melodies of Gil-Scott Heron is a collective of prominent news stories tied with harsh irony, social critiques, and first hand rap hymns. Heron’s craft is a direct influence and trigger for Black music genres in the likes of Hip-Hop and Neo Soul, as he was prominent for his merging of soul and jazz traditions.
Lord Jamar was right when he said:
“White rappers, you’re coming to this almost as a guest, okay? Matter of fact, you are guests in the house of hip-hop.”
There must be a general understanding about how genres in the likes of rock, jazz, and hip-hop were originally Black art forms. These are musical art forms that were born out of Black community structures in the United States. The truth is, the culture of the Western hemisphere dominates the United States which does not reflect on the culture of the bodies of the Black community. For this reason of blatant cultural differences, whites were mesmerized by the fresh appeal Blacks founded hip-hop culture with. This caused bodies of the dominant culture to believe this form of expression, hip-hop, was an opportunity for profit.
The monetization of hip-hop began with its image to the world. When it was time for hip hop acts to perform at the hottest clubs in town, it was up to the club owners and their promoters on how to go on about it, who were mostly white. People who lived out of hip-hop bound communities were the ones who tried to define it, thus setting a tone for the culture’s public image: poor Black ghetto kids with funk and rhythm.
The goal for white executives was to transform the slums of Black communities in America to an transcendent hood that was filled with sex, narcotics, and violence. There was a worldwide desire for the hip-hop MC to be Black. Throughout hip-hop’s most classic eras, its kernel core appeared to be too strong to ever become contaminated. There was a time when hip hop behaved as if it was impossible to encompass.
Hip-hop’s flight has triggered a pretty compelling cultural phenomenon. Not only has it hit the U.S. coasts of the West and South, but hip-hop stretched to opposite sides of the globe into continents in the likes of Europe, Asia, Australia and of course, back to the continent of Africa, the motherland of melodic sound.
At a majority, both Blacks and Whites love to speak about how hip-hop allied cultural differences and encouraged racial compromise all day yet, this behavior became the assistant of white washing hip-hop culture into an average custom.
As white artists-who traditionally live outside of hip-hop related communities, began to gravitate towards the culture, they did whatever was necessary to incorporate Black measures and imagery into their brands. But, because of hip-hop’s founded Blackness, only a select few of white artists have been successful, in the world of mainstream culture.
Due to the success few whites have had in the mainstream world compared to the preferred black majority in hip-hop outlets in favor of white privilege outside the niche of hip-hop, whites who are authorities in the music industry are under the impression that they can declare who runs hip-hop culture. Slowly but surely, blacks were not only losing their grip on hip-hop standards, but black conception was becoming foreign.
“Hip-hop is a contagious culture.”- Questlove
The outsiders who gravitated towards hip-hop the most were the upper and middle class white children of America. These kids emulated this black culture from the soul by its fashion, the trends, and various art forms. White America as a whole was not happy about their babies falling victim to the greatness of profound hip-hop.
Whites of this caliber at one point (or probably still) were labeled by other whites as wiggers. A wigger is a white person who displays a lack of sense of their cultural identity by mimicking what they view on television due to its popularity, in this case Hip-Hop culture as they present themselves with black trends by their clothing, vocabulary, and music taste. But regardless of what the sadity whites had to say, young white kids were on a conquest to gravitate towards hip-hop.
In 1981 Debbie Harry of Blondie’s song “Rapture” featured a rap verse, and was the first song with a rap verse to hit number one on Billboard. The music video for “Rapture” which has a cameo from hip-hop pioneer personality Fab Five Freddy, was the first music video with a rap verse aired on MTV.
A couple of years down the line from Blondie, comes a set of middle-class white boys who were eager to set their own tone, style, and content of MCing, The Beastie Boys. Their 1987 debut, Licensed to Ill was the first rap album to hit number one on the Billboard charts.
Now we are gonna slide to another act who was a tougher, more rounded, and well informed white rap collective to hit the scene, 3rd Bass. Filled with the bodies of Pete Nice, MC Serch, and DJ Richie Rich (who was a Black man), 3rd Bass spent most of their prime lyrically being respective of hip-hop’s traditions. With lyrics like, “ I stick to this, so say this while you’re grazin’,
Original man’s a black man, said by a caucasian…”, and “ Dismiss the myth, that evil is not black…” MC Serch was a force to be reckoned with when it came to the white rapper.
Despite MC Serch’s fashion sense with his high tops and high fade blatantly depicting an Afrocentric appeal, 3rd Bass was highly embraced by the hip-hop community of the golden era. 3rd Bass’ realistic content included blowing up the spot and dropping disses to any fellow white rapper who appeared to exploit the culture. Their most recognized hit track “Pop Goes The Weasel” is a prime example, as they threw blows at Dallas native, Vanilla Ice.
Vanilla Ice’s introduction into the hip-hop world has been questioned, as his success was a clear example of exploitation in the genre of hip-hop. Under the umbrella of SBK records, and record label of EMI, Vanilla Ice came to the scene as an over masculine man with a diplomatic sexist approach, trying moves of a Black man, lackluster flow, and fashion sense of the sophisticated alpha male.
But, it was clear to hip-hop community members of the golden era that Vanilla Ice’s appearance was unauthentic thus trying to utilize an commercial appearance in order to reach the mass mainstream audience. And well, it worked. Ice tracks in the likes of “Ice Ice Baby” and “Play That Funky Music” lead to his 1989 label debut album To The Extreme to sell eleven million copies and become the fastest selling hip hop album, as it spent sixteen weeks as number one on the Billboard 200.
Those accomplishments were not considered honorable, due to Vanilla Ice’s poor representation of the hip-hop MC. His overrated reach to prove lyrical superiority was caught due to his stiffened rhymes, along with his fabricated hip-hop lineage making him the perfect candidate act for an attempt to exploit hip-hop music to the highest extent.
A couple a years after the Vanilla Ice phenomenon, arrives a little white boy from the slums of lower-middle class Detroit, whose passion for the art of rhyming was undeniable. That little white boy is all grown up now, and is currently considered to be one of the greatest rappers to ever touch a mic, and he is known as Eminem.
Eminem came into the art of rap due to his interest in poetry and favor of hip hop notables in the likes of Melle Mel, Run D.M.C., LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane (who are all black men) and over a tenfold more of lyricists. His fellow genetic a likes the Beastie Boys were also an confidence booster when it came it his involvement into the industry.
Growing up in low-end conditions, Eminem was one of the very few whites in the industry who can somehow relate to the life conditions of the oppressed Black and Latinos. His parents were z-list musicians, his pops abandoned him during his preteens leaving his mother and siblings living in mobile homes at trailer parks. This kid clearly had a story to tell, and when he decided to become an MC, his identity was not fabricated.
Eminem’s lyrical content was nothing but vivid tales of the struggling young white boy whose life was embedded with issues in the likes of drugs, sex, violence, and mental anxiety. He did not try to fit in with the blackness of hip hop. He carefully studied from his influences, who were mostly black men and took their rapping techniques to the next level, in his own right. It was certainly a challenge for Eminem to get accepted into the hip hop world due to his whiteness.
I personally believe that Eminem honing respect for those before him (mostly black men), developing his own angle, and having an organic passion for the art of rhyming brought him an authentic long living fan base. Eminem’s fan base was consumed mostly by those lower-middle class white kids, while middle-high class white hip-hop heads embraced him because of his obscure subject matters and rhyming techniques. White hip-hop lovers finally felt like there was finally a white rapper who’s skill was superior compared to others. The privilege of his whiteness surely played a major part in Eminem’s mainstream success.
Eminem’s rap techniques of funny subject matters, concept series, complex rhyming, word bending, transparent enunciation, and multi syllabic rhymes are respective to the identity of a hip-hop MC. His rise to mainstream success surpassed many of hip-hop’s most honorable rappers with the emergence of his movie deals, record labels, and radio stations. The sole reason behind Eminem’s broad reached audience is as clear as a snowy day. The white majority of America, whether they favored hip-hop music or not, were able to relate to the bizarre lyrical ideals of Eminem, thus making Eminem’s mainstream success a situation of white privilege.
In this modern era, we have so-called hip-hop acts such as Iggy Azalea and Macklemore whose musical persona is founded on black rhythms and black genetic build (It the case of Iggy). Azalea who is from Australia-a continent where the culture of hip-hop is an embraced trend, has built one of the most colorful fan bases by a female “hip-hop” artist. Not only does she have a core Australian fan base, but fellow predominantly white continents such as Europe take up her fan base as well.
Then there are the white women of America who now feel a sense of relief that this amazon built white girl with hips and bubbles behind her back has hit the charts of a predominantly black genre they wish to infiltrate the culture of. This ideal is proven by the constant comparisons made between Azalea and hip-hop megastar, Nicki Minaj who is of indigenous decent and who also has an authentic upbringing into the hip-hop arts.
The truth is (whether white hip-hop fans will accept this fact or not) hip-hop is THE black self expression. Upon its brew in 1974, it was the modern day blues for the oppressed black nation of America. The exploited circumstance of the disadvantaged black youth in the slums of New York City created this self expression known as hip-hop- be it through microphones, busted walls, damp cardboard, or stolen sound systems.
It does not matter how much a white person genuinely loves the art of hip-hop. It does not matter how many black friends a white person has, nor does it matter if they grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood. The reality relating to the history and the condition of this world we live in, still lies. The white nation’s propaganda to oppress any nation of indigenous decent is active within the current watered down identity of hip-hop culture. At the core and end of all days, Hip-hop is indeed a BLACK culture.
