Next time an emcee will try to underline his whiteness, I think I m gonna scream!

I perfectly know that what I am going to say will be subject to controversy and frankly, I don t give a shit. I will say what I have to say, regardless of the many misunderstandings, misquotes and misbelieves my article might raise.
Since I started writing about artists, I have reviewed a multitude of emcees from very different backgrounds. Some of them were black, white, Latino, Asians etc etc. When I pointed out something regarding race as a reviewer/ critic, it was only to locate the artist s cultural background.
The thing is, I am getting currently pissed at rappers who point out their whiteness in their profiles, proudly pointing out that they are the next best white thing.
I loathe it. I deeply loathe it.
Give me a break.
If you are as talented as you pretend to be, you wouldn t need to advertise your skin color to get some attention. White rapper? Who gives a fuck? I will only give a shit if you are really talented!
Some morons will point out that an emcee who talks about his white skin color has the right to express about his white pride.
Excuse me? White pride in a black man s world? White pride from guys whose ancestors probably were the oppressors of black folks? Please allow me to strongly disagree.
Some of you racists will object that black folks also talk about black pride. Yes, they do. They justifiably do in a very different context. Black folks did it and do it in an incessant quest against racial discrimination and white folks jumping into the hip hop business should lay low as far as I am concerned on questions of white pride. White pride reminds me of white supremacists and members of the KKK. I don t like to see such things expressed in black music and black culture.
Yes, I am white-with a mixed cultural background, though. I will raise my voice against attitudes I highly suspect to be racial demeaning attitudes.
Most of them white pride warriors are jokes in the rap business. They are often closer to Vanilla Ice than to Eminem.
Eminem was white and successful in the rap game. Yes, but he knew how to rap and wasn t really satisfied with people constantly pointing out his Caucasian origins. I do think that Eminem changed the face of the rap game and that he also encouraged some talented Caucasian boys to try to rap.
However-and that s the negative side of it- he opened the door for a bunch of clowns who, because of their skin color- think they are entitled to rap, because Em did it before as a white man.
Most people forget that Eminem carried black culture s heritage with him and that he came on stage with a gift.
Unfortunately, a portion of his so called (Caucasian) fans, especially teenage girls from the suburbs, don t even seem to know what Marshall Mathers is all about. Fuck the image of the cute white boy those girls spread around them. Because of them, we d nearly forget that the dude s best quality is his incredible talent!
The media made him a sex symbol, but Eminem s whole struggle was to get recognition for his rapping skills.
I sometimes wish every listener could be blind during the time he/ she listens to the music. This would prevent us from selecting subjective criteria such as beauty, hair color, eye color, race etc…The listener s choice would then be based on real talent only.
I don t care if someone is black, brown, yellow, white, green or purple: I wanna hear about genuine talent and genuine talent only!
An emcee who is sure of his skills doesn t have to throw some white powder into his listeners ears to be heard. That s my point and nobody is ever gonna change it. Don t make the rap game turn into a racial competition. Spit because of your love for the music and prove your skills, that s was hip hop is all about.
Copyright 2007 by Isabelle Esling
All Rights Reserved