Talib Kweli on "White Male Privilege" & Eminem

[Trimss]

When I went to see Nas last year, 90 % of the crowd was black

when I went to see Eminem back in the days, 90% of the crowd was white

And 90% of the people who were there don't even understand english. Sad, isn't it? That's European listeners for you lol

[TheGentlePlayer]

Talib <3

[Sam.]

Even though Vanilla Ice was a one hit wonder, he was always highlighted as a 'White Rapper'. "White people can't Rap" It was a stereotype and still is. With the huge success of rappers like Eminem, Rhyme Asylum, Sadistik, Eyedea...etc, the statement is a huge fail. It's the bitter, unsuccessful bunch of Rappers who bring Race as a agenda.

I remember a Music video by a Black Female Rapper showing her DJ'g before a majority white audience. Now what the fuck is that?

[Francesco]

I always liked Talib & Black Star but this was total bull, yet again.

[Trimss]

Even though Vanilla Ice was a one hit wonder, he was always highlighted as a 'White Rapper'. "White people can't Rap" It was a stereotype and still is. With the huge success of rappers like Eminem, Rhyme Asylum, Sadistik, Eyedea...etc, the statement is a huge fail. It's the bitter, unsuccessful bunch of Rappers who bring Race as a agenda.

Huge success and Rhyme Asylum, Sadistik or Eyedea don't belong in the same sentence.

Is Macklemore's recent success the reason why several black rappers have come out and talked about race?

It pisses me off how he's getting ignored and snubbed by the Hip Hop community.

[Sam.]

Eyedea didn't get huge success, you say? Not as HUGE as compared to Eminem, I agree, but still. Eyedea has cult following beyond our imagination, though. RA are big in the UK circuit.

[scrapig]

Riiight...

Basically every black MC in the mainstream has been on cover of Rolling Stone...

I'm not sure of exact dates, but pretty sure 2Pac was on there fairly early in to his career?...

And Rolling Stone cock suck Jay all the time...

So with them it's just because of their talent. But if it's ANY white MC... it's because they're white? Right, makes sense. What a load of fucking horseshit.

Did Vanilla Ice get immediate approval and artistic acceptance? Fuck no. He got popularity due to a pop catchy as fuck record, so do did MC Hammer; who ain't white, and was also ginormous.

There's also a plethora of white MCs even before Em that were considered good at the time, but they didn't get worldwide gigantic exposure... they got the exposure they deserved.

Eminem got instant exposure due to his ingenious artistic content, end of.

If his content was bad or average, he wouldn't have blown up like he did, just like every single white rapper who has had bad or average content, hasn't. With the exception of Vanilla Ice, but that was fuck all to do with skin colour, it was because he wrote a hit record! A hit is a hit!

If all it took was being white and semi-decent, where the fuck is Bubba Sparxxx? and why the fuck isn't Yelawolf a worldwide phenomenon? The argument is not consistent and fails at every hurdle.

Kewli and other racist black rappers like Mos Def get way the fuck on my nerves with this shit.

And it's fucking boring. Get the fucking chip off your shoulder and grow the fuck up.

--

PS. If anything there is a black privilege in hip-hop. The amount of fucking SHIT rappers that seem to get a pass... on no other account than I can tell other than they're black and so just more automatically get accepted as 'it's their music'... is unreal.

People might not like Mac Miller and Macklemore but seriously, go re-check Wayne's fucking content; I saw a statement from Macklemore and it's quite obvious that... at least they put actual thought and effort in to what they're doing, yet it's HARDER for them to get accepted because there's always the "but he's white... so he better be a genius and nothing like Eminem, or die" stigma lmao.

Take Asher Roth for example... I'm not the hugest Asher fan, but he can rap, and he's also nothing like Eminem. Yet every single critic referred to him as an Eminem rip-off... just because he's a white rapper who can be somewhat goofy :/, which is ridiculous and ironic when you consider how similar some black rappers are, but get praised for their 'harrowing street accounts', LOL.

And I listened to his debut, and it's actually pretty good... there's concepts, he's rhyming well, the music is decent, he put effort in to make something cohesive, and his thoughts were intelligent and well structured... yet the reviews, STUNK of race bias due to him being a new white rapper. It seemed to me the critics started out with the mindset of "fuck this cunt, he's not Eminem, and he's a white rapper, he's shit, fuck his album"... as their criticisms of the album sounded so forced and unfounded compared to what I listened to; dismissing the entire album as a 'stoner' album with nothing to say etc. when in fact hardly any of the album is even truly about smoking weed, there's a bunch of political commentary, self-deprecation and concepts... , so it's more like they were just dying to say that's what it is. Would they have done that if he was black?

Because I've read reviews of DOG SHIT albums that make out banal, empty, embarrassing content has way more depth than it does. Black rappers get more of a pass, because white people want to feel cool for engaging with, talking about or 'relating to black people', I'm talking specifically about white Americans mind you, as the rest of the western world seems to have grown up quite a long time ago. It's only really the US that has this childish race obsession still.

Kweli - you're a cock, and an idiot.

This almost made me cry of how beautiful it is.

Agreed! Eminembase its always a pleasure reading your posts.

[Tash8]

I honestly think Em did less for breaking the racial barrier than you might think. Sure he got a bunch of white kids rapping, but how many of them that made it mainstream n never heard the word "the new eminem." No one called Eminem the "new vanilla ice" did they?

[Fleka]

Oh look, it`s this shit again.
What EmBase said. With the talent and skill Em has, he could be clear so that you can see through him and still be this big.

[HeySamantha]

Eminem was so successful because his lyrics were total insanity and he had so much emotion behind his songs, not because he's white.

[scrapig]

God gave Eminem his talents cuz hes white, . God is a rasist. No one can deny that. All white people have food, but black people dont. hmmm

[SG.]

Alright, Kweli, I'll spell it out for you, because none of your fucking yes-men seem to be able to do it.

The reason people like Eminem, Macklemore and Mac Miller succeed is because their songs were CATCHY. They were GOOD. They FITTED THE MAINSTREAM. Yeah, you might've got the first two rapped up and I've enjoyed your albums, but you are nowhere near the third one. Let me give an example. One of the artists associated with you, EXTREMELY popular, a certain Mr. West. If you were to go back and listen to the College Dropout and give it a thorough analysis, you'd realise that a lot of it has the same subject matter as Mr. Miller, not to mention a huge portion (perhaps even a majority) of his fans are white.

Let me give my own personal reaction. I am a white male rapper. Do I have a privilege? Because guess what, I'm not going to do my Rolling Stone photoshoot tomorrow. Everybody who you claim is "privileged" has worked their ass off to get where they are. Yes, maybe you've done just as much. That's just the luck of the draw. But I am personally offended by your statements. It's not Texas in the 1800s. Look outside once in a while.

[Francesco]

Is Macklemore's recent success the reason why several black rappers have come out and talked about race?

The sad & ironic thing is them dudes came all on themselves with not fucking machine behind them & from a non hip-hop region too... Macklemore should have been praised a lot more actually.

[EminemBase]

I honestly think Em did less for breaking the racial barrier than you might think. Sure he got a bunch of white kids rapping, but how many of them that made it mainstream n never heard the word "the new eminem." No one called Eminem the "new vanilla ice" did they?

Mac Miller, Asher Roth and Macklemore are all mainstream now...

And ANY new white rapper hears 'the new Eminem' because he's the only big significant white rapper there has been.

But people focus on the white rappers; many of the biggers new innovators have cited Em as major influence: Tyler and Kendrick to name but two.

And yeah people did refer to Vanilla Ice, until Em proved he was fuck all like that bum.

[Minimii]

Riiight...

Basically every black MC in the mainstream has been on cover of Rolling Stone...
................................................................
Kweli - you're a cock, and an idiot.

Truly beautiful comment