Okay here's my obligatory post about Tumblr users and their ignorance of rap, as a (white) fan of rap:
Saying "Not all rap music is about violence, here are alternatives" is not helpful, because the violent music ALSO has meaning.
When Biggie Smalls postures about his gang connections and packing heat, he isn't doing it because wow violence is so edgy, it's a powerful statement. Youth in urban areas where gang activity is heavy are often treated as lesser than by default, especially compared to black people the same age from a wealthy background. There's a reason that the "wholesome and respectable" black-lead entertainment of that era was stuff like the Cosby Show, with doctor-lawyer parents, or Family Matters, with a cop dad. There's a reason why the big joke of Fresh Prince is someone with a more unstable upbringing moving in with one of these model black sitcom families.
Standing up and saying yeah, I came from the mean streets, I was molded by this violence and yes, I did what I had to do to survive in a world that refuses to acknowledge my existence as meaningful or worthy of protection. I protected myself, I made my own way, and fuck anybody who tries to stand in the way of that.
Refusing to demonize that environment and wearing it like armor in a way that protects from the authority that wants you to see them as sub humans incapable of only violence and hatred, and saying HEY. I'm here, I lived this, and there is love and there is pain and there is ART in this.
That is powerful. That is the essence of gangster rap.
It isn't about hurting people for fun, it's about holding a mirror up to a society that does the hurting and then calls you a monster for what it's made you. Its about validating the experiences of the disenfranchised and biting back at authority. It's about turning a pain that the world say you deserve being one of those people from those places into POETRY. Into ART.
And thats why it matters.
And thats why you need to shut the yell up and stop dismissing it as violence without substance when you all sat on your ass listening to songs about Hatsune Miku eating people in middle school.
This right here.
I'm sick and entirely tired of having to defend my entire young life to people who want to do nothing but insult the music that helped make me ME.
I get around a lot of people who look at me and see a role model. They see something they aspire to be. They see a life they want.
And so they approach me and talk to me and I am excited to share my culture with them. All the way until, for the 784th time in a row, someone tells me "I don't listen to rap"
Or
"I only listen to music with real instruments"
Or
"I have to be in the right mood to listen to that, which almost never happens"
And they don't see how insulting that is. To walk up to me, tell me you like me, that you want to be like me, but then ignore one of the things that makes me me.
You don't want to be like me. You want to fucking cosplay as me. You don't want to watch the movies I watch, listen to the music I like, enjoy a meal or a coffee with me, or interact with anything that I create. So tell me again just exactly what it is you like about me?
What my clothes and the color of my hair? You're missing the whole fucking point of why I keep color in my hair. I never wanted to stand out. I just stood out anyway because people would fucking pick me out. People singled me out. Teachers, preachers, family, strangers, cops, leaders, and outcasts alike all looked at me no matter how boring I dressed and decided that I am meant to stand out. So I decided to stop hiding and stand out on my fucking own
It's the same thing with rap music.
These people did what they had to do to survive, and you don't get to tell them their music isn't valuable because it's not the same as the soft rock that has been playing around the world on repeat for the past 50 years.
You're not breaking new ground. Listen to somebody who doesn't look like you for once
Oh I was on fire this day
And this is still the damn truth. Every word
I'm just as red hot about this as the day I wrote it.
Every fucking time I bring up a black artist I like somebody tells me they haven't heard of them and then brings up some black artist wrapped up in controversy to try to pretend THAT'S why they can't listen to black music.
"Oh she's too sexual"
OK listen to the music I listen to. It's not sexual. And even if it was, it would still be fucking valid.
"Oh he's too violent"
OK listen to the music I listen to. It's not violent. And even if it was, it would still be fucking valid.
And by the end of the conversation, they've been introduced to 7 new wholesome amazing artists that they've never heard of and will never listen to again
Because they're FUCKING RACIST
Fuck you and fuck your attitude about black music. Listen to black music
And if you come at me with those same dumb ass excuses, you are racist piece of dogshit and you can go fuck yourself.
