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"
"I only listen to music with real instruments"
"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