Non-Black Natives in Rap: The Scoop
Written by Angel; @notangelic99
Since there is chatter around non-Black Natives being in rap, I want to vocalize the truth.
Riposting to Native Rappers About Mainstream Rap
It has surfaced that there is relentless appropriation of Black culture, specifically in the domain of Rap. For starters, it is an issue when someone (who is not even Black) is declaring that “Native American Rap Is the Most Authentic Rap We Have Today”. That is a demeaning thing. The article is referring to mainstream rap but people do not understand that the state of mainstream rap is due to what people call “integration”. Integration is defined by sociologists as: “Integration is defined as a process of developing a society in which all the social groups share the socioeconomic and cultural life. The integration of the communities is facilitated by the factors that help assimilation” (Sociology Guide). Furthermore, a Black woman named Seren did this video about how integration decimated the structure of Black communities, thus leaving Black people empty-handed.
The video that I linked does not actually discuss about rap; it discusses about Black businesses. However, it nods at the reason why mainstream rap is “not excellent” anymore. The reason is probably in this video, which is by Amandla Stenberg. She explores the tract of rap, and primarily Black culture as well. In the mid to late 1990s, we watched famous Black artists and rappers embrace African-American culture. In the mid 2000s, there was this pivot -- to what is now considered mainstream rap.
The reason is white people had begun to infiltrate the space. We begun seeing a multitude of white artists get accolades and applause, with most notably Eminem in charge. This saturated rap. The Black artists such as Andre 3000 and Busta Rhymes were now imperceptible to folks in the mid to late 2000s. Then, these slew of white rappers came along and endangered the careers of Black rappers. In order to obtain some ground, Black rappers were jostled in the music industry. I recall one day in late 2000s, asking myself, “Where is all the rappers I admired?”
I am not into rap but I had a knack for examining their lyrics. I was humbled by some, such as Missy who were brilliant with words. Later on in early 2013, I was part of a rap group called “LAN”, which was a branch of one of my ex-friend’s collective, 2K Nation. I had busted out a freestyle, terrified out of my mind. I had gotten inducted into the rap group that consisted of my ex-friend and his friend (who is white; this is extremely important for the post), thus “LAN” (our first name initials) was conceived.
This white friend of his (the leader who is my old friend that I abandoned for reasons) was so immersed that he was a huge cultural appropriator. Just analyzing the rap group I was in has provided me with this information of how mainstream rap is the state it is in now. Black rappers sense the approaching threat of the saturation of rap subconsciously. I was detecting that this white boy was getting adulation of spitting out mediocre lyrics, while I was in the shadows, conferring with my subconsciousness -- the one that handed me red flags every time I rapped.
My first “written rap” was one that was transmitted to me in my mind. I edited and wrote the lyrics in my brain. The third rap I did was also by my brain too. Since I am a Black Native person who is perceived as a “girl”, in early April of 2013, the leader of the rap group told me in the middle of our rap battle, “You had to write that. There is no way you did not write that.” I replied, “I did not write that. It came to me yesterday, at night and I somehow got majority of the lyrics back during this battle.” I actually did. I was being truthful, but of course, the rap battle was a “draw”. Most of the spectators were white, and coupled with that, I stared at.
Now pondering about that battle and the other situations, that battle outcome was the product of integration. Integration was the force that made my old friend rap about themes that became the generic thing in mainstream rap. It was a “draw” because they could not stand seeing me win, albeit my old friend was disliked by many people. I metaphorically rapped about my experiences with almost drowning one day and I paralleled that with my conflict with suicide. The reason for me writing this first section was to retort to the anti-Black Natives and Native rappers that white people were the cause, not Black rappers who are rapping about the typical themes in today’s mainstream rap because of assimilation and the effects of integration to get money due to capitalism.
Natives in Rap: The Narrative of Anti-Blackness, Co-Opting, and Cultural Appropriation
I know I dove into this earlier but I want to explicate the qualms I have with Native Rap. In the same article I linked earlier, there is a Native rapper adorning dreadlocks. That is cultural appropriation, and it looks raggedy anyways. Cultural appropriation is defined as: “Two ways in which cultural appropriation can be harmful are easily identified. The first sort of harm is violation of a property right … The second sort of harm is an attack on the viability or identity of the cultures or their members. Appropriation that undermines a culture in these ways would certainly caused evastating and clearly wrongful harm to members of the culture … Other acts of appropriation potentially leave members of a culture exposed to discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunity” (qtd. in this). With cultural appropriation, non-Black Natives are not giving gratitude to Black people for rap. This article exquisitely articulates my thoughts about cultural appropriation in Hip-Hop and Rap.
Onto co-opting, which has become a staple within the Native community. There has been numerous of instances where a non-Black Native has co-opted Black Lives Matter, such as here. As a mutual of mine pointed out, it is the same, cliché tactic as “All Lives Matter”. It is not only co-opting but it is also erasing and victim blaming Black people’s (in general) struggles we face. It is like you telling someone, “Hey, I am going to embark on writing this story for my final essay and it will be titled ‘A Reflection of My Life: A Memoir About Middle School’.” Then, that person, who you told your title to says (who was going to do something about the corruption at SeaWorld), “Well, I am now going to do something about my life and the title will be ‘A Rumination of My Life: A Memoir About Middle School’.” The thing is this: they are being fraudulent. The only thing replaced with the titles in this analogy is the supplementary noun, which is “reflection” and “rumination” respectively. The same thing occurs with Black Lives Matter and “Native Lives Matter”.
All of these elements contribute to anti-blackness. The anti-blackness is prevalent in the Native community via Rap. While also talking about anti-blackness and saying, “I stand with Black Lives Matter,” you all continue to co-opt when that, as evident by this article, goes against the founders’ wishes of that hashtag. You all (non-Black Natives), especially within the rap realm love to talk about standing with Black Natives and other Black people when you persist this anti-blackness.
I want to give a specific thank you to one of my mentors, @bitterbitchclubpresident for granting me permission to use one of her posts. (It is in the ninth paragraph, second sentence -- embedded in “here”.)
