Do White Rappers Have it Easy?
Lately Eminem’s and many other white rappers careers have been brought to light as some have been increasingly getting famous. Many believe that white rappers would have not been successful if their race was black due to the high support from many white fans. Some also disagree, others believe that Eminem’s and white rappers styles and flows are unique and that is why they are so successful in the music industry and race has no role in that.
Mac Miller, a famous well known white rapper agrees that white rappers have it easier and explains that he became famous easier than other race rappers due to such great support from fans with the same race. For example, in an interview with Vince Staples Mac Miller explains “.That’s a huge reason why it’s become so big right now. People are like, “Yeah! A white guy rapping! I wanna support that because not a lot of white guys rap!” In this he shows us that many people from the same white race are supporters not only because he can rap really well but a lot of it also comes to the fact that is he is white and since they are so very few of white rappers it is easy to gain that support from the same race. Mac Miller again states “I remember touring and doing shows, and I was the first rap show ever in all these colleges. Six thousand kids, and I’m the first hip-hop show because I’m white-college-friendly. That was always a demon for me. It was hard to sit here and know that, because I was a white dude, I was able to sell easier and be more marketable. That wasn’t tight to me. I wanted to go through the same shit that everyone else did.” From this statement it shows that Mac Miller does believe that he had it easier when compared to other artists with different races. This is very significant because it shows that it is not only non-white races that believe that white rappers have it easier but even a white rapper himself thinks that his fame came to who him easily. Now Vince Staples right after responds to Mac saying “Maybe you’re not the problem. Maybe the problem is that black people don’t support each other and don’t fuck with each other as much as they should. Maybe Hispanic people don’t fuck with each other and support each other as much as they should. You’re not the problem. White people got the right idea: the first thought, the first action, is to be a supporter.” In this Vince Staples does not necessarily disagree when Mac Miller states this but he believes that is not so horrible that white rappers gain more support. Staples believes that is how it is supposed to be and that black people need to be more supportive of their own race.
When it comes to Eminem many people disagree whether Eminem’s fame came to him through the help of his race or with the actual use of his skill. Many claim that Eminem is a mediocre rapper and he was just lucky enough to be a white rapper at the right time. While many agree with this there is a lot of people that don’t.
For example, Dr. Dre stated “I don’t care if he’s purple, as long as he can rap.” Dr. Dre, an African American extremely well known rapper from N.W.A was basically Eminem’s mentor and many can say is the reason for why Eminem is so famous today. Dr. Dre believes that it wasn’t Eminem’s race that made him so interested to him. It was his skill, in fact many people told Dre not to work with Eminem because he was white, but Dre didn’t see race with Eminem all he saw was talent. Although just because Dre believed that doesn’t mean others did. Once again it was to show that Eminem’s core audience was suburban white teenagers. On the track, “White America,’’ he says, “Let’s do the math — if I was black, I would’ve sold half,’’ he said explaining why a white rapper sells more albums than black rappers.
In an Article, posted by The New York Times, it was statistically proven that not that many other races were not reached by Eminem.
For example, the article stated “Universal Pictures will need to reach into minority audiences to make ‘’8 Mile’’ a hit. Hip-hop artists are a proven box-office draw. ‘’Barbershop,’’ an urban comedy starring Ice Cube, grossed an estimated $69.5 million by Saturday since its release on Sept. 13. ‘’Brown Sugar,’’ a hip-hop love story starring Taye Diggs, grossed $22.4 million since its release on Oct. 11. Last year, ‘’Exit Wounds,’’ starring DMX, grossed $52 million. The main artists in these movies have been black. But no one expects Eminem’s race will keep blacks and Hispanics from going to the box office.” As we can clearly see Eminem mainly connected with fans of his race and this is why many believe that he and many other white rappers had it easy when becoming successful in the industry.
