This seems like a tough road to go down. When does the natural mixing of musical styles become appropriation? (And this isn’t to speak of culture, which seems a separate point entirely)

One of Tribe’s biggest songs is Can I Kick It, which heavily samples Walk on the Wild Side, which is Lou Reed, rock born of blues.

But let’s say we’re talking hip-hop for Timberlake, and let’s trace that back to Rapper’s Delight, which is a sampled mix of Chic and Hawkshaw, which is a pretty 50–50 mix of black and white.

But let’s say hip-hop came out of disco, which was a crazy mix of race, sexuality, ethnicity, black, white, latinx, everybody got in there…

But let’s say disco came out of rock, which came out of blues. Which is decidedly African-American in origin, and came about in a post-slavery Delta. However, many say the blues is an influenced mix of African-American work songs and European folk music.

So it is all a big jumbled mess, the way it is supposed to be.

It’s sad when it winds up at “this is our music” and “this is our music” which is antithetical to the whole point.