Out of Line: On Hip Hop and Cultural Appropriation
In 2015, UCLA fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon and sorority Alpha Phi hosted a Kanye West-themed party inspiring its majority-white student population in attendance to dote extra baggy clothing, artificially plumped lips, and faces blackened by charcoal as a costume. On the surface level, these students are playing off of common stereotypes of black people as they are portrayed in Hip Hop music and culture. However, in the context of hip hop songs, these aspects– the clothing, the hairstyles, the language used– are all genuine expressions of black culture, which was meant to honor the struggles and narratives of the historically underrepresented and overshadowed people authentically.
Not only did these students pick and choose a variety of often oppressive stereotypes to exploit for their own entertainment, in turn, they further repressed the vitality and cultural significance of hip hop music.
The UCLA party was not an isolated occurrence. Valued minority cultural symbols and expressions, often reduced to ‘fun’ activities by those who have never experienced the oppression and hurt, have attempted to be reclaimed through these cultural forms. Hip Hop music often uses explicit language, such as the n-word, which has historically been used by slave owners to antagonize and dehumanize black people, but has been reclaimed by black people as an acceptable term to refer to each other. Yet, at events such as the Sigma Phi and Alpha Phi party, those belonging to the group who have historically been and still are the oppressors, the white-majority still sing the term out proudly when it comes on veiled by a catchy tune in a rap song [1].
The History and Vision of Hip Hop Music
Black culture and history can easily be traced in observing the origins and growth of the Hip Hop genre, which is notoriously honest, expressive, and seeped in important history. Hip Hop music’s roots in Afro-Caribbean music has added layers of historical and cultural depth which have contributed to the genre’s popularity and social significance in American Black culture.
In Prophets of the Hood, Imani Perry, a professor of African-American studies at Princeton University, outlines the three primary influences on Hip-Hop music, with each being primarily pulled from Jamaican tradition. The influences are Jamaican deejaying or “toasting,” combining instrumental music with rhythmic speech; the (so-called) “outlaw” language, which differentiates mainstream American vernacular with that of Hip Hop music; and the innovative styles that fuels the art and entices its creators to cultivate ever-more captivating and catchy tunes to which to dance with any means possible. This mindset of continuously working to create the next best thing using whatever, often limited, resources available has become intrinsic in black culture.
However, Bakari Kitwana, an activist and political analyst, argues that separating hip hop and black culture too much from the mainstream by using what Perry calls “outlaw” language is a poor and inaccurate general reflection on black culture, which consists of style of dress, attitude, language, dancing, and where Hip Hop is a subcategory. By defining a set of traits as “black,” a subconscious barrier is created between what is considered “acceptable” in society. This automatically creates an association that things which are considered black or a part of black culture are “unacceptable” or an inappropriate and invalid contribution to the greater public.
This mindset is heavily crafted by white colonization as an artificial racial hierarchy and had paved the way for dangerous stereotypes about African-American people to be formed. Yet, whether or not the language used in the music acts as a barrier, Hip Hop is so attractive because it has allowed Afro-American people the agency to recreate narratives to reclaim their individuality and position in American society in a unique and compelling way.
However, by communities observing from the outside, this may not be the case. Instead of viewing the genre for its artistic and cultural significance, many, often-white, consumers are drawn to imitating the imagery they experience through the music because of its “outlaw” notion. Instead of digging into the culture and educating themselves on the importance and evolution of the music, they participate in the culture simply because of its rather problematic association with being anti-culture.
This is a serious repercussion of the genre’s popularity which has left these newly uprooted and underrepresented cultures susceptible to appropriation motivated by the desire to be viewed as “edgy”[2]. Without an educated understanding of and respect towards another person’s culture beyond the superficial, cultural appropriation reduces the depth and hardships of minority cultures to simply aesthetic trends, reversing the original intent of authenticity of Hip Hop music.
The Significance of Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the practices, customs, or aesthetics of one social or ethnic group by members of another, typically dominant, community or society. When combined, the words imply an inherent immorality in the action of cultural appropriation because of the imbalanced power dynamic between the cultural parties involved.
What is Cultural Appropriation?
In James O. Young’s journal article for The American Society of Aesthetics, Young breaks down cultural appropriation into three main subgroups by which cultural appropriation can be recognized: subject appropriation, content appropriation, and object appropriation.
In Young’s words, “subject appropriation occurs when an outsider represents members or aspects of another culture…, when content appropriation occurs, an artist uses the cultural products of another culture in the production of his or her own art…, [and] object appropriation occurs when the possession of a tangible object is transferred from members of the culture that produced it to the possession of outsiders.”
Although art in most cases involves a degree of appropriation, it is important to examine both context and intention when evaluating cases of cultural appropriation.
An example of the potentially blurred line between object appropriation and musical appreciation can be witnessed through Korean pop groups. Especially in the Korean entertainment industry, is extremely in tune focus on what is considered popular in America and adapt that to the stars and icons under their own jurisdiction. The culture’s appreciation of Western culture is heavily commercialized to capitalized on its residents desire to be on trend with the American pop culture. Yet, the K-Pop groups’ aesthetic hair and fashion redesign to resemble typical black hair, with is slick edges, braids, cornrows, afros, and dreads, wearing their clothes baggy, donning gold chains, ski masks, and bandanas is an example of object appropriation. The intention, however, is not to embody the black culture, but rather to adopt what is being experienced as popular in Western society.
In the example of the UCLA event, outsiders to black culture engaged in subject and content appropriation when choosing to use Hip Hop as their theme and to further perpetuate harmful stereotypes by altering their appearance to match that which is often portrayed in media.
Yet, not all forms of appropriation are as severe as others. If an exchange of art happens between an outsider and a person native to the culture with mutual respect and acknowledgement, such as a tourist visiting a new country and purchasing an art piece to take back home, then the exchange is positive albeit technically falling under the realm of object appropriation.
The word “appropriation” itself does not inherently harbor a negative connotation. However, when there is a lack of consent and an unbalanced power dynamic, this is when the issue escalates, which is implied when the term refers to one’s culture.
In the previous case, the native artist is voluntary in their participation of the exchange and thus has equal standing and power to the person who is coming from outside, however, this is not always the case.
Coachella Music and Arts Festival is an annual festival held in the Indio Desert of California and is known for its attendees’ fashion and, unfortunately, a prime example of an imbalanced cultural exchange from festival-goers at the expense of many native cultures for the sake of looking “eclectic” for a weekend. Similar to the notion of Orientalism when observing Arabic cultures from a Western perspective, people who attend Coachella are drawn to other cultures’ symbols when putting together an outfit because they have deemed it alluring and exotic. This manifests into wearing traditional Native American headdresses, earned and worn by chiefs in sacred ceremonies and rituals, being worn by festival-goes privileged enough to purchase a ticket and bought as part of a costume. Not only does this reflect ignorance of the casual wearer’s part, the action also demeans an incredibly complex culture by reducing it to a temporary pop-culture trend.
The act of appropriation becomes more severe when, such as in a situation like this, there is an imbalance of privilege and representation. Here, not only is group of people whose stories have historically been buried are being further disregarded in the occurrence of this act, but their customs have been commodified and turned into profit and disingenuous expression inspired by the allure of exoticism.
Why is Black Culture so Attractive for Appropriation?
The reason is similar to the draws of orientalism as discussed by John McLeod in his book Beginning Postcolonialism. It is important to establish once again that colonialism and the imbalance between the colonizers and colonized is a huge proponent of why these beliefs exist today.
They were established as a way to create a division between sets of people with, as described by McLeod only “allegedly dissimilar cultures.” Three of the main characteristics of Orientalism which also apply to how black culture has been viewed from an American perspective are that it is a Western fantasy, it is “strange,” and constructs binary oppositions. McLeod explains that “the Orient is frequently described in negative terms that serve to buttress a sense of the West’s superiority and strength.” The binary which represents the “otherness” of outside cultures that is created is an unequal one of good vs. bad– mirroring West vs. “other” respectively.
The images which portray “the Orient” are highly curated to perpetuate this dichotomy, despite being fantastical fractions of the full culture. Yet, members of the West are attracted to the mysterious “strangeness” of this contrived concept of a culture of a culture and seek to learn more about it through embodiment.
This same ideology can be applied to how hip hop has been regarded in modern American culture: “White teenage rap fans are listening in on black culture, fascinated by its differences, drawn in by mainstream social constructions of black culture as a forbidden narrative, as a symbol of rebellion.” But why is it that it is viewed as a symbol of rebellion? Albeit being an honest representation of the black American experience, for young white Americans, as described by McLeod, this alternative hip hop culture goes against the norm of what is considered acceptable in society. The severity of cultural appropriation lies in the double standard that for white teenagers rap is a persona they can adopt in order to go against the grain to be considered cool, but when a black teenager raps they are feeding into the stereotype of an impermissible contribution to American society.
The Music Industry and Hip Hop
It would be impossible to address the issues with cultural appropriation in music without acknowledging the advances it has in many cases allowed the entertainment industry. It is important to observe the societal environment which allows for white artists to gain more recognition for their work than objectively equal-quality black-produced music.
Coming for a white mouthpiece, the black music medium became greatly more palatable to American general audiences. In many cases, this can be attributed to a twisted sense of validation for the genre once it has been “approved” by someone who looks like them. The artists’ use of the genre is acceptable when regarding it as an exchange of creative inspiration, however, the deep-seeded and subconscious prejudice that America still experiences which has afforded these white artists their popularity is not.
Eminem is a common conversation piece when discussing hip hop and appropriation and serves as a positive example of a non-black artist who part-takes in rap without characterizing or stereotyping other peer artists in the genre. One key element of hip hop is that the narratives featured in the songs are often based upon true stories from the artist’s life or cultural experiences.
In Eminem’s case, he was raised in the notoriously rough side of the 8 Mile district of Detroit, a feat which he often references in his songs. Not only are his narratives often inspired by his own personal life stories, he also further acknowledges his position as a white rapper. In the 2002 track “Without Me” from The Eminem Show album, he satirically references his privilege: “Though I’m not the first king of controversy / I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley / To do black music so selfishly / And use it to get myself wealthy / Hey, there’s a concept that works.” He acknowledges that he, like Elvis Presley, have benefited greatly in America, using his status as a white citizen to serve as a familiar face for general audiences listening to traditionally black music.
The concept “works” because the society allows it to be so. Although it has been the object of a large amount of controversy from the Black community who feel that equally talented Afro-American artists have been overshadowed without being recognized nearly to the same degree as Eminem,–which is the “selfish[ness]” he is referencing–it is also important to note that the quality and cultural respect (an instance of such displayed through his lack of use of the n-word in all of his original music [3]) exhibited through his music has earned him a place above the “twenty million other white rappers” he references later in the song which who have not produced to his same standard.
There are plenty of more harmful and unproductive versions of cultural appropriation when it comes to hip hop music. One perfect embodiment of subject and content appropriation is Vanilla Ice, a popular white hip hop artist in the 90s. In his music, he represented a gross characterization of hip hop music and its artists, yet, right as the genre was just beginning to gain visibility, his song was the first to top the charts.
One of his big hits was Ice Ice Baby, a highly commercialized song which included a heavily pop-inspired tone accompanied by a colorful music video featuring graffiti and a poorly integrated blue-screen overlay of his clean-cut persona. The lyrics incorporated oversimplified rap themes, such as ogling at girls on the sidewalk from his vintage convertible car, driving into the next neighborhood and hearing gunshots, and evading the police in a drag race, all the while checking out the catchy hook will “solve it.”
The events all span the length of one verse of his rap, as if he is trying to cram as many hip hop stereotypes as he can within the ideal industry radio song time. Furthermore, when observing his later career, the song The Wrath even further perpetuates subject appropriation through his insensitive embodiment of black culture. He changes his image by sagging his pants so his underwear was exposed, alters his hair into the blonde version of dreads, and even changes the rhythm in which he raps his lyrics to match that of the other popular black artists performing at the time.
Beyond the aesthetics of the music he performed, Vanilla Ice also altered the way he spoke to embody African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), for which members of the black community have often been labeled as ‘ghetto,’ lesser-than, or uneducated for using. Instead of black culture being regarded and respected for the vibrant history it encompasses, it seems to be fetishized by those who are not a part of it.
Hip hop is a musical genre deeply rooted in black culture which is used as an authentic outlet for artists to share their own personal experiences and narratives with their audiences. It is not a genre to use as a medium to mimic others’ cultures in exchange for a lack of one’s own. However, hip hop has been susceptible to cultural appropriation which has led to black people being reduced to stereotypical characterizations of their heritage.
From Kanye West-themed parties at UCLA to Instagram blackfishing, it is clear that cultural appropriation is a large and controversial driver of our society socially. Cultural appropriation is an unbalanced exchange of content, subjects, or objects by members of communities of power from usually oppressed or misrepresented cultures. Those orchestrating the appropriation often have never experienced the severity of the damages and stereotypes they are enforcing through their actions and will likely be unable to experience the pain of those whose culture is being taken, who have no way of being able to preserve to their cultural symbols without being seen as going against the grain of creative expression and innovation.
[1] See a scene in the 2018 Boots Riley movie, Sorry to Bother You, in which the main character, Cassius Green, is the only black person in the room and is pushed to perform a rap (as they insist he must know how to, despite his objections). He is unable to come up with a solid freestyle, but as soon as he drops the n-word in a rhythm, the majority-white crowd immediately chimes in.
[2] Edgy is a colloquial term used to describe someone who is trying too hard to be cool or ahead of the norm.
[3] The n-word was used as a derogatory term originally used by slave owners and white people to establish a misbalance of power through their words. Now, in the modern age, the word has dropped the hard -er and is used within the black community as a nickname like ‘dude’ or ‘man.’ The rights to use the word are specifically for the black people but other members of other races have wrongfully adapted it into their own language and use it in everyday use, especially in rap contexts, seemingly forgetting the severe history behind it, and using hip hop music as an excuse to continue to use the derogatory term.
