Eminem & the polarisation of hip hop
Eminem has been a polarising figure in the hip hop subculture, and although there were white rappers before Eminem, according to Parker (2014) he was the first legitimate, white rap star. Eminem rapped about his hardships growing up in a trailer park and his struggles to be taken seriously in hip hop due to his “white boy” status. Before Eminem exploded in the mainstream music charts in 1999, hip hop had been a domain for African Americans with Rodriguez (2006) saying that hip hop is a cultural form which is unambiguously and explicitly racial. However, Grealy argues that Eminem provides a useful example of one of hip hops key values of inclusiveness and the significance of class within mainstream hip-hop as a cultural community (Grealy, 2018 p.851).’
Scott believes that it was not until the arrival of Eminem in ‘1999 that poetry critics, the New Yorker, and the mainstream media begin to speak about “great poetry” and hip hop in the same sentence (Scott, 2004, p.137),’ which is believes to be part of a very long tradition of white sublimation of African American people and culture (Scott, p.138).
Members of the hip hop community have spoken out about why Eminem was able to cross racial divides within the subculture with prominent rapper Talib Kweli noting that ’Em has never apologised for who he is, who he was, where he came from but he has always exhibited growth and creativity when it comes to dealing with these issues (Parker 2014, p.2).’ Eminem frequently acknowledges his white privilege often in lyrics, including the above from his anti-white supremacy song, White America where he raps “Let’s do the math, if I was black, I would not have sold half.”
