My Music: Caucasian Rappers
Historically, hip hop has been a notoriously exclusive genre for artists to achieve mainstream success in. However as it accumulates more and more fame the amount of artists in hip hop minority groups have increased exponentially, specifically white people. In modern culture, the genre created by the first generation of free black men is now the most popular genre in the US, so lets take a look back and explore this minority of majorities.
Today seeing a white person actively achieve success in the Hip Hop community is not uncommon whether it be Post Malone and his sung, mellow ballads or Lil Dicky’s juvenile attempts at comedy in his so called “Anti-Rap” take on the genre (sorry not a fan).
The style of white people in hip hop tends to mirror traditional hip hop in its analysis of “the struggle”. However, due to the ethnic differences the struggle is a different one, one of meth hazed trailer parks and untreated mental illnesses. This was a part of the population that hadn’t been reached by white people for years until Eminems super offensive, abrasive style hit the mainstream with “My Name is” in 1999. A culmination of appealing to lower class white people, and a Dr. Dre cosign that allowed him to be accepted by the rap purists, came together making him one of the best selling rap artists of all time. Since then he has lost a lot of the good will he built with critics after losing his edge but his high water marks will always be stuff of legend in the hip hop community.
One of the contemporary fixtures of Hip Hop who more just happened to be white was Mac Miller who tragically passed away of a drug overdose earlier this year. Mac achieved viral success in 2009 when he posted videos of his freestyles on youtube and his natural talent caused him to be put on the radar of Record Executives and fame came quickly. The newfound wealth he gained allowed his minor drug problem he picked up in high school to snowball. In the last 5 years of his life and career, he documented his addiction with great detail. His song the “The Weekend” that he released in 2015 will often draw tears from me for just how well he can articulate the struggles he was experiencing. Tragically he was never able to overcome and passed away on September 7th, 2018.
Hip Hop is one of the largest communities in music, and I hope you learned something from my brief analysis of the white fixtures in Hip Hop.
