GateKeeping In Hip-Hop.
I’m coming out swinging and saying black people need to gatekeep everything about our culture, not just the music we created, but I know now that’s impossible, but manageable.
Like the country music community, can’t gatekeep Beyonce, fully, but they can refuse to listen to her, not nominate her at award ceremonies and continue to big up the musicians who they feel are welcomed into their space.
People may not like that. They’ll say that we’re “acting like them” (becoming the monsters so to speak), but that’s not true. I’m not advocating we keep out white people and others for not being Black or Black American. If you’re not a vulture (and deep down, you’ll know what that looks like) then you have nothing to worry about.
And if by circumstance you do come across somebody who wants to pull the quote “reverse racism” card, then tell them to go check the vultures within their own community first before trying to keep you out b/c your reverence for the culture is genuine while there are black folks who truly think “blackness” is monolithic. True story, I once dated a woman who thought it was “cute” that I did “white people things.” What are these white people things you ask? Writing, not just as a hobby, but a profession, hiking (nature walks in the woods) and having a podcast that did not talk about any of the many topic’s folks get into heated debates about on Black Twitter.
This is someone who would lose to me horribly in “Black Card Revoked” and would always chalk it up to me being lucky. I guess growing up with my mother and father in the same household does make me lucky. I guess growing up in a house that acknowledged Juneteenth as a special day long before it became a U.S. Federal holiday makes me lucky. I guess growing up hearing MJ, Earth Wind & Fire, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Anetta Baker, Whitney Houston and Prince every day makes me lucky.
Not to make this about me and my “lucky” black upbringing, I’m just saying there are black people within our own community who believe “blackness” is what mainstream media portrays it to be in it’s totality and those folks go around accepting and popularizing a “Bhad Bhabie” because they check every box on “what makes black culture black” checklist.
These folks should not be overlooked simply because we have the same skin color, while we have white, brown and yellow sisters and brothers who truly respect the culture and deserve to be in our spaces. And yes, I said yellow to describe the Asian community, go head and cancel me before you do Tyler Perry. The same result is going to happen. Nothing at all. I’ll keep creating like he does.
I’ll only sincerely apologize to an Asian who truly took offense to that “colorist” statement, not those who want to be offended for them. It screams “look at me “other” person of color. I’m sticking up for you. Please let me have access to your daughters/sons, nieces/nephews, sisters/brothers. Not a surprising revelation when these self-hating black weirdos would advocate for every other culture to gatekeep cultural customs but won’t do the same for their own community.
Black “taste makers” who take pride in being their friend’s only connection with the black community don’t see the value of our cultural creations unless it is copied by someone not us. I have another story for ya.
When we were younger, I used to make this beef and rice dish. Sometimes it was mixed with Prego Pasta Sauce, sometimes with sweet and sour sauce and sometimes no sauce at all. Just a tablespoon of butter. Just a broke teenage boy working with what he had and liked on days momma was bedridden or in the hospital and dad was at work or by her side at the hospital. My brother would constantly call that dish “ghetto,” although he grew up in the same house eating the same “ghetto” food my dad could afford while the rest went to rent, medical bills and other bills.
One day I catch him feasting on a plate of rice and beef made by one of the relatives of one of the Latinas is he was either dating or befriending at the time. He brought home an entire tray full of it and mentions that we could have some as well. I say to him “I thought you didn’t like beef and rice?” He says he never said that. I say, “you it was ghetto together,” he laughed it off and left the kitchen with his face buried in the plate. I try this dish I now know as “picadillo.” The rice was too hard, as if it wasn’t even boiled and the ground beef was over seasoned.
Another day in this same timeline, he and a Latina pop-up as I’m making beef and rice again. She’s like “omg, I didn’t know you guys made this.” My brother makes it clear that “we” don’t. She tries my dish and she used a different G-word to describe it, “good.” At this point I smirk at my brother. He has this look on his face like “I’m glad my little brother didn’t embarrass me in front of this lightskinned latin Queen, but why is she smiling so hard?”
She goes on to talk about how her aunt and grandmother make the same dish with their own additions to the ground beef and rice. I go on to tell her the same story I told you. “I just thought of this dish cause it’s what we have.” She goes onto tease my brother about how he doesn’t cook and only takes them out to eat. He says he does cook and continues to go on about what he cooks while they are on the way out of the house to go out to eat.
Did I just take a moment to brag about my cooking in a piece about gatekeeping music? Maybe, but it’s all relative to the discussion. Technicalities aside, the very act of mixing ground beef and rice was labeled “ghetto” when the black person did it, but was celebrated and supported when the “other” person did it.
Blacks who have this double standard are folks who are far more dangerous to black cultural customs and creations than the non-black person who appreciates the sweat equity we put into our “struggle meals.”
Since we’re supposed to be talking about the music (I’m lumping all forms of art in this discussion because I can), I really don’t think anyone who isn’t Black American should be part of the discussion on whether Black Americans should gatekeep or not. Yeah, I’m so pro-gatekeeping, I’m even gatekeeping who can participate in discussions about gatekeeping. Toxic. I see why you all hate me.
But seriously, answer me this, can I or other outsiders come into your culture, profit off of it without giving back to the community, break and reshape rules freely? If the answer is not an emphatic “yes” then you have no right telling Black Americans we can’t have the same protective mindset over our art and customs.
This discussion about gatekeeping always gets me tiled up because this isn’t really about non-Black Americans wanting to listen to rap, rock black hairstyles and “dress urban.” “Express yourself, gone on, do it.” This is about control. I’ve made this point before, slavery may have legally ended outside of prison walls, but mentally, the world still believes that black people are meant to be slaves, even black people. Whether it’s cotton or a curl pattern, Black people (Black Americans mostly) can’t claim it, but everybody else is allowed their delicacies. That to me screams “you’re a slave and slaves don’t own anything.” “I’ll claim everything you create and you’ll sit back, smile and accept your fate, SLAVE!” Once again, an act none of these “others” would be okay with if/when that mentality is done to them.
You know what also sickens me about this discussion? It would quickly cease if the “others” asked themselves “would I be okay if the shoe was on the other foot?” But that’s a question that can be applied to a lot of scenarios regarding race, ethnicity, culture and other subjects as well.
As I get older, wiser and maybe a bit more cynical, I realize that that’s not a skill most people on the planet can do. To think outside of themselves, so I’ll end off this discussion with a few bullet points that serve as an attempt to summarize my thoughts on gatekeeping.
· It’s not about the music with naysayers, it’s really about mental manipulation. Wanting black people to not take pride/ownership in anything but debauchery.
· Anti-black ownership aren’t just the musings of middle age white men with black wives who recite their poetry about the divinity of black women at African American museums. It’s also the inner thoughts of black people who say, “we don’t want to be like them.” If me not wanting to be a slave equates to me wanting to be white, then I guess I’m really doing the thing I accuse POC of doing when they talk down on Black Americans. Trying to achieve “whiteness.” I guess I beat them to it by not accepting my station and not voting for Joe Biden. All of that while having the high score of 315 in Black Card Revoked. I guess that makes me the “blackest” white man since bill Clinton, yet I still don’t feel white or black enough because I’ve never gotten my dick sucked in the White House.
· Branching from the previous point, I think black people who don’t want us to have rules don’t see the value in black art/black creation unless someone from the outside praises it. Think back to the beef and rice story.
· Final point, if you’re not willing to “give up” your culture to outsiders the same way you expect Black Americans to give up our culture to outsiders, your input in this discussion is deeply rooted in anti-black racism. There’s no further discussion needed because how can you justify that? It’s like the saying “rules for thee, not for me,” but in this situation it’s “no rules and regulations from thee, but from me.” How is that NOT rooted in racism?