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...to rapping after an injury derailed his sports career. A few years ago, he was among a handful of white rappers working a frat-rap angle, and he is that mini-scene’s most prominent survivor. Nowadays he’s essentially a Drake clone, as heard on his recent single “Say No More,” and his latest album, “These Days,” which debuted atop the iTunes hip-hop chart in January. His signature catchphrase, a sort of elongated “yup,” is esse... White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

As is half of hip-hop and R&B right now? Everybody’s both singing and rapping nowadays.

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added at August 19th, 2016 14:31
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D0eca2a1247d282f31bd85c32af7d561

335,631

7 years

Hate the “Drake clone” meme. It’s a lazy way to describe a rapper you’ve heard two songs from.

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Take, for example, Mike Stud, a former all-American baseball player at Duke University who turned to rapping after an injury derailed his sports career. A few years ago, he was among a handful of white rappers working a frat-rap angle, and he is that mini-scene’s most prominent survivor. Nowadays he’s essentially a Drake clone, as heard on his recent single “Say No More,” and his latest album, “These Days,” which debuted atop the iTunes hip-hop chart in January. His signature catchph... White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

Is Asher Roth still rapping? Pabst & Jazz fitted unexpectedly well in a landscape of emerging jazz-rappers like Badass and KRIT.

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added at August 19th, 2016 14:30
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...ers, however, is demonstrating how many different ways there now are to try to elide racial conversation while still making rap music. It is an especially vexing moment for this, given how black pop, thanks to stars like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, is increasingly political, and discussion of black cultural erasure is becoming commonplace on social media and beyond. White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

What was that Macklemore song about homosexuality called? People ate that up.

Related: Remember how horrible the new Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album is in comparison to the debut? Yeah. The first one was a product of creativity and social conversation. The second however, that’s all about respect for the culture…

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added at August 19th, 2016 14:25
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...n white artists are flourishing almost wholly outside the established hip-hop industry, evading black gatekeepers and going directly to overwhelmingly white consumers, resulting in what can feel like a parallel world, aware of hip-hop’s center but studiously avoiding it. White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

Hip-hop’s center is white rappers making it, Nicki Minaj, R&B crossovers, and trap rappers who releases new songs daily.

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added at August 19th, 2016 14:19
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But now we have arrived in the post-accountability era of white rap, when white artists are flourishing almost wholly outside the established hip-hop industry, evading black gatekeepers and going directly to overwhelmingly white consumers, resulting in what can feel like a parallel world, aware of hip-hop’s center but studiously avoiding it. White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

Is this a bad thing? “Gatekeepers” doesn’t sound too kind. Although I’m an alternative 90’s-head, I’d rather see progression and evolution like say G-Eazy (or trap?!?!) than whatever music Lord Jamar decides is cool for me to listen to.

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added at August 19th, 2016 14:18
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...nem, or Run-D.M.C. taking the Beastie Boys on tour. (By contrast, remember the struggles of the nonsponsored Vanilla Ice.) More recently, fealty to the genre’s black-built history has been essential, as evinced by nostalgists like Action Bronson and Your Old Droog. White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

And look at how popular they are compared to G-Eazy and Logic. Or even Yo Gotti and YG for that matter. The two remind of reminiscent styles (Ghostface Killah and Nas) and while Bronson definitely has his own flair, Droog’s music noticeably still dwells in the past.

Judging from these two mentions, I think the bigger problem is, instead of being white without a co-sign, the fact that the “problematic” white rappers appeal to pop culture. Bronson and Droog don’t. They could hypothetically get co-signs from Brand Nubian, simply because there are stylistic influences. The music G-Eazy makes is very different. He could however get a co-sign from someone like YG, a contemporary, but one with some status. This is simply because YG’s music also doesn’t sound outdated (or not of this time). Could Eazy get co-signs from Vanilla Ice? Sure. Eminem? Perhaps. Beastie Boys? Maybe.

Remember what people thought of B.o.B until Eminem hopped on “Airplane”? Think of how people feel about Flo Rida. He undeniably has some of the best flows in the game but is categorized as “pop rap”, a genre veterans rather not mention.

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added at August 19th, 2016 14:16
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This gesture was avoidant, devious, disingenuous, rude. It was an inducement to overlook the show’s discomfiting racial dynamic, suggesting that the issues brought up by its lineup — with two popular black rappers, each with more radio and chart success than the headliners, relegated to the evening opening slots — have little to do with race. White Rappers, Clear of a Black Planet - The New York Times

While this may be true, it’s too simple of a breakdown. YG has definitely had more chart success than G-Eazy in his whole career, but prior to “Fuck Donald Trump (FDT)” taking off, G-Eazy was the better known rapper in pop culture at the time of the tour (and still may be).

It’s the same case with Yo Gotti. He has an (in my opinion minor) hit right now. It’s been a years since he last had the whole summer on lock.

As for Logic, I can’t comment. I didn’t realize he was actually this popular until he appeared on “Sucker for Pain”.

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added at August 19th, 2016 13:51
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‘Cause, often as our flowers bloom, men will try and cut them down Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Cane
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Scott-Heron’s blooming flowers metaphor takes influence from a similar comparison Toomer drew between Karintha and flora. The first paragraph ends with

The young fellows counted the time to pass before she would be old enough to mate with them. This interest of the male, who wishes to ripen a growing thing too soon, could mean no good to her.

Jean Toomer revisits this at the end of “Karintha”, with

Men do not know that the soul of her was a growing thing ripened too soon.

Quite possibly related is a preacher, who, despite the mischief Karintha causes, still tells himself “she was as innocently lovely as a November cotton flower.”

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As a child able to drive both young and old wild Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Cane
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“Karintha” firstly focuses on the affection that surrounds the young girl. The introductory paragraph especially emphasizes the interest in her from both young and old:

Men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as a child, Karintha carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down. Old men rode her hobby-horse upon their knees. Young men danced with her at frolics when they should have been dancing with their grown-up girls. God grant us youth, secretly prayed the old men.

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Take Karintha, take Karintha
Perfect as dusk when the sun goes down
And take Karintha, as perfect as twilight Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Cane
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“Perfect as dusk when the sun goes down” is directly lifted from Toomer’s Cane. “Karintha” is essentially split up into three sections. These describe her youth; corruption; and life after. The sentence is used once in all three parts to remind the reader that Karintha’s beauty is unchanged by time, or destruction of her inner.

Throughout Cane a similar sentiment is re-purposed, including in “Karintha” and “Becky”. One variation is

Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon,
O cant you see it, O cant you see it
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon
… When the sun goes down.

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