Black Boy, White Boy by DeSal

“A white boy actin’ black that shit kills me

Pants saggin talking slang kid and all that

I never see you in the projects all black….”

The Mr. Cheeks line from Channel Zero on the long-forgotten Legal Drug Money album was directly referring to Marky Mark, but in the larger context applies to how the general public feels about at least 95%, if not more, of white hip hop fans. Other white people tend to view them as “wiggers,” “wannabes,” or “sellouts,” and black people tend to just say they are not and cannot be “real.” Am I stereotyping? Absolutely. Is it realistic? In my experience, as said white person, yes, and I do not think I am the exception to the rule, rather, I am one of many who the rule applies to.

It is interesting to me, as an observer, that while the majority of purchasers of hip hop albums and concert tickets are white, those same people struggle to achieve credibility as fans. Again, the public perception bars them from being allowed to be anything more than the aforementioned words. Why is this? What is it about the racial lines that does not allow for it to be generally acceptable?

The easiest parallel to examine would be the sport that ties the most directly to Hip Hop, that being basketball. Just like Hip Hop, basketball is a sport dominated, in terms of raw numbers, but black players. There are white players and MC’s, but both are considered aberrations in general. The difference, however, lies in that nobody questions white fans of basketball, whereas they seemingly always question white fans of Hip Hop. Clearly there are differences in the prevalence of basketball and the prevalence of Hip Hop in the general public, as while most everyone has at least played basketball in gym class and in someone’s front yard, a much smaller number ever wrote 16 bars or freestyled. The NBA and NCAA are on every night for the winter months, and the ubiquitous NCAA office pools are everywhere come March.

Being a basketball fan is accepted by the general public, and whether you support LeBron James or Steve Nash, nobody ever questions it. However, when you are white and a NaS fan, things change in a hurry. At this point, anyone who was born in the last three decades has literally grown up with Hip Hop. Even if you live in rural areas you can pick up Top 40 radio, and in the Top 40 currently are Jay Sean, Jay Z, Drake, Fabolous, Pitbull etc. With the explosion of the internet any song is accessible anywhere in the world as well, so while in the 1980’s you may have needed to be near the Bronx, and in the 1990’s you may have needed to be in range of a major urban area, by 2009 everyone and their brother has a webpage where you can find their songs, however famous or obscure they are. My brother is currently overseas, and yet we still email each other about songs and albums that he has heard despite residing in a nation that is not often associated with Hip Hop.

So Hip Hop has been part of most of our lives since birth, is accessible to everyone, is no longer a niche genre of music, and is predominately consumed by white people, and yet still the questions arise about the authenticity and legitimacy of white fans. (As an aside, the reverse is generally true as well, as when black people declare themselves fans of music that is considered “white” the same odd looks and questions arise, from both races. Self-defense is needed in this arena as well, as the public dictates that black people are not “supposed” to be a fan of those types of music either.) I personally see no reason why anyone should care what music I like, just like nobody cares what sport I like. Except for soccer, which everyone seems to despise but the few of us diehards, but I digress. I do not think that an increase in white MC’s would help, nor would an increase in producers or DJ’s or anyone associated in the music itself. Again, the parallels with basketball arise, as white players decrease in numbers and yet there has been no increase in questions about the authenticity of white basketball fans.

I personally hope that the future allows for more acceptance of anyone to be a Hip Hop fan, because I obviously am a huge fan and have been as long as I can remember. I do not fit the profile of any of the norms of MC’s, but I still can remember listening to Business Never Personal on cassette tape on the way to school in 1992, and seeing the confusion and then distaste in my classmates eyes when they found out that I was listening to Erick and Parrish and not Pearl Jam. I was not from the ‘hood, not poor, and most importantly, not black, so why did I like Hip Hop?

I still get the same question today, 17 years later. I still have the same answer now as I did back then, I like the way it sounds. I am sure I am not alone in that reasoning, as it has nothing to do with any social constructs or desire to live outside my skin, I just love Hip Hop music. I do not subscribe to any of the common theories, like the ones that drive “Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America” by Bakari Kitwana, rather, it is about something much more simple, and for me, it has always been about the simple fact that I enjoy the music.

 

D.Salvo