Affirmative Action of Hip-Hop

Multi-colored subway signs, Deteriorated bricks of the dark shade stacked 15 or more stories high, and heaps of rubble and debris all sitting under a dark dreary cloudy sky describe the scenery of the South Bronx; the birthplace of Hip-Hop. Since the birth from its’ origins here Hip-Hop for the most part has been a predominately black and Latino form of music. Getting credibility as a white emcee was more difficult than riding a bike with no handlebars. There were a few attempts in the 90’s the most known being Vanilla Ice who was enjoyed a good 15 minutes of fame before being written off as a embarrassing fad. In fact he had been written off in so much ridicule that it was seen to have set white emcees back ten years even when he sold over ten million albums. Just when everyone thought it was almost impossible for a white emcee to break through and gain credibility, out of the cold, grimey , gritty, extremely racially segregated infrastructure of Detroit came a phenomenally talented white emcee by the name of Eminem.

For the first time a white emcee had broken through taking what the popular representations of race, class, and even to an extent gender roles in hip hop meant at that point and went left into his lane with them. It wasn’t a black or latino male from the projects rapping about selling drugs or gangbanging anymore but a skinny white boy from lower class trailer park Detroit whose very different subject matter consisted of drug indulgence, being broke, getting the shit beat outta him, killing his child’s mother, and wide arrange of other very taboo subjects. Just like Stuart Hall in his piece The Spectacle of Other discusses the difficulty of labeling subject Ben Johnson Hero or Villain, the rap world at first didn’t really know how to take this extremely eccentric but very lyrically talented white boy. Being backed by one of the most prolific hip-hop producers of all time (Dr. Dre) didn’t hurt at all either as he set precedents and smashed records including being the first rapper ever to sell over a million records in a week, while causing the most controversy a single rap artist has every conjured by himself.

The aesthetics were very intriguing to many, skin as white as the paper he wrote on, platinum blonde hair, and blue eyed but with a demeanor and attitude that just screamed “FUCK YOU” as his intricately crafted rhymes pushed buttons in the most witty ways imaginable while he did lyrical acrobatics all over the track but a the same time making it seem extremely easy. His acceptance sent emcees of every color back into the labs, showing that he had taken the cards dealt to him and flipped them to his benefit when they were the same ones initially keeping him from acceptance in the socially structured black masculinity defined world of hip-hop from a very young age. It showed that the “other” described by Stuart Hall could break through without selling out and get acknowledgement from all the legends from Rakim to Nas to Jay-Z. Ultimately crafting his own lane he shattered the hegemonic criteria how to be accepted as “authentic” while still be considered “authentic” crippling the dominant norms with his own set of demented and unique polemics.