Correct me if I’m wrong, but for a good portion of the last few decades, Rap has been the dominant force in popular music. In other words, something that started in urban black culture has been thrust into the mainstream, making it consumable by all. Does that mean that the art has been diluted, or that it’s just taken on a new form?
If you take a look at Billboard right now, I guarantee that you will find at least 5 rap tinged singles on the Hot 100 chart. And newsflash: everyone rapping, is not black. Over the years, the dominant consumers of rap music have been Caucasian teenage males, and for that reason, a brand new market has opened up for people of all colors to express themselves using a clever rhyme scheme.
Enter The White Girl Mob, a group of rapping white girls from California. Kreayshawn, the group’s leader, recently signed a million dollar record deal, based solely off of the success she saw with her independently produced song “Gucci Gucci” and it’s accompanying visual (which garnered millions of views on YouTube.) Check it out.
The first time I saw this video, I shook my head (because I thought the song was horrible) and kept it moving. But the internet was on fire with dialogue from people who felt like she had appropriated black culture. With her door knocker earrings, two toned asymmetrical bob, mile long multi-colored acrylic nails and a “stereotypical sista-girl tone in her voice” Kreayshawn (pronounced Cri-Shon) has made a mockery of hood culture. [Enter Eye-Roll Here] I think we waste our time getting worked up over things that don’t matter too often, but that’s another post for another day. My question is, when did we become so protective of an art form that we’ve allowed to be marginalized by our own people?
Let me get my Sidney Shaw on for a minute.
Rap, at one point, was based in substance. Do you remember Public Enemy, X-Clan, ATCQ, or even NWA? We might not have agreed with their approach on certain issues, but at least their rhymes were more than drugs, h*es, money and clothes. Now, we’ve found ourselves riding a bullet train to Nowhere Land with Soulja Boy, Lil B, and Lil Wayne…symbolically applauding and approving their releases by dropping our cash for their watered down ignorance. Now at this point, some of you will look at me and say, “There is a place for all of that in our culture, we can have Soulja Boy when we have the Common‘s and Lupe Fiasco‘s to balance it out.” Well, why then, are we so offended by a person like Kreayshawn? It’s time for a reality check. We created this. All of us. Each and everyone of us has bobbed our head to some basic rap song, requested it at parties, or watched the videos on YouTube. All of that, eventually translates to someone getting paid. Waka Flocka once said in an interview that he wasn’t interested in making “lyrical” rap because, no one wants to hear that all the time, and that’s not what’s selling. He’s got several platinum singles to prove his point. The simple economic theory of supply and demand bodes well here. We accept it, and it keeps coming. We live in a capitalistic society. There was a market to be tapped into, and The White Girl Mob has found and exploited it, just like all of the other dummy rappers we allow to bask in the limelight.
What baffles me more than anything, is how black people assume that the things we do in our community, will stay in our community…like we live in a bubble, or behind an impenetrable wall. Prime example? The usage of the word N*GGA. Now, I know for many this may be a sore subject…but it’s something that I’ve wanted to address for a long time. Let’s revisit The White Girl Mob for a moment. One of it’s members, V-Nasty tends to use the N-Word in her regular conversation…and of course, we will NOT stand for that! She made this video in response to her haters a few days ago.
Let me make this clear. I don’t agree with her using the word. As a matter of fact, I don’t agree with anyone using it. Paul Mooney said, ever so eloquently, that “everybody wants to be a n*gga, but no one wants to be a n*gga”… But we’ve made it socially acceptable to use in every day conversations. In my mind, the blame always trails back to…US. The things that we allow, have turned around and backfired on us. So take a minute and think about your role in the grand scheme of things.
I can’t bring myself to hate The White Girl Mob for something I had a hand in, and neither should you.
One Pretty Brown Girl™ 
Much love to ya, firstly. But I have to disagree. Being accountable for our actions (saying nigga) doesn’t make it ok for white people to say it. I can understand a little white kid hanging out with black kids and hearing it and saying it because he knows no better. But any white adult, that knows the history behind the word, and isn’t racist shouldn’t say it out of respect. Furthermore, if anybody would be against using the word, to me it would be a white person..once again, who isn’t racist. Here is a clip that explains exactly how i feel.
Hey Clif. Thanks for reading and for your comment.
I think you missed a little of my point. I do NOT agree with V-Nasty or any white person using the N-Word, and I’m not excusing her. I personally don’t like the word, and try not to use it. Have I used it? Yes, but it’s not a part of my daily conversation. I don’t understand the fascination with a word that caused our people so much pain and struggle in years past. So, just as an adult white person knows the history of the word, so do we. We’ve just decided that we’ve “taken the negative power away from it”. But if that were true, we wouldn’t be so bent out of shape when a white person uses it. Forever, the word NIGGA/NIGGER will carry with it a negative connotation and a history of pain.
I applaud the opinion of the gentleman in the video that you shared. In a perfect world, this would be ideal, but the truth of the matter is, his stance on the issue is not one that is broadly accepted, and probably won’t be. I’m not condemning black people for choosing to use the word, because how you choose to articulate yourself is indeed a personal issue. But we also have to understand the power that words have in our lives, no matter what the consequence may be.
Again, thanks for reading bro.
I was just having this conversation with a friend a couple days ago & you have eloquently put into words the point I was trying to get across to her. We, as a group of people, can’t get angry at white people for embracing rap and making it their own. If they didn’t embrace rap, we would say they are racist & close-minded, if they do embrace rap, then they are stealing. It’s ridiculous.
I totally agreed with Angela. I feel honoured that they like our music culture enough to copy us.
@ Angela
Embracing rap is what Eminem does. What Asher Roth does. white people embracing a disgusting and hateful word that was used by there ancestors as they were burning our ancestors as the hung to death is not cool, it’s not being down with black people, it’s not being a rapper. It’s being ignorant, in my opinion.
@ Cliff
I was just commenting on Kreayshawn & V-Nasty being rappers. As far as saying “nigga” is concerned, I see what you’re saying, but at the same I respectfully disagree. We can not exclude a group of people from saying that word when black people use it in everyday conversation. I’m offended and uncomfortable whenever I hear a white person say that word (as I’m sure most black people are), but the meaning can’t change from race to race, color to color. It can’t be an ugly, degrading term to some and mean friendship and camaraderie to others. If one can’t say it, then none should say it. Does that excuse the White Girl Mob, no; however, ignorance comes in all colors & forms. Just look at Lil’ B for crying out loud.
I can dig it. And forgive me if i’m coming off like i’m attacking, I do not mean to. I was born and raised and live in Oakland, so this one hits real close to home. And with Mistah Fab co-signing, it’s frustrating because it can appear like everybody is cool with it. And ultimately, I would love for us to call each other positive terms instead of nigga. One day this will happen. Atleast that’s what im putting into the universe. Peace
I understand your position & I hope we can see that day as well. Peace be with you.
I think this is a good piece that brought up great points. I’m not at all a fan of Kreayshawn and it is NOT because she’s white. It’s because in my opinion she’s WHACK! To me, talent doesn’t discriminate and you either have it or you don’t. There are plenty of white rappers that have come before (and will come after) Kreayshawn and the White Girl Mob that have talent and have been embraced by black people. For example, Eminem, Asher Roth, Yela Wolf, Mac Miller, Paul Wall, that new group Karmin that does cover songs, etc. Right now, hip-hop seems to be going through a gimmicky phase where people just want to have a couple hit songs that lack substance. That’s good for partying, but not if you want longevity. This article was right that when you have artists like Waka Flocka Flame and Lil B gaining success off of gimmicks, and others see that they want to do the same thing. I see Kreayshawn as just wanting to get in where she fits in. She’s hot right now, but I don’t see a long career for her. It’s possible I could be wrong, but we’ll see…
As far as the N-word is concerned, V-Nasty doesn’t have to use it and shouldn’t. Other white rappers haven’t and it hasn’t affected their rhymes. This may sound hypocritical, but this girl is setting herself up for attack and criticism that can easily be avoided if she just stopped using the N-word in her rhymes and conversation.
This was such a good article to read. Personally I feel that (generally speaking) black culture has given a double meaning to the N-word. If a black person and a white person say the same sentence using the term as one of endearment to their friends, then what is so wrong about that? “Faggot” once meant cigarette, and now it’s been coined to mean something very offensive. Black culture pretty much coined the N-word into meaning a friend or just another person in general. If a white person uses it in that context then there is no harm being done, they aren’t using it for the racial term it can also mean. Getting mad at white people for using the word is just ridiculous. The only time offense should be taken is if it’s a derogatory comment obviously pulling at the original background.
Erin,
I don’t think the word should be used at all. At it’s root, the word was not created to be positive or a term of endearment. It’s rooted in pain and struggle. So, I don’t think the answer is to just let anyone use it. I think the answer is to stop using it.
Rapping started with Debbie Reynolds (who is white not black) so your history is way off.
Rap music, as we know it? Please point me to a Debbie Reynolds’ rap song. YOUR history is off, completely, if you think rap music was created by a white person. Thanks for reading though.