by Onajah Joseph
Music is the vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. In no way does that definition mention musical segregation by race. Today’s society has propelled the idea of racial segregation into music. Through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, people often state that certain music is for white people and certain music is for non-white people.
An example of this are the genres of folk music and hip-hop/rap. Back during slave times, folk music originated within the African-American culture . Nowadays, Caucasian people have been trying their hand at it. If a person of color attempts to, they are ridiculed for it and told they are “betraying their ethnicity,” when if fact, they are embracing it. However in today’s hip-hop/rap community, the most well known rappers and artists are people of color. Any white person coming onto the scene becomes largely ridiculed based on skin tone alone. People chalk up their success to making it due to “white privilege” and luck. One major example of this instance is white Australian rapper, Iggy Azalea.
Since being signed with Interscope records in 2010, Iggy has come up in the hip-hop/rap scene, despite her white skin. Even so, her success has caused her some backlash from both her fan base and other artists. Despite well-known rapper T.I. (Tip Harris) being her boss, Iggy Azalea has feuded publicly with female rappers, Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks, as well as hip-hop oldie, Snoop Dogg. Many people, from fans to other celebrities, have had lots to say about her life and the things she’s said and done. According to ET, Wendy Williams stated on her daytime talk show, “It just seems like black people don’t want the girl to win because she’s white…You’re a hater because she’s crossed over and you’re mad because she’s managed to make it,” she also added “You’re a hater ‘cause she got herself what looks like a black girls butt and a black boyfriend, Nick Young. You need to stop that hate and get a life haters.” I for one, agree. She has implanted herself if a culture where they value some things she has, and they don’t think she deserves it.
They judge her music and her life on the sole reason that she’s a white rapper. Many on social media have swayed towards rappers like Nicki Minaj not just for her skills as a rapper, but also because she is a person of color. The racial segregation has gotten to the point where, according to complex.com, Azealia Banks stated she feared that Iggy Azalea’s Grammy nomination was contributing to the erasure of hip-hop’s blackness, and blackness in general. Banks then went on to say, “When they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is ‘You’re amazing, you’re great, you can do anything you put your mind to,’ she said. “And all it says to Black kids is ‘You don’t have ****, you don’t own ****, not even the **** you created for yourself.’ And it makes me upset.” Banks is basically saying that when white rappers such as Iggy Azalea and Macklemore get Grammy nominations, it’s other white kids the mentality that they can do anything. But to the black kids trying to make it, they won’t ever be good enough no matter what, because of their skin tone. Iggy had fired back with a series of tweets that could be found on complex.com, and those tweets led rapper Q-tip of the legendary 90’s group from Philadelphia, A Tribe Called Quest, to tweet himself, a lesson on the history of Hip-Hop to Iggy Azalea. A few are:
@IGGYAZALEA we weren’t at the time skilled musicians as kids. We had records, turntables, ideas and INGENUITY
@IGGYAZALEA being natural chemist we took from whatever was availed to us and we created something mighty and special
@IGGYAZALEA believe it or not young black n Latino lives specifically weren’t acknowledged in mainstream American culture unless Ofcourse..
@IGGYAZALEA the convo was abt gangs, being criminals or uneducated. And hey! Like I stated early our families were rushed our schools
He continued on with tweets aimed at breaking the racial barrier in music:
@IGGYAZALEA hiphop now was FOR EVERYBODY!! All of those who cld relate to the roots, the spirit, the history, the energy.. It reached YOU
@IGGYAZALEA it touched your spirit n took u up. We magnetized you! That’s what BRILLANCE does
@IGGYAZALEA now u are fulfilling your dreams … BUT!
@IGGYAZALEA you have to take into account the HISTORY as you move underneath the banner of hiphop. As I said before
@IGGYAZALEA hiphop is fun it’s vile it’s dance it’s traditional it’s light hearted but 1 thing it can never detach itself from
@IGGYAZALEA is being a SOCIO-Political movement. U may ask why … Well
That is one person, out of the many, who hasn’t just looked at skin tone alone in music. He respects her as a rapper despite everyone else saying otherwise, but also lets her know the history of rap and why she gets ridiculed. Straight hate with no explanation is one of the reasons there is segregation in music. Q-tip’s history lesson could also connect to Twice the First Time by Saul Williams. In lines 38- 59, Williams mentioned some black musicians throughout history such as Rakim, Coltrane, Betty Carter, and Biz Markie. There needs to be an end to the whole idea of music segregation. Let it not be based on skin tones, but on the quality of the person as a musician. More integration could be the first step in making this happen. Stop the ridicule on who can be in what genre based on the pigmentation of their skin. America is the land of freedom, why not let that show through music?
The Raven 