A little social commentary on the whole iggy situation:
People need to realize that the black community/urban uses Iggy. The black community uses all three of the big 3 white rappers Em, Macklemore, and Iggy. The black community does not use the (usually run by white people) media making macklemore out to be the new voice of hip hop and iggy the new queen/owner of hip hop. In order to combat these allegations the black community attacks their credibility I.E. this article and the many articles crying foul after the grammys.
In order to stop this cycle there is only one cure and its called time. Eminem is excluded from this hate, why? because he already lived through the main light and has a healthy amount of both pop and rap fans who don't feel the need to call him the best rapper alive all the time. People won't be calling Macklemore the voice of hip hop on his next album and people won't be calling Iggy the queen when Fancy is no longer in the top 40. so just give it time.
Finally people need to realize the black community does respect hard work btw, look at the big 3 iggy, em, and macky. Em was struggling in the streets in of Detroit, listen to work for Iggy story and Mack had no label. We appreciate hard work and we love white people in the genre hence the love for even lower rappers like mac miller and action bronson.
I think finding success like that as a new artist is way more intricate than you give credit for. She made underground mixtapes for years, took every and any promo avenue she could get for years (even really small ones), and spent time networking, working on her craft, and trying to get labels to see her perspective when they didn't want to. All of these things are stepping stones, and all of these things contributed to that #1 even if you think they didn't.
Doc took a few words and paragraphs out my mouth, but. Her networking, working on her craft, mixtapes yadda yadda is the fruits of action for rappers. These things are a given, something you don't sell to fans and suits to get them to buy your act. Some people are still on their mixtape, opening act at local venue grind, but they're still not where Iggy is. Iggy got where she got with Fancy and the doctoring they put onto the original song to make it pop with the mainstream/white market. Charli XCX's pop/ cheerleader vocals, the Clueless music video. These things spoke to the pop machine--which is dominated by white men. Her hard work is only 1/3 of what got her to where she was and that's with any artist in the industry.
The damning thing is her accent. It's almost like she's trying her hardest to replicate black rappers while using the fact that she's white to Hera dvantage. She just a "marketable" image on the same thing that's been done 273737373 times and that's why she's successful.
Exactly.
Why can she not proudly rap in her Australian accent? Why is she putting on a show by imitating black rappers before her?
Did you read? Who is invalidating her solely because she's white or blonde? Eminem had plenty of black people supporting him when he debuted.
Why do y'all choose to ignore the fact that she is possibly appropriating? I mean, in my case it's most definitely appropriating, no 'possibly' about it.
Because they can't think critically and are blatantly ignoring the facts because it is not an issue for them.
Which is fine, but don't bash others that are experiencing the problem from within.
Bye at her being white apparently working against her to y'all. The industry loves black music with white faces like Adele, Sam Smith, Eminem, Macklemore and Iggy.
Her voice live is so sharp, overdone and fake. "HEWWW DAT HEWW DATTTT DAH DO DAAAH DO DAATTTTTTT"
Like girl sit down. People saying she had no Australian rappers to look up to why doesn't she just.. I'd don't know.. Be original?
Preach. People tend to praise white artists for doing something black artists have been doing forever.
People like Iggy Azalea do have it much harder when trying to get into the hip hop community. But is Iggy's recent success really due to her "overcoming" this?
Iggy had been trying and failing to reach significant popularity in the urban community. It wasn't until Fancy that she became really successful. But who made Fancy hot? Mainstream made Fancy hot—White people made Fancy hot. Once Fancy became a huge mainstream hit, Urban slowly started picking it up.
Rapping is the hot, cool thing for mainstream, and Iggy is a hot, sexy, blond, white girl giving it with a radio friendly beat and a pop hook. Of course mainstream would eat that up. Iggy's entire shtick is what made Fancy a mainstream hit, it didn't hold her back and she didn't have to overcome anything to make it a mainstream hit. Iggy being white helped made Fancy a hit. We all honestly know that had some black girl done Fancy, mainstream would not have picked it up with such quickness.
The same idea goes for Macklemore. If Macklemore tried to become huge on Urban, he would have found it very difficult. His race would have held him back. But instead, he took his act to mainstream, and being a white guy rapping HELPED make songs like Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us a hit. Just like Iggy, it wasn't until mainstream put him on that urban started noticing him.
So yeah, while I think Iggy being white made it hard for her to make it big in Urban, she certainly didn't have to "overcome" it in order to reach her current success. Most of the famous white rappers—Iggy, Macklemore, Vanilla Ice, etc—were put on mainstream, by white people.
I think mainstream media picked up Fancy because it was exactly what she needed at that very specific time in her career, I do not think that song would have happened without Work, Bounce, Change Your Life, and all those other underground tracks that kept her in the lexicon of heavy influencers in the music industry and with music fans at large. That more or less is what I mean when I say that she overcame a lot to see her success. It took at lot for her to be taken seriously.
Although that's not to say I don't agree with your points because they certainly are true. And I think the lack of urban support is why it will be hard for Iggy to sustain this. I don't think any of this means that Iggy should be shut out of this art form the way some people protest she (and other white rappers) should be. She fell in love with an art form and went to America to dedicate her life to it.
A little social commentary on the whole iggy situation:
People need to realize that the black community/urban uses Iggy.
nnnn don't speak for all of us! She's quite the joke amongst the community on social media. To say that we collectively 'use' her is a stretch and a half.
because she grew up listening to their music and learning the way they talk?
because she was inspired by them?
See, this is cultural appropriation though. Look up the definition. And many people within the community find this offensive. Why are some people ignoring that?
See, this is cultural appropriation though. Look up the definition. And many people within the community find this offensive. Why are some people ignoring that?
Don't watch her video for Bounce then. If you find her faux-accent offensive...
Did you read? Who is invalidating her solely because she's white or blonde? Eminem had plenty of black people supporting him when he debuted.
Why do y'all choose to ignore the fact that she is possibly appropriating? I mean, in my case it's most definitely appropriating, no 'possibly' about it.
Honestly no I skimmed it a bit but people here say that all the time
Also I think 95% of the time appropriation is a farce so
See, this is cultural appropriation though. Look up the definition. And many people within the community find this offensive. Why are some people ignoring that?
Because some people don't have any culture beyond theft and genocide?
Did you read? Who is invalidating her solely because she's white or blonde? Eminem had plenty of black people supporting him when he debuted.
