Member Since: 4/4/2014
Posts: 13,522
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Quote:
Originally posted by KB.
Let me get dragged right quick. Eminem is a product of his environment. He grew up in Detroit where battle rap was the thing and he excelled in it. He's not biting anyone's flow. There aren't too many rappers out there that can rap on the technical level that Marshall does. I'm black and I can honestly say that he knows more about "the struggle" and the art of hip-hop than I do. I feel like it's illogical for us to take ownership over certain things. I've actually been discussing this in my African humanities class. For example, there is a South African novelist named Nadine Gordimer. She is one of the most successful "African" writers of all time and she writes about being "African". A lot of people would automatically debunk any of her literature based solely off of the color of her skin, but in my opinion art, whether in the form of music, literature, or any other medium is completely perspective. She may not know the perspective of a black African because it's a completely different storyline, but she can speak on her experiences. We put so much emphasis on color and this idea of what we "own" to the point where we neglect the art itself.
Now I'm not saying that artists like Iggy aren't just appropriating what we like to define as "black culture", but to take someone like Eminem who has probably experienced the world of hip-hop in more ways than many of us and discredit him is completely ludicrous to me. Of course it gives them an advantage and contributes to their success and I 100% feel like talented black artists deserve more recognition, but, to me, talent is talent. I guess it doesn't really help that we've been getting robbed for years, though.
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How I didn't see this
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