Black vs. White in Hip Hop

In today's class, one of the questions on the class discussion sheet for friday stood out to me and this was question 'Considering that hip hop derives from African American culture, and that the founders of the genre were African American, is it wrong for white people to attempt to make hip hop music?' This question caused me to really stop and think for a moment.

I live in an area that is very diverse with black people and white people. My high school was about 15 black. Both of my jobs although their are black people at each, are predominately white. The only drug that I have ever seen in person was weed...once at a party. I never swear or curse. And I most certainly cannot dance. My closest friend at UB on the other hand lives in a mostly black area. Graduated from a high school that was predominately black and hispanic. Can dance and has experienced most of the stereotypical aspects of hip hop culture and black culture in general. I am black. My friend is white.

I personally believe that hip hop is more about a culture and a lifestyle than skin color. For me to get up and rap about different tough aspects of life would be wrong because I havent been through any of that and I would just be talking about things that I heard. For her to get up and rap about these same things would be more honest and heartfelt because she has actually experienced them. So I would say that anyone can rap as long as they feel like they have a story that they would like to voice. I do not know much about the backgrounds of The Beastie Boys or Vanilla Ice but I do know that Eminem was from 8 mile Detroit, Michigan which is a very rough area and with all the problem he had at home, it would be wrong to tell him that he couldnt musically share his story because he is white.