No one knows how to really take white people in hip hop, not that race is a big issue, but you always have to wonder how authentic it really is. That probably opens up a whole other can of racial worms, but I honestly have an inherent distrust of my own race, and I can’t say white people haven’t earned it. We don’t talk about it, but we’re really terrible. We by-and-large can’t rap, we have some good authentic producers, but the only time I’ve been able to take a white rapper seriously has been when they stop being a cop-out and represent their roots (Bubba Sparxxx is the exception, I can’t even look at him without laughing).
Food for Animals kind of personify where they’re from without cheaping themselves as caricatures. They’ve been based out of Washington, D.C. for the formative years of their sound, and on the majority of their “Scavengers” EP they take huge shots at the Bush Administration in between bursts of chainsaw-distorted melodies. Andrew Field-Pickering (aka Vulture Voltaire) and Nik Rivetti (aka Ricky Rabbit) hide hip-hop under layers of drill & bass and glitchy noise that sometimes bypasses all semblance of a beat, while punchlines fly at directly at you with clear delivery and gruff inflection, energetic and pronounced enough to keep the song punchy over the discordant melody backing it. Ricky Rabbit’s production style shows knowledge of hip hop roots on their new album “Belly”, but the band has been lauded more by the IDM crowd and Jason Forrest’s label Cock Rock Disco releases “Belly” this month, after half a year of delays. It’s more cohesive than “Scavengers”, and it’s the first sign of Vulture Voltaire distancing himself from the D.C. political themes of their earlier stuff, while the U.S. gets a licking, he’s frank and vivid on “Grapes”, where he waits around as his mother dies from cancer, laconically dead-panning “every time I hear the word cancer, I need a cigarette/I’m not sure I get it yet”.
They’re a tough listen for casual fans of rap or anyone who can’t digest glitchy songs, but if you want something to alienate everyone in the world when you blast it from your car speakers, look no further. (Also see: Hearts of Darknesses)
Food for Animals - Elephants
(off Scavengers EP)
Food for Animals - Grapes
(off Belly)
I think the whole concept of “authenticity” is problematic. Lauryn Hill went to the same New Jersey high school as Zach Braff, and her dad was a computer programmer. No one questions the Fugees’ “authenticity”. Eminem grew up in a trailer park outside Detroit, but plenty of people talk shit about him as a rapper (though I think that might stem as much from his immaturity as from his whiteness).
I think the “conscious rap” scene, which bleeds into the “backpacker” scene, is pretty much over the whole white/black dichotomy, though you could make the case that that style of music is basically “rap music for white people,” as it removes a lot of the elements to which most middle class white liberals take umbrage. Gangsta rap/”street” rap/whatever is very much not over it, though there are a few exceptions. Though there aren’t many white rappers in the Club/Party hip-hop scene, I could totally see it happening, what with Justin Timberlake getting produced by Timbaland and all.
i don’t think the fugees or eminem ever over-reached on where they were from, it’s mostly rap that leans heavily on slang and posturing that i can’t take
that sort of posing is getting wheeded out of the mainstream, but you’ll still come across a ton of it on any freestyle circuit
I was talking more about public perception than my personal feelings on the matter. I honestly don’t care what you represent yourself as, or what your background is, just so long as you can make a decent song. Or at least I like to think that’s the way I feel.
And as for the freestyle circuit, I think a big part of being successful in that sort of capacity is about recreating yourself as a larger-than-life character, and so obviously lies and exaggerations will abound. It’s just about how convincingly you can play that character.
You have to be weary of any rapper, regardless of race. There’s been VERY few authentic voices to emerge from mainstream rap in the past 10 years.
And fuck freestyle. I don’t give a damn how quickly you can talk shit about some bastard you don’t know. Make an album I want to listen all the way through, and we’ll talk.
There is no such thing as authenticity. It’s a bullshit concept.
To be honest with you, I have never written any comments or posts in the Internet. This is my first time. Why did I decide to post? The answer is simple – all information here is so amazing and interesting that it’s hard to imagine someone wouldn’t comment it.