If he's black, he must rap

R. Kelly. Bobby Brown. Ray J. Estelle. Sisqo. Russell Simmons. Shaggy. Damon Dash. M.I.A. Santigold. Kelis. T-Pain. Akon. All of these people have two things in common: 1) At one point, they were referred to by the New York Post as "rappers," and 2) None of them are. You see how some of these might confuse people: how the sing-songy styles of M.I.A. and Akon could be mistaken as rapping for the uninitiated and hard-of-hearing, old white people who write the Post. T-Pain is a "rappa ternt sanga," so that explains that. Bobby Brown has rapped (I mean, has a couplet finer than "Too hot to handle, too cold to hold / They called the Ghostbusters in they're in control" since been spat?), Kelis, R. Kelly and Santigold have kind of, as well, I guess. Russell and Damon have worked around rap, so I guess they're rappers by association?

The fact of the matter is that even if the case can be made that a few of these people could possibly write "rapper" on their resume, a more accurate title could be applied to any of them. (Someone like Kid Rock apparently is one of the few of the multi-hyphenate elite. Guess why!) I do not know for sure why they are called "rappers," but I can make a few guesses. The Post still fetishizes rappers as the bad boys of the entertainment industry. The vast majority of its hip-hop coverage -- I'd say just from the informal survey that I took to find the above examples of faulty labeling, 80 percent of it involves the rappers involved in some sort of crime. As silly as it is, the word "rapper," still has sensationalistic value at the Post that "R&B star" or "dancehall artist" or "mogul," just doesn't. (Shit, they called Barbie a rapper, even though she was actually, Rappin' and Rockin'.)  Also, these people who have no idea what they're talking about regarding pop culture, may hear about a (usually male) black recording artist and just assume that he is a rapper. I'm not saying that these people are racist (although, if they work for the Post, I'm not saying they're not racist, either), but I am saying they're lazy, ignorant and prone to stereotyping. That's all!

The reason that I bring this up is that in Tuesday's paper there was an item labeling Ne-Yo a rapper, which is the most egregious error of this sort yet. I think I've rapped more than Ne-Yo has. He's a fucking crooner, you know? A singing, songwriting crooner. (I discovered through my research that this isn't even the first time the Post has done that.) Seriously, Post, who's next? Stevie Wonder? Miles Davis? Lenny Kravitz is part-black, so he must be part-rapper, too, right? And look, I understand factual errors. I make them often. I understand meaning one thing and typing another. But I don't understand working at a national media outlet and just assuming in the place of fact-checking. That's nonsense.

It's not just the Post that does this, of course. Come, let's laugh at the mistakes of what we can presume are stupid white people:

The L.A. Times is almost as bad as the Post, having referred to Marques Houston, John fucking Legend and Chris Brown as rappers.

At least they know how to retract.

Rolling Stone called Omarion a rapper. So much for music-industry authority.

Fucking Jet called Jodeci a "rap group," once again proving that if you can fit a periodical in your back pocket, you should not trust it. (Sorry, Reader's Digest.)

This one's really, really bad: the New York Times referred to Mary J. Blige as a rapper. Granted, they were talking about the use of "411" as slang, and she does rap on the title track of What's the 411? On virtually every other track on that album and since (except for "Enough Cryin'"), she sings, though. It's just what she's built her career on. No biggie.

Ginuwine "keeps rap Ginuwine" according to the New York Daily News.

Oh, and I've mentioned R. Kelly, but it seems particularly fucked up that a Chicago publication like the Sun-Times would be referring to him as a rapper. Let me guess: house music is a form of country and western? It's not even house music, in fact, it's barn music.

The photo houses are really, really bad, too. WireImage says Mario...

 

...Keyshia Cole...

...and Lyfe Jennings...

...are all rappers (the Lyfe example is from Life magazine, but since WireImage did the shot, its fair to assume that the frequently erroneous company is responsible for the caption as well). Yeah, that's not a guitar Lyfe plays -- it's a stringed turntable.

Getty, on the other hand, lists Anthony Hamilton...

...Trey Songz...

...and fucking Jamie Foxx...

...as rappers. You wonder if these people have ever heard any popular music ever. Isn't there a nation of young, unemployed, pop-culture savvy graduates who would shit themselves for the opportunity to write even the most basic copy for an organization half as reputable as Getty?

But my favorite, favorite, favorite of all of these examples is this one about Usher:

 

That's gorgeous, as irony goes. Really, really solid work, everyone. Oh, and since it's from the Newswire, it's basically a press release, so if you need a more reputable journalistic source for Usher's status as a rapper, the Post has it covered, too. Good, old Post!

So basically the point is that just about every single male R&B singer of the past 10 years (and quite a few females) has been labeled a "rapper," by sources that are more or less trusted. When in doubt, though, I think you should use your sense of hearing. It's a much, much better source.

Comments

[belle]

by presuming that these are "stupid white people," aren't you also presuming at that all black people know who is a rapper, or who isn't?

[Leila]

Ugh, IA so hard with this article and have noticed this many times. It's like plausible discrimination.

And I don't mean to be childish but belle, if your comment is reflective of what you got out of this article, then you're 5.

[Craig Turner]

The Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch of Faux News, so I'm really not surprised that they think every African-American musician is a rapper.

[Chaka]

Lol I love this post! It happens all the time and it irks me to hell.

And to belle: are you implying that Rich is a racist by figuring that black ppl are more able to tell themselves and their actual careers apart?

[Erika]

I seriously had to LOL @ Jamie Foxx as a rapper!

[marzipan]

Oh man! After reading belle's comment, my eyes just started rolling uncontrollably! I mean to think he's presuming that black journalists would be more familiar with the music their racial group produces over old white men. MINDBLOWINGLY OUTRAGEOUS!

[tiff]

BELLE GTFO.
amazing post, rich. this issue hella irks me as well! haha you should e-mail this to the post.

[Queen Lena]

Please. We all know Jamie Foxx is just Wanda in pants.

[belle]

hey guys... Chaka: i'm definitely not implying rich is a racist
and marzipan: I'm not sure what your talking about. I didn't say anything about black journalists, or imply that i was speaking of them. I believe what you're saying, is the idea that a black journalist would know everything about "music their racial group produces" over a white man is wrong. I agree with this statement.. so.. i think i we are on the same page?

and I guess i should have worded my sentence better---> the "you" was not implying Rich, it was anyone reading the article that's rolling along with the idea (including myself). I guess "isn't one" should have been more appropriate there.
anyway, i hope that makes sense. I'm sorry for my badly worded comment, and i hope you guys get what i mean now.

[Danielle]

What?! You're telling me all these people aren't rappers?! Well, that's news to me. News...

[KiD SWAGGA]

like sayin all whiteboys make rock...
myspace.com/gonnahsinebright

[soulbrotha]

This post should be sent to all of the media organizations cited within.

[sharpo]

I heard Cornell West on the radio the other day. There was a caller on the line (I can't remember if he ID'd himself as 'black' or 'african american') and they were talking about the definitions of hip hop and rap - turned out they had opposite definitions - what one considered rap, the other considered hip hop and vice versa. It's not 100% relevant to this post but I'll put it out there nonetheless: What's the difference to you, reader (or writer) of this post, between hip hop and rap?

[Hannah]

Hm, I've always kind of thought of M.I.A. as a rapper, but I guess she's something else. I'm not sure I would call what she does singing, as that implies something more melodic than what she does. (Except for, like, Jimmy. But I like Arular better anyway). Some of these are much worse examples though. Santigold? I've only heard that one single, but it has always annoyed me that people compare her to M.I.A. when she sounds more like Tegan and Sara or something. Same deal though, apparently all non-white artists are the same genre, especially if they dress kinda similar.

Oh, and Mary J. Blige says it best on a Missy Elliott track where she says (well, raps) "I'm Mary J. Blige and for a fact I don't rap." Clearly her rapping AT ALL was a novelty occurrence. For a fact, she is not a rapper.

I sometimes have trouble with the correct genre terminology, but rap? It's in the name. If someone is singing, they are not rapping. Just another example of weird indirect racism.

[ihaveneverbeforeinmylifeyelledatagirllikethis]

Another excellent post, truly. I think, though, that the mindless labeling of black musicians as rappers absolutely has racist overtones. Even now I still hear white conservatives (I live in the South) reference what a horrible scourge on our society & our children's lives gangster rap is. I think referring to a black musician as a rapper carries with it the connotation that this person sings about scary, dangerous, morally reprehensible things like guns and women's butts, and obviously has no redeeming cultural value. It's a clear example, in my mind, of the ghettoization of black culture by white media/observers.

[ryan]

they do this to everybody now. Carson Daly called Mike Posner (white pop singer) a rapper on his late night show.

[Victoria]

lol I saw someone on ONTD complaining about this yesterday or 2 days ago

You can't expect celebrity columnists to keep up with who's who can you? It's not their job to be hip. :p

[tps12]

Wow, the final Post link is extra crazy...they seem to have invented this whole false history where Usher is a famous rapper just trying out R&B for the first time? Why?

[degamarie]

Sigh, this is why I love you Rich. I remember in high school when every rapper was labeled a gangsta rapper. Please tell me how is Talib Kweli a gangsta rapper?

[nOva]

I love you deeply for this and am overjoyed you were the one that said something about it.

[Al]

I've noticed this phenomenon so so so so many times (particulary with Akon, and particularly with the Post), but never did the legwork to put together something like this, and you did an amazing job, kudos.

[Wookie]

Agreed. Although I think of M.I.A. as a rapper, there's pretty much no excuse to label any of these musicians "rappers" if you've heard even one of their songs.

[Wookie]

Oh, and the hilarious part about the Ginuwine article is that it mentions that he's an R&B singer...but according to the title he "keeps rap Ginuwine."

[Soulafrodisiac]

The label "rapper" is the cool moniker, didn't you know? SMDH.

So much for journalist's/caption writers etc and their FACT checking. And I don't mean the people who are hired and paid to do it either. Absolutely no sense.

[RD]

I think I was the person who complained about it on ONTD (or one of the few).

Speaking of, print media aren't the only people mangling fact checking, televised media is doing the same thing as well. After Michael Jackson's death CNN interviewed Sean Kingston...and called him a rapper. Then again, there are several reasons why CNN is the lowest-rated news channel on American TV these days, and that's just one of them.