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November 04, 2009

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.

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