In an op-ed penned by Detroit, Michigan rapper Angel Haze, matters of cultural appropriation, pop-rap, and other current topics of conversation were discussed.
Haze began her piece, which is featured on the Noisey website, by asking the question, “What would I like to say to white artists making hip-hop?”
The musician then went on to declare the question “a complicated” one, before discussing the appropriation of black culture by white artists. She explained that artists tend to appropriate black culture when it’s beneficial to them.
“In America, it’s still not OK to be black,” Angel Haze said in her op-ed. “People have created this sort of caricature of black people. It’s like fucking Jim Crow all over again. People say they want everyone to be seen as an equal, but they still want to call us niggers. There seems to be this hypocrisy because people want to appropriate black culture but only when it’s cool or beneficial to them. Like, they want to do it, but they don’t want to be in it. And that’s the reason that people don’t have a right, to some extent, to use black music to their own gains.”
Later, Haze labeled artists like Macklemore and Atmosphere “pop-rap,” and also declared that it’s disrespectful when a person uses someone else’s culture for their own benefit.
“For anybody to try to take ownership of that, acting like it’s their history too, is sort of like blackface,” she said. “You wanna put it on but you can’t handle the stigma and shit that comes with it, and you don’t want that stigma. The thing is, there’s hip-hop, and then there’s pop-rap and there’s nothing wrong with pop-rap, in all its forms. There are people like Atmosphere. There’s Macklemore—who I’ve been a fan of for years, when he was just making music in his mum’s basement—but he’s a pop rapper and everyone knows that…I can appreciate all perspectives, but right now there’s such a focus on race in the world that it feels like a punch to the gut when someone who isn’t part of a culture dominantly takes it and runs with it. It’s fucking disrespectful.”
Haze’s op-ed for Noisey isn’t the first time the wordsmith has voiced her opinion on social issues. Last year, she spoke on the stigma of being gay in Hip Hop during an interview with XXL magazine.
“Being gay in Hip Hop is still really stigmatized,” the rapper said last April. “There are so many people in this world that are closet homosexuals. I guess I’m ‘out,’ but people ask me what my sexuality is all the time and I always tell them that it doesn’t matter. You don’t deserve to go through that and you don’t have to let that define who you are.”
Angel Haze’s full op-ed can be read at Noisey.Vice.com.
yeah, Slug and Ant are total popstars
I really do respect the younger take on these issues (I’m only 25 so I’m still pretty young) but Bun B said it best. We gave hip hop to the world. We sent it from the inner cities of NY, LA, CHI, ATL etc etc and ASKED to take it on a plane. We ASKED to take it to Australia, Brazil, Japan, and all over the world. And like the homie said, we can’t get mad at how it comes back to us especially when 99 percent of the artists are black and more than 80 percent of domestic sales STILL come from the burbs. Meaning if white people weren’t buying albums and concert tickets, our favorite artists would have never made it out of the underground. That said, I think we have to realize our option to listen/not listen to music. Music is an art and art is universally meant to inspire and entertain. So it’s not like these artists are getting the game with intentions of disrespecting the culture. They’re trying to make money just like the hundreds of trash black rappers doing the same thing. Just saying.
bitch shut the fuck up you dont know nothing bout hip-hop. isnt her biggest song a freestyle over an eminem song? LMAO
Isn’t Eminem a Hip Hop artist?
IF WHITEY STOPPED BUYING RECORDS AND CONCERT TICKETS HIP-HOP WOULD BE DEAD QUICKER THAN A BLACK KID POINTING HIS GUN AT THE POLICE
Hip Hop will never die because hip hop was never designed to be a mainstream art form. It’s an art for the pariahs of society. So, I for one, would be extremely grateful if “whitey” stopped buying hip hop records because then the greedy labels will back away and we can go back to making art and not this bullshit that “whitey” so desperately wants.
“People have created this sort of caricature of black people.”… yeah black people.
Black people don’t control the media,they don’t control the history books, nor do they control entertainment. The image of black people you see is the image designed by those who are in control. If you actually knew black people, you would know the image on tv is not the reality.
The same way not all white people are devils or redneck hicks..like the tv would like me to believe.
WHAT WHITE RAPPER HAS EVER TRIED TO CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF HIP-HOP? HOW IS ATMOSPHERE POP? ISNT THIS BITCH DATING SOME FAMOUS WHITE ACTORS DYKE DAUGHTER?
MAKE….BETTER….MUSIC…
Plain and simple.
SHES DATING A RICH AND FAMOUS WHITE GIRL. ALEC BALDWINS DAUGHTER TO BE EXACT.
If she stopped licking carpet for long enough to hear more than 2 Macklemore songs she would know he can rap circles around her.
Kind of like you how appropriated Aaliyah’s whole style? Even her initials? Angel Haze/Aaliyah Haughton? GTFOH and work on that whack ass music you had to cry and bitch to get released.
this reminds me of Jay Electricity getting mad at whites while dating a trillionaire white heiress
Atmosphere? Slug is a quarter black she doesn’t know what she’s talking about
This broad is mad because White artists are doing it better than her. It’s as simple as that.
Rap is ment to be about the struggle and about real life subjects. White rappers from the burbs and mainstream corporations that aren’t about the street life came into hip hop and try and take over it and it’s actually doing more harm than good. How would country people like if all the people from the opposite background of country came in and tried making it their music? Country people wouldn’t like that, country music is about the country life. Hip hop is about the street life, what happens when you get non street rappers all over the hip hop scene because they like the “Culture”? They fuck it up, that’s what happens! If it’s not street rap, than it’s not REAL rap.
bruh im black, wtf you talking about? Rap ain’t just for the streets. J Cole and Kanye West are two of the biggest stars in rap and they ain’t street dudes. By the way, is Darius Rucker a “guest” in country music, because he black and he had hits LOL!!!
Rap is about whatever, period. Soulja Boy hit record was not about no street shit LOL, or Trinidad James, or even OT Genesis Co-co song!!!
If Darius Rucker were to the most popular country singer and he had nothing in common with the country lifestyle of course people would be upset. It’s no different from hip hop. Large corporations and wiggers from the burbs saw how popular hip hop was that they wanted their piece in it, and now they think they own it yet they have no relations to the streets or the struggle, that’s what you call fckin up the culture! That’s like mexicans knowing how to make mexican food than (that everyone likes just like hip hop) but than some white guy comes in and starts tellin the mexicans how mexican food is done, how the hell is some white guy that’s never lived the culture going to tell a mexican how to make mexican food? That’s why the hip hop community is upset is because all the large corporations and wiggers from the burbs that have no releations to hip hop are coming in acting like they own the shit when they are nothing more than guests. How are guests going to come into other peoples house and try and tell them how to do things?
Can black rappers stop acting like they don’t appropriate other cultures constantly? Fuck this segregationist shit, you’re basically saying only you can do your thing and other people can’t participate. Every pother culture on the planet is confident enough to let you fuck around in their shit, but Black Insecurity is telling the world “you can look but you can’t touch.” Fuck off with all that.
Very well said
you clearly dont get what she saying.
yeah I do get what she’s saying, she just gets mad when she sees white people doing a certain thing and she wants to pretend it’s not racism. There are like 3 rappers making any waves in hip hop right now and these fucks want to be all up in arms about it, it’s cultural suicide. Again, no other culture on the planet is this insecure.
So because Iggy Azalea raps ALL WHITE PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN OVER HIP HOP! OH FUCKIN NO!
Man get the fuck outta here. If one white girl has culturally appropriated hip hop and snatched the culture from every other black artist…..WE CLEARLY DIDN’T LOVE WHAT WAS “OURS” ENOUGH….
But that’s not whats happening. A bunch of bitches not selling records whining and making excuses because another bitch is.
That includes Jamar retarded ass.
in my opinion its not a matter of colour, but rather skills vs wackness. if ur dope then ur dope, but if u make pop music with rap just to sell out then its garbage no matter what race u are,
fact is people respect lyricist and mc’s no matter their colour.
just because ur black and u don’t sell yet another white artist does sell,, does not automatically mean racism, as guess what, plenty of other black artists are selling its just your shit is garbage.
Why da fucc is this worthless dumb cunt making this a race thing. To quote the dude below ” if ur dope then ur dope, but if u make pop music with rap just to sell out then its garbage no matter what race u are”…………how has this talentless bitch any right to criticise other artists when she is garbage, smh.
Once you understand American Music through a historical context, you’ll see that Black people have been the creators of every popular form of music in the nation (which influence trickled to Europe and other parts of the world). Many African Americans are proud and thankful to be apart of such a rich musical history. When you take the roots and Black out of Hip-Hop, you get Rock n Roll. How prominent is Rock today? Which leads me to my next point, the genre HAS to stay within the boundaries of its cultural walls! Are white people going to start having Quinceaneras? Are we going to start seeing them in turbans soon? Since most of the musical genres we’ve created come from pain and suffering, I’d love to hear what genre whites can create coming from a position of power. Get it done! Create your own culture in America! We had to create our own culture under Jim Crow, so anything is possible.
“A Punch To The Gut”…………i dont need your talentless azz to speak on these matters. If Jay or any other legend said this id be right behind, but this nobody-azz twot needs a kick or two in her face for trying to act like she is a person of influence. I dont believe u mean what u are saying bitch, GTFOH
Slug is half black though bitch. Do the knowledge before you speak stupid ass bitch.
Also, big words from a broad who first hit my radar with a cover version of an Eminem record. F-O-H
Isn’t she the one trying to sell a pop rap record featuring Sia? That’s sort of hypocritical.
Does this bitch know how dumb she sounds? If she wants to uplift black culture how about upholding the values fought for during the civil rights movement. Everyone is equal and no one should be excluded because of the color of their skin. I will never understand why so much emphasis is put on how someone looks in an art form you hear; not see.
Also, Atmosphere is pop rap? News to me.
I wish artists would stop saying “pop rap” cause pretty soon it might actually become a genre.
Atmosphere started with slug an musab who is black, slugs always been his white trashy non gangsta regular cat social sexual commentary, a lil a bit of hating goin on me thinks, I agree with Macklemore being a fuck hoe tho. Plus you Americans is crazy as fuck anyway, so much hatred over there
You can’t expect much else from the white power system. They have been colonizers and vampires for centuries. So this is not something we should concern ourselves about.
Us black people need to stop acting like we live in mortal terror of white people. They are just like anyone else, I don;t know why we give them so much damn power. It’s pathetic.
Black people it’s time to man up and stop being so worried about what some white man is doing.
I’m sick of us black people acting like damn weak victims. Wake up and stop whining. It’s pathetic. Who gives a crap if white people wanna make garbage rap? How does that affect the food on your table.
How about we build our own?
we did…we called it Hip Hop..
How about this for a change. How about black rappers stop acting like damn clown and buffoons on music videos and TV shows?
Look at Young Thug etc. Why are we supporting retarded rappers?
I don’t normally comment on things but this article made me laugh. First let me say she is a very pretty girl but I have never heard of her.
However, she is complaining about white people misappropriating the black culture at the same time her hair has been straightened. Irony much?
SHES DATING ALEC BALDWINS DYKE DAUGHTER, A RICH WHITE FAMOUS BRAOD
her music isn’t good enough to stand for itself so she has to promote it through racist b/s like this article and all her IGNORANT tweets. gtfoh jealousy is a terrible thing.. focus on your own career and maybe it’ll actually take off.
IRONICALLY SHES MOST KNOWS FOR RAPPING OVER AN EMINEM SONG
Which happened to be the best song she’s ever made.
Every rapper playing on the radio is “pop”,
Wayne, Drake, Jay-Z , and many others girl…… Pop as fuck !!!!!!
POP = POPULAR, PEOPLE HATE ON POP BECAUSE THEY AINT POPPIN LIKE DAT
She’s one of the best female MCs skill wise right now