Fat Joe has shared his thoughts on how important a rough background is to the authenticity of Hip Hop, which has its roots in struggle and overcoming the odds.
During an appearance on the Chazz Palminteri Show that aired on Monday (November 6), the host asked Joey Crack if growing up in the hood is necessary in order to be a “real rapper.”
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“I won’t say that [in] 2023 because, y’know, there’s so many different forms of Hip Hop,” he answered. “You get a kid of a celebrity, of a Hip Hop star and they grew up in a little house on the prairie, though, and so the hood is like, ‘Nah, you grew up rich … we don’t want to hear your story, you grew up rich.’
“So it’s very unfortunate for artists who have talented kids who want to become artists because the people in the streets are like, ‘Nah, they didn’t grow up like they dad.'”
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After admitting that you needed to have a specific upbringing “to be considered authentic and real back in the day,” the Terror Squad boss acknowledged that “now it’s alright to grow up, y’know, middle class.”
Check out the conversation about legitimacy in Hip Hop at the 49:44 mark below:
Contrarily, Glasses Malone recently asserted that Drake isn’t Hip Hop for the same reasons discussed above. In the process of making his case, the West Coast mainstay even comparing the 6 God to Madonna and called him a culture vulture.
The “Sun Come Up” rapper stopped by the Holdin’ Court podcast last week, during which he compared Drizzy to the Material Girl — and not in a good way.
“Why is it crazy that I’m telling you that Drake is Madonna, as a musician?” he began. “So if you’re not from street urban culture, you’re not a Hip Hop artist.”
Host Big Court, however, disagreed with the Compton native’s assessment, saying: “You have Hip Hop artists that are from the suburbs.”
“They’re not Hip Hop artists,” Malone replied, noting that Eminem is Hip Hop because he’s “not from some wealthy community, middle class community.”
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Later in the interview, the rapper revisited the issue of Drake, emphasizing once again that the “Best I Ever Had” rapper didn’t come “from the streets” and, therefore, isn’t a part of Hip Hop culture.
“Drake is a middle-class [artist] that grew up in a middle-class community and Jewish community,” he said. “He just literally does what Madonna does. He literally colonizes sounds and ideas. He’s not from the culture. Just because you’re Black, doesn’t mean you’re from the culture.”
