White Noise Black Roots

By Brad Spliff

Everybody Wanna Talk About The Numbers But Nobody Wanna Talk About Why The Numbers Look Like That

They See More White Rappers Today And Think Something Got Taken Or Replaced Like Hip Hop Just Slipped Out Of Black Hands Overnight

That’s Not What Happened

What Happened Is The Doors Got Blown Off The Building

The 90s Was A Closed Room

Back Then You Couldn’t Just Wake Up And Decide You A Rapper And Drop A Tape The Same Day

There Was No Spotify Waiting On You

No SoundCloud To Dump Your First Song On

No YouTube To Turn You Into Something Overnight

You Needed Money

You Needed Access

You Needed Somebody To Let You In

And More Than That You Needed To Be Around The Culture Not Just Listening To It But Living In It

So Yeah White Rappers Existed But They Was Limited By The Same Thing Everybody Else Was Limited By Infrastructure

But Let’s Be Real They Was Also Limited By Distance From The Core

Hip Hop Was Closer To The Source Back Then

Closer To Black Life

Closer To Black Struggle

Closer To Black Expression Without Translation

Now Ain’t No Room It’s The Whole Internet

Today Ain’t No Door To Knock On

It’s Just Upload And Pray

The Game Ain’t Based On Who Let You In It’s Based On Who Can Be Seen The Most Times In A Row

And When You Remove Every Barrier You Don’t Just Get More Talent

You Get More Of Everybody

That Includes A Lot More White Rappers

Not Because They Took Over But Because They Finally Had The Same Entry Point As Everybody Else

More People Don’t Mean More Power

This The Part Folks Get Twisted

They See More White Faces In The Space And Think That Means Control Shifted

No

It Means The Floor Got Bigger Not That The Throne Moved

Most Of These New Artists Live In The Middle Or The Bottom Of The Ecosystem

Uploading

Streaming

Chasing Algorithms

Building Small Worlds Inside Big Platforms

That Ain’t The Same As Shaping The Direction Of The Culture

That Ain’t The Same As Moving The Sound Forward

That Ain’t The Same As Speaking For The Experience That Built This Whole Thing

The Suburbs Finally Logged In

Let’s Say It Straight

When Music Became Something You Could Make In Your Bedroom The Demographics Changed Overnight

Kids Who Was Never Gonna Be In A Studio In 1996

Kids Who Was Never Gonna Press A CD

Kids Who Was Never Gonna Be Outside Like That

Now They All In The Same Digital Room

So Of Course The Percentage Of White Rappers Went Up

Not A Little Bit Either

A Lot

Because The Pool Got Bigger And The New Additions Came From Places That Wasn’t Previously Connected To The Physical Culture

Participation Ain’t The Same As Contribution

This The Line Right Here

Anybody Can Enter Now

Not Everybody Is Adding To It The Same Way

There’s A Difference Between Being Influenced By Hip Hop And Being Of Hip Hop

And That Difference Still Matters Even If The Internet Try To Blur It

So What Changed

Yeah The Percentage Of White Rappers Is Way Higher Today Than The 90s Even If You Count Every Underground Tape From Back Then

That Part Is True

But The Real Change Ain’t Race By Itself

It’s Access

Access Changed The Math

Access Changed The Optics

Access Changed Who Shows Up

But It Didn’t Change Who Built It

And It Didn’t Change What It Means At Its Core

Final Thought

Hip Hop Ain’t Get Replaced

It Got Expanded Faster Than People Could Process

And Now Everybody Looking At The Crowd Instead Of Looking At The Foundation

If You Don’t Know The Difference You Gon Think Something Was Lost

But Nothing Was Lost

You Just Finally Seeing Everybody Who Was Never In The Room Before